Today, my sister received an email from my 8 year old nephew’s teacher. In it, she explained that my nephew was given permission to draw during the course of the day; and at dismissal, she saw the picture. She explained that the picture was “filled with weapons and people”. “There were knives, guns, and even ninja throwing stars”. Oh no! Ninjas! Maybe because he is a big fan on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who have been around for decades fighting crime and putting bad guys away… Hardly a threat! She went on to say that tomorrow, she will “address the whole class about the fact that drawing weapons is not acceptable in a school setting.”
The best line had to be: “In today’s climate, boys will be boys acceptance of violence in pictures is not appropriate.” So does this mean that boys need to be girls now and draw pictures of flowers, hearts, and cute little puppies?! What does this mean to an eight year old who is only drawing what he plays at home with his friends? Does this mean my sister has to take away all of his toys now and give him dolls and other “girlie” toys to play with? Will this new push have an effect on advertising and the toys we see in the stores? How far will these people go to change our culture?
I think this is an eye-opening experience for all parents who send their children to school each and every day. I think that we all need to re-evaluate what we expect from the schools and ask ourselves if we could do better. Homeschooling is on the rise, and we can see why. School officials will start asking students if there are weapons in the home. They will continue to ask personal questions regarding alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. They will do their best to try and link this type of behavior to the home. We need to be diligent. We need to explain to our kids that these are personal questions, and the school has no business asking them. We need to opt out, if necessary, from these type of lessons; and we need to make sure we have not knowingly granted permission to any other types of intrusions. Mental Health checks are coming; and if a student already has a file, it could spell trouble for the family. We need to talk to our kids about what we expect from them, not the school. It starts at home. It always has, and we need to protect this right any way we can.
The day “boys stop being boys” will not come, no matter what the schools preach to our kids. Boys will be boys, my friends; and we should do everything we can to make sure it stays that way!
