(11-29-2023, 05:29 PM)GeauxHomeLittleD Wrote: ...
While I agree that in some cases it can be laid at parents feet I have to ask myself what happened to parents that they either became too busy, too lazy or even too afraid to parent their own children. Going down that path leads me to memories of my own children growing up.
Parents have to fight their own conditioning. We have all, for millennia now, been conditioned to give a shit what other people think of us. That creates a pressure to conform to whatever society currently deems to be "normal", and a growing number of people are unable to break that conditioning.
That's how outsiders can force some folks to comply, for example by drugging out their kids.
I had the same struggles when my son was coming up. They called us in and tried to bully us into drugging him out. His ma was ready to buckle to the pressure, but I wasn't. Luckily, I had enough fortitude and "not-give-a-damned"-ness to override them all. I told them they could get their OWN kid's personalities out of a bottle if they liked, but they weren't going to do it to mine. They also threatened me with CPS, and that was the end of the conversation. I just matter of factly told them "well you've got it to do, then, and we're done here now - I don't suffer threats easily. This conversation is over." and walked out.
They never followed through with their threats, and his ma knew me well enough to know that I wasn't bluffing, and there'd be hell to pay if they tried it. So she didn't drug him up, either.
He never robbed liquor stores. He never bullied other kids. He's turned out to be an excellent person, even without getting drugged out. Matter of fact, he never developed a drug problem, either. He's a manager at Amazon now, owns his own home and land, and has done pretty well for himself - all without drugs. He's raising - so far - 3 kids of his own. All of that, and he's not yet 30. I've done a lot of wrong in my life, and made a lot of mistakes, but his upbringings are not among those.
Here's the thing about intelligent kids, like your daughter. They get bored with standard schooling. It doesn't challenge them enough. So they seek their own challenges as a part o growing up, and schools either misinterpret that or else they just are incapable of rising to the challenge. Either way, they try to drug kids out, especially the brighter ones, to attempt to drag them down to the level of the rest, down to a level where the educators don't have to rise to the challenge.
It then falls to the parents to provide intellectual challenges for such kids, and sadly many are just not up to snuff - their kids seem to be smarter than they are, and they just can't provide the intellectual stimulation the kids require. That isn't the parent's fault - they just aren't capable, and that not through any lack of effort. Everyone has their own skill set, and that just isn't i theirs. I'm not good at sports. Not my fault, just not in my skill set... so I leave that sort of thing to others.
The problem there is that, in the matter of educational challenge, the educational system is often not capable, either. So they trot out the pill bottle to cover their own inadequacies.
Quote:...
It is a necessary part of growing up, just like discovering that Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny were just our parents injecting a little magic into our lives.
...
Say it ain't so! You'll ruin every single Christmas movie, ever, for me with that kind of thinking!
Of course those are all real! If they weren't, my folks would have told me so!
.