file photo by Boyd Loving
Cyberbullying, bullying, sexting, beatings. 10 long years of persistent, awful conduct in our schools, documented and covered all over the news, including CBS, and nothing changes. The schools are a mess, and they just try to cover it all up. No wonder the rankings are dropping, with this administration. Who would want their kids to go here?
Yeh yeh yeh, advice from a senior: Do not blame the schools for cyber bullying. If you buy your kids a Smart phone in the first place and secondly let them take to the school, and thirdly Don’t teach them how to behave toward others, don’t teach them moral behavior, you, yes you mothers and fathers are to blame.
Hey , where I come from the public schools taught the three R’s. PERIOD
Damn’t why can’t you folks look in the mirror and see what kind of aggressive mean people you are. It sure as hell shows up in your driving, in your driving behavior. IT is NOT the schools fault that one kid smashed open the head of another. The school is for academic learning.
Some behavior teaching, sure, as in kindergarten teaching kids to stand in line, and not push and shove, that kind of thing. And HEY, if THAT KIND of THING, courteous behavior, doesn’t transfer to good behavior later on, it is the parents fault. Public school is not a religious school; it is not a substitute for parents giving moral guidance at home. Teaching character. What is that saying, if “I want a peaceful world, let it start with me.” YOU, YOU PARENTS ARE TO BLAME for cyber bullying and any bullying and bad behavior. And maybe just maybe, the BOE should have control of the budget. As I write this I am changing my mind about who deserves control of the budget.
How about when a Ridgewood High School varsity tennis player calls a girl from another high school tennis team a whore and a loser on social media, right after the Ridgewood girl wins a high school Tennis match against the other girl, and Ridgewood High School allows the girl to play every tennis match for the rest of the season? Is that right? Should the school allow that and reward her by letting her continue to play? Of course the parents are pathetic, but the school condones this conduct by its lack of serious response.
Hey Hey Hey my little OLD senior opinion: “Social media” is antisocial. And parents are dead wrong to buy their kids and encourage that CRAP. “Social Media” encourages mob rule and discourages independent thinking. Children, teens cannot discriminate what is destructive and leads to destructive action on “social media.” The school cannot control a child’s use of “social media” or smart phones anymore than it can control what a child watches on TV or other media. If a student calls another a bad name FACE TO FACE at an athletic event , that is another story and the student should be properly disciplined. “Social Media” dehumanizes communication because it is not face to face or even voice to voice. The teen who would call another a bad name on “social media” would hesitate to voice the same words out loud. I know this blog comes under the category of “social media” but since I am a Ridgewood resident, I make the exception because I think this blog is a great communicator of Ridgewood news. Case in point: I found out about the recent BOE school budget meeting on this blog.