Earlier in the week, Whitney Houston's song, "The Greatest Love" came on and I listened carefully to the words. Anytime I hear a song about children, it catches my attention.
"I believe the children are our future, treat them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty the posses inside. Give them a sense of pride. Let the children's laughter remind us how it used to be."
I said to myself something my Dad would say when he heard something that didn't seem right in his thick Macedonian accent, "Huh" and even that little sound, with the body language that went along with it said all it needed to, to let us know what Jimmy thought. My how our society has changed. Just look at what we now exposed our children to, the language, the books, the television, the violence, the phones with access to the world, the ability for girls to look older and some adults being A OK with that. Look at what was done to them during the pandemic lock down, look at what a doctor can do to a child who decides they want to be a sex different that what they were born with and just look at the parents who give a pass on such life altering surgery. The words of Nelson Mandela come to mind when I think of what our culture has allowed.
As a teacher, parent and now grandparent, I pay attention to children's issues because my children and grandchildren and those of my friends and family have to grow up and be a part of this world. My father and his parents made the effort to escape for a better life. Where can young families go now to escape? Maybe our parents said the same about society when we were growing up, however, it seems now as if it's a different day with the conequenses of bad influences having dire life long affects.
As bothersome as things seem, I did see a glimmer of hope this week when parents of different Faiths came together to protest children not being able to opt out of curriculum that teaches elementary school children about sexuality they'd prefer them not be exposed to because it is contrary to their Faith. It was refreshing to see Orthodox Christian from Ethopia, Muslims, Catholics, and Evangelical Christians come together for this cause. As I read the reports the thought that came to mind was that here could be a motivating factor for school choice, where as the tax dollars follow the students. Many feel as if the public schools have had a monopoly in education. Parents sometimes are forced to stay in a poor performing school because to make a change is either too costly or too much of a hassel to manage transportation to a school not in the vicinity of the home. Competition makes us all better. With no competition, poor performing school continue performing poorly and getting rewarded, or at least funded for it. If schools had to up their performance to attract parents and students maybe less kids would be left behind. Access to a quality education can improve one's circumstance. To see these parents from different faith backgrounds come together was refreshing.
Maybe our society is turning a corner. Let's hope so for our kids..."Let them be Little" (song by Billy Dean of Lonestar) and let their parents decide what is right for them. Let the schools teach reading, writing and arithmatic and let the parents decide what is right for their children and THEIR family. Who knows, it could just be the beginning of some Great Days ahead.
