Are We Still Teaching Values

Image retrieved November 22, 2005 from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/25/earlyshow/main690601.shtml

Information retrieved from We're obligated to teach our kids values by Leonard Pitts from the Greensboro News and Record, November 21, 2005.

Columnist, Leonard Pitts, Jr. of the Miami Herald recently ran a column that was published in the Greensboro News and Record. His column was about a recent decision by a school district concerning, get this, shaking hands after sports competitions. For those that do not understand this practice I will explain, after a game of intense (hopefully) competition, it is customary for the opposing teams to show their respect for one another by lining up and shaking hands, interspersed oftentimes with extra congratulations or encouragement. However, there appears to be a shift in this "tradition" as our culture seems to no longer respect worthy opponents, but would rather denigrate them with rude comments, spitting in their faces, and all out fighting. The Northern Neck Virginia school board finally said that enough is enough.
In all fairness, lack of sportmanship after competition is not a new practice. Their are accounts I remember in which rival schools had the post-game after party (FIGHT) at the end of the game. Yet, the significance in this author's opinion is the ban itself. The handshake after a game was to teach young people a principle. Banning such a practice because of resistance does not appear to solve the problem. Pitts says that instead of banning the handshake after games, discipline the behavior. This is the point of the article as a whole. Discipline is not taking place and our young people fail to learn valuable lessons as a result of misbehavior. In the meantime those that come after them must live with the fruit of the previous misconduct.
Case in point from the article, a teacher in 2002 from Kansas was harassed and threatened by parents because she failed kids for cheating, the school board ORDERED her to soften the "punishment." The result, she quit. Also, 2003 in Chicago, 31 girls beat a group of underclassmen so brutally that five girls are hospitalized, one parent said that the beating was something that just "got out of hand." (Pitts, 2005) Then there is my favorite, the five year-old girl that cut up so bad that the police had to be called in Florida. Keep in mind the parent had been called on several occasions about the young lady's behavior and if I am not mistaken had been called on the day in question specifically. Of course the mother is filing a lawsuit.
In my opinion, we are making too many excuses for our youth. We wonder why there is no accountability in government, in financial institutions, and even religious places of worship at times, but what happened to what we teach at home. My questions for you to respond to this blog are the same as those posed by Leonard Pitts, What is wrong or what happened to saying to our young people that you have a standard to live up to and if you don't there are consequences? Why are lessons of value not consistently enforced? What lessons are the current generation learning when these values are not taught? I look forward to hearing what you think.