R E S P E C T ...

For Authority.

In yesterday's Blog I mentioned several values that have greatly diminished over the course of the last 50 years. One included the lack of Civility but perhaps I should have added to that lack of Respect for Authority.

In today's National Post appears an article about a Nova Scotian School Principle being sanctioned for using "Excessive Force" on one of his students. The article gets bogged down somewhat in dealing with the fact that the Principal black and the student is white which I see as being immaterial.

According to the article, the student in question - age 15 - was "taking inappropriate pictures of a female student" in the school's cafeteria. Staff tried unsuccessfully to get the student to stop, at which point the Principal was called in.

The student tried to take off whereupon the Principal blocked him off. The young man then "pushed on the principal's arm prompting the Principal to take hold of the student's shoulders and steer him to the office".

As a result of his actions, the Principal was dismissed from his office and now finds himself without a school.

Wow! Can You Imagine?

This may seem like an isolated occurrence but sadly it is not. I have a daughter who teaches at the high school level and she states that teachers' biggest problem is the lack of respect from their students. The 'F' word, spilling forth from a student's mouth and aimed at Teachers is far too common occurrence.

I remember when..

I was a student and if we acted up, we got the strap and it was no walk in the park.

Not only did our Parents fully support the punishment handed out - they would often add some of their own when we got home.

This is not to say that things did not get Excessive at times. We had one Teacher who would not hesitate to fling a student - always male students - from one end of the classroom to the other for the slightest violation (e.g. talking in class). I can tell you - we did not do much extracurricular talking.

But even then we knew he was wrong to do it and it should not have been tolerated by the administration. But that was a rare occurrence. But the fact remains it did occur and he was able to get away with it.

Today though as seen from above - the pendulum has swung totally in the opposite direction. School Administrations live in fear of properly disciplining the students and sadly in many cases, the ill mannered students have the full support of their ill mannered parents.

A balance needs to be restruck where Students, acting as spoiled brats, receive appropriate sanction.

If not, not only does Education continue to suffer but so to does Society.

As I see it...

"Galagher"