Post by Darryl James on Sept 15, 2005 15:28:33 GMT -5
"Aint nothing wrong with these kids today that a good ass-kicking won't handle."
--Moms Mabley
I was shopping for groceries on a Thursday evening
when it happened.
A little Black elf who should have been smiling
and cute was tearing his way through the canned
goods aisle, kicking some cans and trying to juggle
a few. An older girl was chasing him, trying to
reprimand him, but to no avail.
I turned around and saw the woman he had been
with--a woman I recognized from a Black business
networking organization. She was college educated
and a successful entrepreneur, but obviously not a
good mother. She wasn’t even paying the child any
attention.
I knew I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t
resist--I stepped in the little manchild’s way,
scrunched my face into a grimace and said in my most
stern voice: "Stop acting like a wild man before I
take off my belt and give you a whipping!" The
little urchin gazed up at me, startled for a moment,
grabbed his sister’s hand and froze.
His mother pretended not to notice the
interaction and simply said "Hello" when she walked
past me.
The little boy kept hold of his sister’s hand
and when I would see him in a different part of the
store, he would peep at me in fear. His mother
never looked my way.
I don’t know what was going on in that family
and I didn’t ask, but one thing I do know—little man
needed his little ass beaten.
I was fifteen when my stepfather passed away. I
was a bit out of hand, and my mother was trying to
figure it out. I was hanging with the wrong crowd
and cutting up at school.
In my French class, I learned obscene phrases to
sling at the teacher purely for the students’
delight. I was fighting and cutting classes and my
former straight-A class work was declining in
quality. My teachers were delivering warnings and
admonishments that fell on deaf ears.
The answer was simple--I needed my adolescent,
testing-the-waters-because-I-thought-I-was-grown ass
beaten.
My mother knew it, and she administered an ass
beating. But she also gave permission to my Senior
Military Instructor in ROTC to beat my a**. She
gave the same permission to the Vice Principal.
They both paid attention to my wayward behavior and
beat my a** periodically
The ass-beatings saved my life. Adults stood in my
path of self-destruction and drew the lines between
Darryl and the rest of the world. I was shown clear
limits and given consequences when I drifted beyond
them. My behavior improved and I got back on the
right track.
Sorry, but people who think permissiveness and time
outs are the answer for children are damned fools.
It only works for kids who won't be too far out of
line in the first place. But for other kids, who
can not grasp where they end and where the world
begins, a good ass kicking draws clear lines.
Of course there were problems with corporal
punishment in the classroom, including abuse by
teachers who went too far and accidental injuries,
but to allow children too much latitude will provide
them with a skewed vision of how the world works.
For some humans, the result will be a life of out of
control situations, based on that skewed vision of
the world.
Funny, but we used to gawk in amazement when little
white kids would cut up at the grocery store,
calling their parents names and basically doing what
they wanted to do without repercussions, save for:
"Johnny, you will get a time out when we get home."
We knew that if we did the same thing, we would be
beaten in the blink of an eye, and that knowledge
kept us in line.
But things have changed and today, after two
decades of permissiveness, and a general lack of
ass-kicking, many of our kids are out of control.
In the spring of this year, we all watched in
horror as a five-year-old Black girl was handcuffed
by the police in St. Petersburg, Florida, after she
cut an ugly tantrum in her kindergarten class. But
what were we really horrified about? Was it seeing
the child in handcuffs or watching her tear up
everything in her path, while punching the assistant
principal?
The school employees couldn’t hit the girl, and
since she was out of control, things just got way
out of hand. They called the parent, who couldn't
arrive until hours later, but more importantly, this
child was out of control and doing things in front
of adults that were unacceptable. Someone needed to
show her where she ended and where the world began.
In this case, that job fell on the police.
If we were doing what our culture’s legacy
dictated, that little girl would be getting her ass
beaten at home and would still have a healthy fear
and respect of grown folks--even at school.
Instead, we give them little discipline, yet wonder
why they the police intervene at five years or
eighteen years of age.
Sadly, when it came to adults, the little girl
had no fear and no respect, because she, like other
kids, knew that teachers can't do a damned thing to
her. That's too much power. Talking won't do
anything for kids like her.
Perhaps she will be scarred by being arrested,
but perhaps, she will have more respect or at least
fear of authority and sit her little ass down when
an adult tells her to. I pray the latter will be
the case.
The day we followed the dominant culture into
permissiveness and timeouts as behavior modification
was the day we began to lose our children. Since
then, we’ve seen Black kids doing things we never
thought we would see.
Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the
felony arrest of a five-year-old kindergarten
student in Florida, accused of biting and scratching
a support teacher and the trial of an
eleven-year-old in Pontiac Michigan, accused of
killing another minor with a rifle.
Today’s youth rarely show respect for their
elders and to be honest, it’s not their fault. They
are not being properly disciplined and even though
we see the result of the faulty method, we are still
acting timid about tough love.
We've come a long way from public floggings, but
not so far that we still don't need to pass out an
ass whipping every now and again.
I say a return to corporal punishment will provide
some perspective for out of control children.
Otherwise, let's get rid of the schools we complain
about and leave the children at home.
For every discussion about what the school
system needs to do, there needs to be a discussion
about what parents need to do. And instead of
simply looking to add more duties to an already
overtaxed and nearly failing school system, we
should place more of the focus on parental training.
After all, you have to learn how to drive a car,
but no one is trained on being a parent.
There are a number of things that are wrong
with the way we are leaving the world to the next
generation, but the overarching problem with today’s
youth is that some of them need hands placed on them.
