January 31, 2013
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A Loss Of Innocence
I grew up in the fifties and it was a great time to be a kid. We walked the streets in safety, we went to school without fearing for our lives and we spent hours playing games like cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians. We used our imaginations and built forts in the snow, made bows from string and willow branches, and spent hours shooting water pistols at each other while we pretended we were Flash Gordon destroying space monsters. It was an innocent time and an era where a small child’s imagination knew no limits.
Now, children are being subjected to mass hysteria, brought about by the tragic shootings that have occurred. Their toys are being considered lethal weapons and they are being punished for using their imaginations.
Police arrested a seven year old boy for bringing a Nerf style gun to school. A six year old little girl was expelled for bringing her brother’s toy gun to class for show and tell. A five year old (yes, five years old) boy was reprimanded for building a toy gun out of Legos in an after-school program. Another five year old was suspended from school and subjected to a psychological evaluation. Why? Because she was overheard talking with a classmate about shooting each other with a Hello Kitty Bubble Gun. So, she was labeled a terrorist threat and now other schools will not accept her as a student.
Schools have taken a zero tolerance towards guns in school. Who can argue with that in light of recent events? BUT, where does good judgement come into play in this policy? These are not guns, they are toys! How far is this going to escalate?
Have we really become so fearful of a child having a toy gun that we arrest them or label them terrorists? For heaven’s sake, they are too young to have any idea of why they are being punished. Are we so intent on enforcing Zero tolerance policies that we are willing to have innocent little children arrested, expelled or suspended from school for possessing a toy?
Let’s get a grip! We need to look at what we are doing and stop projecting our fears onto our children. Yes, we need to be vigilant, it is a violent and dangerous world out there. But, we also need to let our children enjoy their innocence and not be punished for using their imaginations. We need to exercise good judgement and think before we punish a child for being a child.
Comments (29)
You make a good point (and as a child of the fifties myself, I can surely relate). It is hard enough these days for parents to find the right balance for one child. It is nearly impossible for schools and other large organizations to strike the right balance for hundreds of kids in thousands of circumstances. But bringing a healthy dose of common sense to the interpretation and enforcement of the rules would be a good place to start.
In 1965 I took my sister’s cap gun to first grade. My teacher took it away and gave it back at the end of the day.
@doahsdeer - True.
Perhaps, for those places, home schooling would be best? Both to make a statement to the officials and to keep the children from going through that kind of experience.
agreed. although it’s good to have discourse on this subject, it’s hard to get clarity on the issue when you have people screaming and editorializing.
And that is as it should be! @Roadkill_Spatula -
some parents are way overprotective of their kids. I had one student whose parents required him to wear a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads every recess.
I’m beginning to think that parents will soon have no choice but to home school. And, that will hurt the teachers, the economy, and force a working parent to sacrifice their income in order to teach their children…all this lost, because of a toy!
@nov_way -
Thanks for your comments.@l0311879l -
@crankycaregiver - Except, if that were to happen, that’ll force the officials to reconsider their tactics, which is the point, right?
Oh, I agree with you 100%. That way maybe the school administration would start practicing good judgement instead of using scare tactics.@nov_way -
when adults take guns away from children, they make them with tree branches instead…
I’m so glad I live in a country where guns aren’t an issue like that, especially for kids.
The world’s going to hell in a hand basket.
i don’t allow kids to play with guns or anything that goes gunlike. but it’s within reason. “please don’t play with guns in school” is all that is necessary. far more likely to get the result of thinking before you act than an immediate (and excessive) punishment.
a kid in my daughter’s class last year, brought a razor blade to school. i about freaked out. but his intention was not dangerous, just ill-considered. and it didn’t happen again. conversation. solves problems.
You have to wonder if the poor child is a future paranoid.@godfatherofgreenbay -
Amen to that. Overreactions are running amok among school administration and the children suffer for it.@promisesunshine -
Only if we let it! Thanks for the Rec.@TheBlondNextDoor -
Consider your children lucky.@holeinyoursoul -
Wholehearted exuberant agreement!
There’s this screwball false logic in play, regarding many vexing problems of our day, that goes like this: We must do something even if it’s wrong because if we do nothing the problem will not be solved. The great failure of this false logic is that the wrong thing will fail to solve the problem, is quite likely to cause additional problems that would not otherwise exist, is wasted energy that might otherwise have been devoted to a correct solution, and is undertaken for absolutely no reason other than to ease the psychic pain of those who do not fully comprehend the problem in the first place. It’s like medical bloodletting that was used for about 2,000 years but cured no disease and killed more patients than otherwise would have died by weakening them further — but every now and then the patient survived anyway and the bloodletting was credited with the cure.
I grew up in the 60′s when we learned how to hide under our desks in the event of thermonuclear attack… I suspect that humans have been prone to hysteria for as long as they’ve been walking on Earth.
Amen. Reminds me of the girl that brought brownies to share with her class on her birthday. She was suspended for 3 days because she dared bring a plastic knife to school! Plastic for Pete’s Sake!!
I think it’s funny schools are making a big deal out of fake guns, but yet, kids are bullied badly in school every day. Some are bullied so badly to the point where they kill themselves, but the schools do nothing about that.
If you take from little boys everything that they can weaponize…they will soon starve to death. French fries are laser pointers, carrot sticks are rifles, and a sandwich can be a land mine. So much imagination.
I hear you, and you are so right! Thanks for the Rec.@HappierHeathen -
Vigilance, not hysteria…that’s what it boils down to. What kind of message are we sending our kids? @murisopsis -
Amen to that.@Shining_Garnet -
And schools are now outlawing that imagination. Children will get the message that pretending is wrong. Such a loss.@TutelageOfTheMundane -
If the schools want to take away the guns then there should not be toy guns anywhere. But reflecting the fear on to the children is not getting anyone anywhere.
You are suggesting we start thinking for ourselves again. Not likely. Not as long as the Media rules.
I agree with you whole heartedly. What type of paranoia and perspective to living a life of their dreams are our future generation being bought up to believe.
In New Zealand the children are free to express themselves through imaginatary play. The kindergarten (3-5yrs) have in the playbox, plastic and wooden guns, swords and sheilds. Children are taught about acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and disciplined accordingly with time outs and made aware of feelings of others.
My preference is that children grow up to develop a healthy dose of self-esteem and self-confidence through awareness rather than lack self-esteem and live in fear.