Posted on 08/19/2016 10:08:48 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- One strict rule at a high school has gone viral and sparked debate. Catholic High School for Boys posted a sign on Facebook six days ago, and it has now been shared more than 110,000 times.
The message tells parents to turn around at the front door if they're bringing something for their sons.
"If you are dropping off your son's forgotten lunch, books, homework, equipment, etc., please turn around and exit the building. Your son will learn to problem-solve."
The school's principal Steve Straessle defended the rule.
Straessle said, "It's simply to help boys avoid the default switch of calling mom and dad when things don't go right to bail them out."
Parents sounded off on Facebook, "Give kids a break!"
While others wrote, "You learn by taking responsibility, not by escaping it."
Straessle said the whole goal is to instill responsibility.
"It makes me think for myself and not rely on other people to do things for me. And if I make a mistake, I need to learn from it and try to fix it," said [student] Wingfield.
KARK reports that the most common theme surfacing on Facebook is concern kids who forget their lunch are going to starve at school, but the principal said that won't happen. No one will starve because they know how to problem solve.
yeah man, it’s a HIGH school, not grade school.
When I went to Catholic school, I would rather have starved than telephone my parents (which would, in itself, have been a tremendous hassle, necessitating, as it would have, my going to intimidating Sister DeSalle and asking her to use the one phone at the school - which request she would have most certainly denying, right before whacking the backs of my hands with a steel ruler and sending me back to class).
Regards,
As a student, I never knew of one parent that ever came to high school except for death or injury in the family.
We would have been mortified to have a parent bring our lunch or homework to school.
Things much have really changed.
(yes, "pajama boys" are now considered a race)
Just wait until a parent is bringing medication and the child collapses. Asthma, diabetes, or behavioral meds that keep the teachers safe like ritalin meleril or novane that is designed to control hyperactivity and the possible physical outbursts attached to the illness. This little slippery slope may get someone hurt, student or teacher.
red
Wow, that is really great. As this goes viral I bet the school sees are marked increase in applications to attend.
The parents raising poor little snowflakes can go elsewhere.
As an aside, I hope the school has JROTC.
I was thinking the same thing.
I can’t remember my parents ever coming to my high school. I know they came to my graduation, but other than the initial visit in eighth grade and graduation I don’t think they ever came to school.
This is not a bad thing.
I am hopeless in the mornings so I had clamped to the back of my door a check list with various necessities for the day written on it. I would always go through it every single morning because any morning I didn't I was sure to have forgotten something.
As I got older I started packing my bag the night before so it became a more grab and go. But I left the list up, to force myself to stop and think.
a glimmer of hope...
My only beef about this is in using the term “problem-solve” instead of something like “he’ll learn to deal with the problem”.
The ghost of father tribou?
My school has had a similar rule for years and it’s never caused any significant problem. Parents and office staff do understand the difference between a parent dropping off an important medication and dropping off lunch. Rules can be applied with common sense once everybody starts being sensible about them.
Fact is, we’d let the lunch be delivered if it’s a boy who has forgotten once in two years or something. It’s when it happens repeatedly, so the lesson obviously isn’t being learnt that it’s a problem.
When I went to Catholic school, I would rather have starved than telephone my parents
Me too!!!!!
When George Carlin mentioned Sister Mary Discipline and the steel ruler in a comedy routine years ago I couldn’t stop laughing. The reason I’m right-handed now was the steel ruler our own Sister Mary Chainmail would apply to my knuckles when I was caught writing left-handed.
And don’t even ask what happens when you and the other altar boys are caught sampling the sacramental wine...
The problem is that too many times a decision is left to people with an agenda like tough love learning, it carries with it a responsibility to make the right decision. It’s kind of like teachers taking kids to the doctors for birth control or an abortion: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/teen-abortion-high-school/story?id=10189694, http://www.lifenews.com/2016/06/01/teacher-pregnant-after-sex-with-13-year-old-student-has-abortion-to-hide-sexual-abuse/, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5005497/Schools-arrange-secret-abortions, http://www.schoolcounselor.org/magazine/blogs/september-october-2012/district-policy-and-student-pregnancy.
This is what I mean by a slippery slope. They should not step between the children and their parents for anything legal. That is not their job to “teach” kids adult responsibilities. It is the job of the parents. School systems do not raise children. They educate them.
red
To some extent I agree with you - if you are talking about public schools. Schools run by the state which are often schools parents did not really choose for their children to attend (yes, there's always some choice and alternatives like homeschooling but I think most people understand the distinction.
But that isn't the case with the school in this article. And it isn't the case with my school either. We're private schools, which means parents have chosen to send their kids to the school. If they don't like the way the school operates they could choose something different. And one of the big reasons parents choose schools like that is because they want the schools to do more than just the bare minimum. They want the school to be part of raising their child.
I'll admit to being somewhat ambivalent as well to the idea that even public schools shouldn't step in. When parents aren't there for their kids, somebody has to be. Sometimes that's because the parents aren't doing what they should. Sometimes they can't - in my own case my parents died when I was only nine and if it hadn't been for my school and my teachers being able to do more than just teach me, I don't know how I'd have turned out.
I've never helped a kid get an abortion (I teach boys so that issue hasn't arisen but it's not something I would be any part of any way). I have helped a boy get an eye test and glasses. And I am glad the law where I am allowed me to do that. I won't discuss in detail why that kid couldn't get help from his parents at that time, but it was a fact we had to deal with.
Yes, I've got a responsibility to make the right decision. I can't see how letting a kid sit in a classroom unable to read the board would have been the right decision. But I wouldn't have gone against his parent's express wishes. In fact, I'm pretty sure they would have wanted me to do exactly what I did.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.