“The rights and wellbeing of children should be at the top of the list here, but sadly this is not the case. The whims, lusts and desires of adults are trumping the needs of children, and they are paying a big price as a result. And as a consequence, society is paying a big price as well.”
(Bill Muehlenberg – Cultural Watch) Some 2000 years ago the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder very wisely said this: “What we do to our children, they will do to society.” In a very similar vein Karl Menninger much more recently put it this way: “What’s done to children, they will do to society.”
The simple truth is, our children are our future. When we harm or disadvantage our children, society gets weakened. What we do to our children we end up doing to all of society. So it is imperative that we treat children as best we can, and shield them from that which would harm them, abuse them, or threaten them.
Some folks have offered comparative lists of how things were for children some decades ago and how they are now. I am not sure if they are completely accurate, but they seem fairly realistic. It is said that back in the 1940s teachers claimed that these were their top disciplinary problems:
Talking out of turn
Chewing gum
Making Noise
Running in the Halls
Cutting in Line
Dress Code Infractions
Littering
But today it seems most teachers would need to run with a list such as this:
Drug Abuse
Alcohol Abuse
Pregnancy
Suicide
Rape
Robbery
Assault