Labeling

I’m rambling today. Forgive me.

What was it that was so good about growing up in the 1950s and 1960s? Was it our ignorance that since has proven that “ignorance is bliss”? In those days we didn’t have to label everything and there didn’t have to be someone to blame for everything that happened. That’s why accidents are called accidents. And we didn’t have to label every problem, condition, everything!

For instance, the schools (whose teachers have been glorified as the saviors of students everywhere who have ever learned to read or interact in society—another story for another day), it appears, are all about getting more of those almighty dollars to expand and reach for those “state-of-the-art” districts that are so prevalent, if not prestigious. Well, so they want us to believe. Somehow I thought the cliquish stuff of high school was left behind by adults. Boy, was I wrong about that one!

My grandson is a delightful 5-year-old who so looked forward to going to kindergarten last year. He couldn’t wait to get there and begin to learn things like reading and writing and playing with other children. His mother is a daycare provider. He’s grown up around other children and learned to extend the same family values and attitudes toward those other children that he has been taught at home and at church. (Yes, I said church, a place too many children don’t understand because they haven’t been inside of one.) They are at the house so much they truly are part of the family!

But there have been issues. On the bus another little boy was kicking and punching my grandson. It was bullying, for sure. My daughter went to school and demanded the bullying be stopped. Then there was the boy who hated Sponge Bob, which was the design on my grandson’s backpack. With the pack on his back, this other boy was punching Sponge Bob. What the heck is that all about??? THEN, there was the other kindergartener who said to my grandson, “I hate you. I’m going to kill you.” Are we kidding??? Absolutely not acceptable! The teacher seemed to know these things were going on but nothing could be done to stop it? How’s that for a school district in a county who SAYS it has a zero tolerance for bullying?

So, the speech and hearing therapist at my grandson’s school took it upon herself to advise my daughter that she suspected my grandson is AD/HD and should be medicated for it. When my daughter went to the parent-teacher conferences, the teacher said, “Oh, we’ve decided he’s not AD/HD. We suspect it is Asperger’s.” She gave my daughter a list of symptoms and advised referring to the family physician. Because it’s all on paper, she has to follow through on the investigation to prove that our little guy is NOT suffering Asperger’s.

So, she took him to see the doctor. AD/HD? No. Asperger’s? Brandon??? No way. And he’s proceeding with the paperwork to finish the matter.

What we know for certain is that the school environment has caused this child to be more timid, less confident, and to hate school. So there’s something to be said about homeschooling. A child is less likely to be bullied at the school setting, cowed by teachers who want all little people to fit in their little round holes and stifling creativity. Well, I’ve been saying that for years.

Now see me going to my personal library and pulling from the shelf that heavy, thick, many-paged book that is going to educate me about The Dumbing Down of America. I am angry, to say the least. Congressmen are dropping left and right because of what they are SAYING are abuses of their position and power. I keep remembering, though, something my parents always said: "When someone has your attention with their right hand, you better be looking to see what the other hand is doing."

Yeah. I do that and I don’t like what I see.

Corruption isn’t just at the highest offices in the land. I perceive it to be a pyramid that “politicians” climb with personal agendas and certainly not what is “of the people, by the people and for the people.” To be completely frank, here, I am skeptical enough these days to think that always was a sham, a lie to make everyone feel better. There are a lot of good people “out there,” but there are as many bad, I suspect. But maybe that happens when things get so complicated. And looking at the national debt, the horrible main streets in our town and on the highways of this county I know things are complicated. And knowing that there are people who retired from their government jobs but still hold those jobs so they get PAID PENSION AND SALARY…jobs that should go to other people who need A PAYCHECK (another story for another day?) …yeah…today I am not happy about what I’m seeing.

But there are some encouraging events, like former Alaska governor Sarah Palin resigning for, as yet unrevealed reasons…and Senator Bayh who resigned from Congress, not because of disgraceful behavior but because he couldn’t work with a Congress that isn’t doing its job representing the U.S. citizenry. Those two folks have spoken volumes to me.

Wouldn’t be surprised if my brakes fail or my car blows up.

©2010 Cathy Thomas Brownfield