My youngest daughter flipped through her grandmother's college scrapbook and the talk turned to how times have changed, from then to now. From sign-in desks for dates, from dance cards, from proper behavior, from single sex dorms, to? What?
Are colleges leaning so far from hands-on guidance and kids leaning/careening to everywhere out-of-bounds that this, this place, just isn't good for them, us or society? What is it, parents? Hmmmm. The movie, Knocked-Up. Is it a tiptoe into another space of the idea of "doing what is right" ?????
Maybe curfews are a good idea. Maybe the old days were the good old days. Maybe it is time to bounce something back. I thought so after reading about kids dying at college - the story, to me, is Bigger Than Dallas. The stories of kids driving and dying from alcohol-related accidents, of fraternity deaths -- these are what parents talk about when pulled together nationally, I've found. At least in the last ten years. The best thing my Dad got out of college was my mom, and she got a poodle from his fraternity house mom. I say that, tongue-in-cheek, but college experiences speak as much to life as academics and life preparations.
Freedom isn't always a good thing. And to think, we're spreading the idea all over the world, politically speaking.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll, peace, love and be free. What in the world is going on? Let's talk about this helicopter parenting... Who is protecting whom and what and from what and what for.
Whatever. Maybe, like fluffed and trimmed up poodles, our academic environments need a little duded-up structure in real life and while the virtual life is let loose. Is it happening, already?
What is it when dogs really are being treated more like people and kids are totally off-leash? Or are they on the tight, GPS, cell-phone attached ephemeral 24/7 umbilical cord?
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