Police handcuff 6-year-old student in Georgia – CNN.com
Okay, this article hits home drastically!!! My oldest son was a major handful in both K5 and 1st grade due to some personal issues he had going on (it wasn’t because of something that Del or I did!!) This is Part of the reason why we home school him. We got accused of a lot of things, and I flat out told his teacher to go ahead and call DSS if she felt she needed to do that. I have no problem with ANYONE coming to our home and talking our kids or anyone else for that matter.
I’m strict with my kids, but I won’t do anything that no one else can’t see me do. However, Jimmy has had some major life situations that he had to overcome. He acted out majorly in school and in life in general. He really did some of these things in his 1st grade classroom. When he started to go down this path again in his 2nd grade school from being bullied; we decided it was time to home school him again. Jimmy is a complex child, but he has MANY WONDERFUL traits about him too. I’m still working on teaching him how to behave in public and around others. It’s a struggle especially since my in-laws live less than 200 feet away, and they want to do the normal grandparent job of spoiling the kids. However, my boys are getting to the age that I’m making it clear that they can’t continue to spoil the boys all the time like they want to. My in-laws are getting better about it because they are seeing first hand how it affects everything. I’m grateful that we are getting to that understanding finally. It’s going to take time for everyone to adjust to the changes that need to be made, but I do feel confident in time we’ll all get there.
My husband and I talked about this article ourselves since it was like we were reading a real life story about what could have easily happened with Jimmy. Everything this child did, Jimmy did and then some, but we didn’t hear about until HOURS AFTER school had let out. If the school(s) had called us we could have worked as a UNIT together to solve some of the issues. I know some of the things that trigger Jimmy and how to deal with them for the most part. There are still some situations that I get baffled on, but I do what I can to work around them. I do try various techniques until I find one that works for Jimmy.
HOWEVER, schools DO NOT have that option. They can NOT work around every child they have in the school system with them. I have learned that there are programs provided by the government to have someone follow a child around all day long to work with that child to help them and the teachers to work together better. I think that’s a great idea, but there again, how are we as a government affording to do that??
When I was growing up in school, we had special ed classes and teachers who dealt with troubled students or students who had some type of disability. We also had honors courses offered and classes for people that took longer to learn things. This way everyone could go at their own pace and learn to the best of their abilities accordingly. IT seemed to WORK from my point of view. The kids that wanted to do something with their lives we able to do it. The kids that wanted to goof off and waste their chances at a solid education, were given the chance to still earn one, but they didn’t hold others back. The special education classes were for people who needed the specially trained people to be with them and they were also given the chance to thrive.
Now, I’m seeing little to no help offered in my local school systems for students who need it. My first born has dyslexia, like I do, and I literally had to fight to get her tested and even then they waited for two years before they contacted me about testing her and getting her help that she needed. That was another major reason why I consented to her moving to PA. PA offers better schools and people actually help kids excel.
I can talk for hours about the school systems and how much I feel they have drastically changed for the worse. I could also talk about how I feel parents are not truly teaching their kids worth a dime or truly parenting. I do fear what type of future my kids are going to have as a whole since with each passing generation there are more and more people worried about a person’s self esteem than anything else. I’m sorry my self-esteem went through the ringer growing up, and all it did was make me stronger. I learned the value of hard work, dedication, and working together as a team!! Everyone is so focused on themselves anymore that the mere concept of teamwork seems to have gone out the window all together. (That’s a whole new topic of discussion there!!)
Do I think this school did the right thing??? Considering the situation (yes, I read the article and listened to the broadcast), yes, I do. If it had been my son (which to some extent it was), I would have answered the phone because I AM ALWAYS ON STANDBY when my kids are away from me. My kids are my number 1 priority!!! I would have been at the school. However, had they not been able to get ahold of me and they did call the cops and put him in handcuffs, you better believe they would have put my son in a jail cell too for a period of time too. A six year old now a days are smart enough to know what the hang they are doing!!!! When I say, I’m a strict mean mother, there’s a strong reason behind it!! I know how cruel this world can be. I also know that their best chances of surviving this world and going far in it is by me teaching them EARLY in life that there are MAJOR consequences for having a terrible attitude and doing destructive things. (That also reminded me of another incident in my life that my mom put me through…that’s for another blog too.)
It is my job as a parent to teach my kids the lessons they need in life to be independent and successful in life!!! It is NOT my job to spoil them, to coddle them, or to do things for them that they are more than able to do themselves!!! I never valued that my mom was a parent for me until I became a parent myself and saw first hand the nasty effects of having someone trying to raise a kid by being their friend instead of a parent.
