:::RANT WARNING:::

I was going to type up some thoughts I've had stewing in my brain about gender conforming vs. gender non-conforming modes. But Mr. Sunshine's latest post triggered an avalanche of passion that I decided to share with you instead. You've been warned.

Ya' know what teachers did with kids in the 60s and 70s? Yea, they smacked 'em down, but there really wasn't as much trouble as there is now. Kids were taught better at home. This is no reflection on your parenting at all, trust me. It's a cultural thing. If a noisy handful of kids are getting away with it, it influences others that are not as willing to start shit. They just join shit in progress. Back in the day parents didn't buy into the psychobable of the parenting "experts" like they do today. They knew misbehavior for what it was, and treated it accordingly. And if Kelly did something wrong on 3rd Street, Mrs. Jones saw it, called Kelly's mother at her home on 5th St., and by the time Kelly got home, there was a switch waiting on him/her.

And the kids those days were outside playing, by and large. They ran, they explored, they discovered many interesting things that they had to THINK about, independent of how some other agency told them they should think. Today kids are staring at alphabet-named screens. You know, LED, HDTV, CRT (though not too many look at CRT screens anymore). The television programming, video games, computer games and MySpace type places - these things teach children what to think. They make sure to avoid teaching children HOW to think. School curriculums from day care and nursery school all the way through high school, and beyond in some instances, reinforce what to think and discourage independent thinking. We are (have?)creating a generation of drones.

So these kids are in classrooms, especially the younger ones just learning not to think, and the kids are restless. They have impulses of creativity and originality but no tools to channel these energies in positive directions. The teachers and administrators discourage positive release of this energy. They want the kids to sit down and swallow everything just as it is presented, no questions asked. Since the kids really don't know why they are so restless and unsatisfied, they "act out." The teachers have been trained not to think for themselves, to believe what the textbook authors and educrats tell them, so they are unprepared for your child's original ideas. Have you seen the crap the teaching colleges teach the teachers? It is concentrated bullshit.

So they medicate the problems. You are looking at this huge fortress of misguided mind control called public education, in an evil axis of alliance with The Media, having unrealistic expectations for your unique child. Plus all the other unique children who have yet to learn how not to think. It’s them against you and your child. In their world, you don’t really count. There is wonderful medication that can put the impulses under control, and the medical field is a willing cohort, especially since there is great wealth to be gained. (Healthcare is a rant for another day)
I could go on, but I’ll stop with this. I have thrown in the towel. The three children I have still in public school are all on (mind control) ADD medications. I don’t have the physical or mental stamina to fight it anymore. I do what I can with the kids when they are at home. But it could and should be done differently.