Due to new demands on my time, I am taking a sabbatical from this blog, About Your Kids. But I will continue to write bimonthly in my devotional blog, and I invite you to sign up for its automatic email delivery at: www.davalynnspencer.blogspot.com.
Thanks for reading!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Can You See the Irony?
Irony: 2a. the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning … (Merriam-Webster online dictionary).
Sometimes irony hits us in the face, leaving us stunned for a moment, unable to respond. For me the jolt came during a recent visit to a new optometrist. New to me, I might add, not new to the profession.
After filling out all the required personal information, I was caught off guard by the next question on the clipboard-attached form: “Do you have blurry vision?”
What?
Yes, I thought. But only when I’m not wearing my glasses, like now.
Blurry vision? Were they kidding? I was sitting in an over-padded examination chair in an optometrist’s office and I wasn’t there to have my teeth cleaned.
I brought the question to the doctor’s attention, but he just smiled and said nothing. Evidently, he failed to see the irony.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Irony appears early in life. My middle school students faced it this fall on our “Peace Out to Drugs” day during Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug awareness campaign.
On that particular day, students came to school dressed as hippies, wearing t-shirts adorned with peace signs and mushrooms in psychedelic pink and orange and green. They loved it – rainbow-colored Afro wigs, scarves for headbands, and peace-sign earrings. But they had little, if any, knowledge of the hippie culture, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that they didn’t know about the so-called free love, free drugs (at least the first round) and free spirit of the 1960s.
I wonder if their grandparents would have seen the irony.
Sometimes irony hits us in the face, leaving us stunned for a moment, unable to respond. For me the jolt came during a recent visit to a new optometrist. New to me, I might add, not new to the profession.
After filling out all the required personal information, I was caught off guard by the next question on the clipboard-attached form: “Do you have blurry vision?”
What?
Yes, I thought. But only when I’m not wearing my glasses, like now.
Blurry vision? Were they kidding? I was sitting in an over-padded examination chair in an optometrist’s office and I wasn’t there to have my teeth cleaned.
I brought the question to the doctor’s attention, but he just smiled and said nothing. Evidently, he failed to see the irony.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Irony appears early in life. My middle school students faced it this fall on our “Peace Out to Drugs” day during Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug awareness campaign.
On that particular day, students came to school dressed as hippies, wearing t-shirts adorned with peace signs and mushrooms in psychedelic pink and orange and green. They loved it – rainbow-colored Afro wigs, scarves for headbands, and peace-sign earrings. But they had little, if any, knowledge of the hippie culture, and I couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that they didn’t know about the so-called free love, free drugs (at least the first round) and free spirit of the 1960s.
I wonder if their grandparents would have seen the irony.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Stupid is as stupid does
The headline said, “Why teens do stupid things.”
Of course I had to read the article. What grownup/parent/teacher/former teen wouldn’t? We all want to know why kids do the things they do. I wondered if scientific study had turned up some new chemical imbalance to blame, some long, multi-syllabic name that educators could reduce to yet another string of disjointed letters like ADD or ADHD or OCD or KID.
But there was no news. After much study and observation, those in the know decided the deciding factor was peer pressure.
My mom was right all along.
But the reporter did make one interesting point: teens actually spend more time weighing the risks of risky behavior than do their adult counterparts. The bottom line is, sometimes it’s just worth it to a kid.
I’ve seen the worth-it look in the eyes of a youngster on his way to the principal’s office after punching someone who said something he didn’t like.
I’ve seen the worth-it look on the face of a girl who wore her cute little micro skirt onto campus in spite of the dress code. Even though she had to call home for a change of clothes, she still made a fashionable appearance, and boy, was it worth it.
A kid with a Mohawk haircut and lip ring also decided during his microsecond of deliberation that it would be worth it. Later, without the ring and strip of hair, his friends still knew he’d had the guts to try it.
I think it has something to do with bulletproof mentality and “not me” thinking.
But if we can chalk up teens’ irresponsible behavior – like riding with drunk drivers, trying drugs and never cleaning their rooms – to youth and immaturity, to what do we attribute the poor decisions of their elders?
The first incident that caught my eye was the Philadelphia father last fall who pulled a gun on his son’s football coach because Junior wasn’t getting enough playing time.
Then there was the South Carolina fifth-grade teacher who let five students use a wastebasket to relieve their bladders during a school lockdown.
And in Livingston, Montana a high school principal was suspended for giving one of his soccer players a wedgie during a junior varsity game.
No wonder teens do stupid things. They have wonderful examples living right in front of them.
I can’t imagine what the gun-toting father was thinking. I’m guessing the teacher was trying to prevent the humiliation of a child wetting herself, and the principal reportedly told authorities that his act was intended as a gesture of playfulness.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that people – not just teens – have been doing stupid things for quite some time. Our forefathers came up with a few phrases to help us think about the outcomes of our actions. Their words often come to mind today as worn out platitudes, thin clichés and tired expressions. But don’t they say what many of us have forgotten?
Look before you leap.
You reap what you sow.
Better safe than sorry.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Maybe it’s time we pulled out a few old viewpoints and dusted them off for a new year of clearer thinking.
This column previously appeared in the Porterville Recorder Newspaper.
Of course I had to read the article. What grownup/parent/teacher/former teen wouldn’t? We all want to know why kids do the things they do. I wondered if scientific study had turned up some new chemical imbalance to blame, some long, multi-syllabic name that educators could reduce to yet another string of disjointed letters like ADD or ADHD or OCD or KID.
But there was no news. After much study and observation, those in the know decided the deciding factor was peer pressure.
My mom was right all along.
But the reporter did make one interesting point: teens actually spend more time weighing the risks of risky behavior than do their adult counterparts. The bottom line is, sometimes it’s just worth it to a kid.
I’ve seen the worth-it look in the eyes of a youngster on his way to the principal’s office after punching someone who said something he didn’t like.
I’ve seen the worth-it look on the face of a girl who wore her cute little micro skirt onto campus in spite of the dress code. Even though she had to call home for a change of clothes, she still made a fashionable appearance, and boy, was it worth it.
A kid with a Mohawk haircut and lip ring also decided during his microsecond of deliberation that it would be worth it. Later, without the ring and strip of hair, his friends still knew he’d had the guts to try it.
I think it has something to do with bulletproof mentality and “not me” thinking.
But if we can chalk up teens’ irresponsible behavior – like riding with drunk drivers, trying drugs and never cleaning their rooms – to youth and immaturity, to what do we attribute the poor decisions of their elders?
The first incident that caught my eye was the Philadelphia father last fall who pulled a gun on his son’s football coach because Junior wasn’t getting enough playing time.
Then there was the South Carolina fifth-grade teacher who let five students use a wastebasket to relieve their bladders during a school lockdown.
And in Livingston, Montana a high school principal was suspended for giving one of his soccer players a wedgie during a junior varsity game.
No wonder teens do stupid things. They have wonderful examples living right in front of them.
I can’t imagine what the gun-toting father was thinking. I’m guessing the teacher was trying to prevent the humiliation of a child wetting herself, and the principal reportedly told authorities that his act was intended as a gesture of playfulness.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that people – not just teens – have been doing stupid things for quite some time. Our forefathers came up with a few phrases to help us think about the outcomes of our actions. Their words often come to mind today as worn out platitudes, thin clichés and tired expressions. But don’t they say what many of us have forgotten?
Look before you leap.
You reap what you sow.
Better safe than sorry.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Maybe it’s time we pulled out a few old viewpoints and dusted them off for a new year of clearer thinking.
This column previously appeared in the Porterville Recorder Newspaper.
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