by Cynthia Tavares

Created on: November 24, 2009

Discipline is a thing of the past. Educators in public schools have ensured that children arise from the ashes of infancy with a keen sense of manipulation and control. Children are taught empowerment which ultimately leads to a twisted sense of entitlement. The United States government has facilitated the learning process in which to make a parent buckle by mere words from their child's mouth. Children are also taught that the finger is easily pointed in an outward direction. Any problem a child may create, is never that child's fault, or so they are told. Children are taught that no matter how bad the behavior, blame can certainly rest on the shoulders of his or her parents.

Gone are the days when a child had to prove himself during baseball tryouts, or ante up determination and aptitude on a sports team of any kind. In an effort to support esteem, a child who fails to pick up a baseball and a mitt until opening day, is elevated to the same level as the child who has practiced his knuckle-ball year 'round until his hands bled. The Little League councils have ensured that no child be denied the right to play baseball, regardless of their ability and skill level. Children in sporting leagues no longer fear rejection. The child who is unmotivated to improve his skills, at the end of the season, will receive an undeserved plastic trophy gained by the unyielding knuckle-balls that the pitcher on his team had perfected. This is hardly fair.

The United States Government is notorious for meddling in the rearing of children. So much so, that children are now taught that the only form of punishment that will be tolerated is communication. Children are encouraged to speak out against abuse, and to report abuse immediately without fear of reprisal. Schools throughout the United States used to enforce corporal punishment as a consequence. All the way up through the late 1980's, if a child was behaving badly, a trip to the Principals office was in order. Once in the Principals office, a lecture would ensue, followed by a brief paddling on the rear and the child would then go back to class after learning his or her lesson. Children had a definite sense of consequence and respected it accordingly. Today, in the 21st century, children are taught that a scowl from his or her mom is emotional abuse. Time out is emotional abuse and humiliation, and spanking is, of course, physical abuse. Parents are frequently the victims of their child's wrath, and prisoners to threats of being reported to the authorities.

Finally, with the help of school counselors and therapists, children have learned that nothing is ever their fault. If a child gets into a fight at school, there must be violence in the home and the child then becomes coddled while his or her parents become the subjects of an investigation. If a child steals an object from another child at school, there must be homestead turmoil and the whole family is remanded to counseling. If a child curses at another student, the teachers launch a full-fledged assault upon the parents because the child couldn't possibly have come up with those bad words on his own.

Educators and the Government are effectively stealing any chance that a child may have at growing up functional. While parents throughout the United States have their hands firmly tied by legalities, their children are growing up equipped to do their worst, and expecting a reward for their failures. These children will grow to be Doctors and Lawyers because there is a law written somewhere that the C- grade average that he or she got in undergraduate school, was not his or her fault.

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