Some kids may turn out fine with the
permissiveness and timeout behavior modification
methods, but others need their natural asses kicked.
--Moms Mabley
I was shopping for groceries on a Thursday evening
when it happened.
A little Black elf who should have been smiling
and cute was tearing his way through the canned
goods aisle, kicking some cans and trying to juggle
a few. An older girl was chasing him, trying to
reprimand him, but to no avail.
I turned around and saw the woman he had been
with--a woman I recognized from a Black business
networking organization. She was college educated
and a successful entrepreneur, but obviously not a
good mother. She wasn’t even paying the child any
attention.
I knew I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t
resist--I stepped in the little manchild’s way,
scrunched my face into a grimace and said in my most
stern voice: "Stop acting like a wild man before I
take off my belt and give you a whipping!" The
little urchin gazed up at me, startled for a moment,
grabbed his sister’s hand and froze.
His mother pretended not to notice the
interaction and simply said "Hello" when she walked
past me.
The little boy kept hold of his sister’s hand
and when I would see him in a different part of the
store, he would peep at me in fear. His mother
never looked my way.
I don’t know what was going on in that family
and I didn’t ask, but one thing I do know—little man
needed his little ass beaten.
I was fifteen when my stepfather passed away. I
was a bit out of hand, and my mother was trying to
figure it out. I was hanging with the wrong crowd
and cutting up at school.
In my French class, I learned obscene phrases to
sling at the teacher purely for the students’
delight. I was fighting and cutting classes and my
former straight-A class work was declining in
quality. My teachers were delivering warnings and
admonishments that fell on deaf ears.
The answer was simple--I needed my adolescent,
testing-the-waters-because-I-thought-I-was-grown ass
beaten.
My mother knew it, and she administered an ass
beating. But she also gave permission to my Senior
Military Instructor in ROTC to beat my a**. She
gave the same permission to the Vice Principal.
They both paid attention to my wayward behavior and
beat my a** periodically
The ass-beatings saved my life. Adults stood in my
path of self-destruction and drew the lines between
Darryl and the rest of the world. I was shown clear
limits and given consequences when I drifted beyond
them. My behavior improved and I got back on the
right track.
Sorry, but people who think permissiveness and time
outs are the answer for children are damned fools.
It only works for kids who won't be too far out of
line in the first place. But for other kids, who
can not grasp where they end and where the world
begins, a good ass kicking draws clear lines.
Of course there were problems with corporal
punishment in the classroom, including abuse by
teachers who went too far and accidental injuries,
but to allow children too much latitude will provide
them with a skewed vision of how the world works.
For some humans, the result will be a life of out of
control situations, based on that skewed vision of
the world.
Funny, but we used to gawk in amazement when little
white kids would cut up at the grocery store,
calling their parents names and basically doing what
they wanted to do without repercussions, save for:
"Johnny, you will get a time out when we get home."
We knew that if we did the same thing, we would be
beaten in the blink of an eye, and that knowledge
kept us in line.
But things have changed and today, after two
decades of permissiveness, and a general lack of
ass-kicking, many of our kids are out of control.
In the spring of this year, we all watched in
horror as a five-year-old Black girl was handcuffed
by the police in St. Petersburg, Florida, after she
cut an ugly tantrum in her kindergarten class. But
what were we really horrified about? Was it seeing
the child in handcuffs or watching her tear up
everything in her path, while punching the assistant
principal?
The school employees couldn’t hit the girl, and
since she was out of control, things just got way
out of hand. They called the parent, who couldn't
arrive until hours later, but more importantly, this
child was out of control and doing things in front
of adults that were unacceptable. Someone needed to
show her where she ended and where the world began.
In this case, that job fell on the police.
If we were doing what our culture’s legacy
dictated, that little girl would be getting her ass
beaten at home and would still have a healthy fear
and respect of grown folks--even at school.
Instead, we give them little discipline, yet wonder
why they the police intervene at five years or
eighteen years of age.
Sadly, when it came to adults, the little girl
had no fear and no respect, because she, like other
kids, knew that teachers can't do a damned thing to
her. That's too much power. Talking won't do
anything for kids like her.
Perhaps she will be scarred by being arrested,
but perhaps, she will have more respect or at least
fear of authority and sit her little ass down when
an adult tells her to. I pray the latter will be
the case.
The day we followed the dominant culture into
permissiveness and timeouts as behavior modification
was the day we began to lose our children. Since
then, we’ve seen Black kids doing things we never
thought we would see.
Over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the
felony arrest of a five-year-old kindergarten
student in Florida, accused of biting and scratching
a support teacher and the trial of an
eleven-year-old in Pontiac Michigan, accused of
killing another minor with a rifle.
Today’s youth rarely show respect for their
elders and to be honest, it’s not their fault. They
are not being properly disciplined and even though
we see the result of the faulty method, we are still
acting timid about tough love.
We've come a long way from public floggings, but
not so far that we still don't need to pass out an
ass whipping every now and again.
I say a return to corporal punishment will provide
some perspective for out of control children.
Otherwise, let's get rid of the schools we complain
about and leave the children at home.
For every discussion about what the school
system needs to do, there needs to be a discussion
about what parents need to do. And instead of
simply looking to add more duties to an already
overtaxed and nearly failing school system, we
should place more of the focus on parental training.
After all, you have to learn how to drive a car,
but no one is trained on being a parent.
There are a number of things that are wrong
with the way we are leaving the world to the next
generation, but the overarching problem with today’s
youth is that some of them need hands placed on them.
Some kids may turn out fine with the
permissiveness and timeout behavior modification
methods, but others need their natural asses kicked.