#TremontSchool Aaron & Ben went to their Freshman orientation meeting yesterday and today will be their first day of school. They brought home with them their assignment notebooks which they MUST use to record their daily assignments and another “letter to the parents”.
I refused to sign the damn thing because I don’t agree that I have read and agree with their unilateral rules which basically remove any rights the boys or we as parents have and place ourselves subordinate to the school administration in all things.
I will NOT give up my rights, or theirs, as free citizens of this country. I do NOT agree they give up their right to privacy and can be searched or their lockers searched at the whim of any school teacher or administrator.
I definitely do NOT agree to live by their “Common Values” or to force my boys to do the same. We have our own values, thank you just the same. If you actually read through the crap they are blackmailing you to sign you will find the same gang mentality they profess to be fighting.
The punishment of an entire class of kids for the transgressions of any one of them. The rules which mandate you are NOT to think for yourself but walk in lockstep with the leader of the gang. The rules that say you must hide your cell phone unless it is an emergency —— how childish. Unless they are using the phone there is no foul so why force them to hide them as if they were vulgar?
Why must my children step back in time when entering the school building? Cell phones and the Internet are realities of this century, the school system needs to get with reality and stop trying to force the kids to live in a bygone age. The worst part about the whole farce is the knowledge that they will only enforce these rules selectively against those students they wish to chastise or humiliate and will allow their chosen few to break any and all “rules” at their “discretion”.
Four years ago I sent this letter back to school with Noah and it caused all kinds of consternation among the teachers and principals. (Yes principals —— they seem to need more principals these days?) I won’t be sending another one this year.
Tracey signed the damn “letters of understanding” rather than cause another uproar. And so we begin another year of teaching to the lowest common denominator. Another year of “team” learning where six kids are supposed to work together to attain the same homogenous grade and just hope they don’t always get assigned the lazy kid who does nothing but shares the grade. Or the really stupid assignments that require costumes, poster board, makeup, or a teddy bear to ship around the world.
MjL 23 Aug 2006, 5:43 a.m.
Brother Alan called to tell me my name was mentioned in a current Pekin Times letter-to-the-editor regarding alcohol, teenage drivers, and the lack of meaningful punishment given those who provide booze to kids. Since the Pekin Times doesn’t grant free access for very long, I quote both my editorial and that of Mr. George Beres as follows:
Regarding teen accident victims:
First, I would like to note that not all of the recent teen auto crash deaths in Tazewell County were alcohol related. I don’t wish to offend the families of any victims, but I have a thought about those that were alcohol related.
The only real way to stop teens from drinking is to cut off the source of alcohol. Lock up the people providing the alcohol and send a strong message to the community that providing alcohol to minors is not acceptable in our society.
Michael Legel
Ironic
To the editor:
What irony - to have the sane letter on liquor-related driving deaths from Michael Legel appear in the Times the same day (“Keep booze away from teens,” July 15, Daily Times) as the front page article on the AMVETS losing their liquor license.
Irony has to be coupled with disgust over a system that merely taps the knuckles of those found guilty of selling liquor to minors.
The AMVETS license to sell liquor was suspended for three days.
Only three days? That is meaningless in a community that has lost lives of a number of youngsters in recent months because the underage operator was driving under the influence of liquor.
If the penalty is to have effect, its size must have meaning.
As the “Mikado” says, “The punishment must fit the crime.”
If it doesn’t, no wonder people lose respect for the law.
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