Big Wallaby wrote:My view of a "village" is different than hers, too. Mine includes members of a church that my family is members of (that I trust), the pastors that my family gets close to and a short list of people I know and trust. Her "village" includes the gubment, schools, etc.
I have to disagree with you, slightly, BW and BRW... Children spend a large percentage of their time at schools and the value of caring teachers should not be downplayed. I know that some of my biggest influences were football coaches, debate coaches, English and drama teachers and, I'm sure, others I'm forgetting to mention now. I'm not saying you should expect a school to raise your kids for you but they definitely play a role in that process. Further, while I wouldn't trust George W. to raise a child (you saw what happened to his little alcoholic angels...to be fair, if my father started an unjust war which killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, I'd hit the sauce pretty hard too.) I do think some aspects of the government are important in teaching children how to behave. Specifically, here, I'm thinking of community oriented policing. If the cops get out there and actually meet and build a rapport with the kids, then kids have less trouble going to a cop to say "Hey, little Johnny from down the street stole his grandpa's AK-47 and is on his way to the school." If there's no trust there, that conversation is less likely to happen. Further, that rapport at an early age also breeds a respect for authority that is lacking in so many children today.
At my elementary school, we had the DARE program and, while I don't believe it helps keep kids off drugs, it did get me acquainted with the local police in a positive manner. Further, the police would encourage us to stop by the local sub-station after school. They'd ask us trivia questions or questions about what we were doing in school, and would essentially reward us for positive interactions by giving us special football cards of the Seattle Seahawks. It made for a very positive atmosphere and allows any further interactions people have with cops to be more respectful and positive as well.
The current administration is really good with self-fulfilling prophecies. They like to talk about how bad the government is at doing anything for the common good, that way, whenever they half-ass anything (think: no child left behind) they can say "see! we told you the government isn't any good at this!" Just because they are undermining institutions which used to be positive influences during a child's formative years, doesn't mean those institutions can't be positive again. The situation can be turned around! (To paraphrase Al Franken: I love my country with an adult kind of love. A kind of love where I can see some of the flaws, and I love it enough to want to help make it better.)
JUST KIDDING! I am not even close to looking like that,
