Zero Tolerance in "Our Schools"

Normally I'd pen an article about the lack of discretion of our educators, the infringement of the state on too much of our parenting, and the kind of low judgment that gets kids suspended for making mistakes like taking their antibiotics to school or eating a pop tart into a gun-shaped creation, but... 

PEW PEW SPRINKLES!

Yes.  Actually that's exactly what I'm going to do, but first let me talk about how we got here.

Most school children spend more time with their teachers and fellow students than with their parents.  We put a lot of pressure on these teachers to discipline, advise and teach our youth, but we all parent differently.  That's the core of the problem--we all parent differently. 

For all of these people the school administrators and teachers who see our children day to day are mythical people who get referenced to as 'Mrs.' and 'Mr.' even if we are older or are in positions of prestige because we have an ingrained respect for their importance to our society.  We hope beyond hope he or she is the kind of person who agrees with our parenting techniques and will be very strict, very loving, physical, pacifist, creative type who sticks to the curriculum.

Dude.  That's some Kung Fu shit right there.

We simply have unrealistic expectations.  Then, when they inevitably fail to meet those standards, we bombast them for being incompetent and not worthy of being around "Our Children."  Sometimes it's worse and people do the truly American thing and sue the offending party and anyone else we imagine had a role in shaping that person's worldview before it collided with our carefully imagined universe and shattered our kid's innocence. 

As kids progress through to adolescence and start making the truly glaring mistakes that we tend to make when the hormones rage, mom won't let you date the girl with the facial piercings, school is the height of tedium, and the world is generally just against you.  Oh, and you're just smart enough to know how to get in trouble without understanding the true consequences to everyone you love.  Children make mistakes, and these administrators used to be tasked with dispensing that pedestrian justice.  However, your bright and shining angel of a child couldn't possibly have made a mistake worth this punishment or that.  So you bombast.  You sue. 

I think you're starting to see what's going on here if you didn't already know and you're reading this blog because the name was two words without a space between them.  I know that would get me hooked. 

So we've given these insufficiently paid public servants (most teachers really do want to help our children and are wonderful people... at least early on) all this responsibility as a society.  Then, we took away all their tools and power to exercise care and discretion by blaming them for all of what we asked them to do.  What does someone do when they have all of the responsibility and none of the power?

When she smiles you can see her fangs.

They fight back.  They cover their own interests.  It starts to be a job, and your helicopter parenting style of soft speech and stranger danger stops being important to them.  What is the best way to combat perceptions of injustice or improper discipline?  Easy! You just make up draconian rules that apply to all students, no exceptions, no crying, no discretion, and no thought to what it is to be a child.  We put all of the responsibility on the only person that matters in this whole exchange:  The child.  We aren't there with our children, the teachers have distanced themselves from our new age bullshit, and our kids are being sentenced to punishment for doing the right thing.  Stop a bully from hurting a fellow student with special needs?  Barred from the bus. 

Wait.  No, that can't be.  Yes, it can.  It's cool though, because this is just school.  That discipline and zero tolerance is just there to keep them in line until they're adults, right?  I mean, these children are just young folk who even if they commit crimes aren't treated as adults by the courts.  They're precious gems to be preserved until they blossom into adults and can be truly punished for wrongs.  It's not like if you would face expulsion or being put on a sex offender list for streaking during a high school football game, right?  You're just a child.  Stop the press, it seems you can be. 

Zero tolerance is also affecting the law enforcement community as well.  More and more, children are being forced into life-long consequences for the dalliances and debauchery that mark the end of our innocence and journey into adulthood. 

We started it by being overly sensitive and self-righteous idiots, but the casualties of war are increasingly becoming our own spawns.  Funny enough, how many children have to commit suicide or be labeled sex offenders before we stop this insanity?  Here's to hoping something is done about it.  I urge you all to think about what it means to be a child developmentally and combat the idea that "Our Children" is a catchphrase for fear-mongering that allows this kind of crap.  Those are two words put together with a space in between.  Your children are not my children.  Think about that before you fight for policies that turn all of our spawns into fearful robots that no longer test the boundaries of early life.