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Fear of our Children
Today's guidelines for child-rearing, "According to our view, freedom given and understood early enough would result in a natural evolution to maturity and self-discipline." may work for some children, but we are not all cut out of the same mold and some of us just naturally push to see how far we can get before we are stopped.
When a parent and a teacher have to stand by helplessly while a beautiful child self-destructs, one has to ask, "What are we doing to our children?" I live where the police and children's protective services are involved in the rearing of the children. Schools and parents are only allowed positive re-enforcements. My heart weeps for the children as they act out violent, destructive episodes and I see in their eyes the plea, "Won't someone stop me?" No, we are not supposed to stop them; we are supposed to say positive things, things they find meaningless as they move from juvenile center to prison or take a bullet in the street.
"Self-discipline is an act of cultivation. It require you to connect today's actions to tomorrow's results. There's a season for sowing a season for reaping. Self-discipline helps you know which is which." --Gary Ryan Blair
I have experienced enough now to know I must surrender to the possibility I will come to harm at the hands of one of the children here--children who love me but who cannot control their actions for they do not have "stops" built into their systems and compulsive behavior is their only outlet for their frustrations. I feel the pain I see in their eyes. I know I must stay simply because I love them. Jesus walked up the hill to be crucified because he loved us. At this moment I have an inkling of what it's all about.
And it isn't possessions or prestige. It is simply Love.
Jane Mullikin
"What are we doing to our children?"
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