OFF TOPIC was Re: House Church Talk - Re: chat possibilities

[Vanessa DiDomenico]

--- rebelfire at juno.com wrote:
> 
> Dear Flash,
 He was cursing me, the school and life
> in general with words that I have not heard in ages.  When he decided he
> was not going to go to the office, I decided he was not going to get
> away with it.  

Get away with what? Saying a few things? I have found as a tutor and
worker with street/working children that the BEST way to gain their
respect is to never be offended by words, and I usually tell just tell
them, laughing, "You think the words of a 13 yr old gonna make me cry?"
Then the others tell the new one (only a new kid would talk to me like
that) 'she's not stupid like the other teachers'. And they become my
friends, usually trusting me as an equal, not hiding things from me as
they do from other teachers. I also personally think that anyone offended
by words is a weakling, and this has made me able to work with some of the
worst underage criminals you could imagine.  

Nothing is as useless as punishing a kid for the way he talks. I myself
was quite a curser as a child (I had nasty neurological problems, though),
and always just told the teachers, 'I don't come here for you to make me
behave, but to learn, and have all A's. I will still be here when YOU are
gone.' So I have a special liking for those rebel kids, who usually are
only expressing their terrible desperation by talking like that, and an
adult who doesn't understand this, while working in education, will likely
never achieve much (in the way of educating children- his career may
advance a lot! My ways work for me because I DON'T work for money, since
salaries always ruin everything).

I stepped in front of him and told him the office was in
> the other direction.  He tried to brush me aside (he has me by 4 inches
> in height and 50 lbs in weight).  I stepped in front of him again and
> told him in a slow and even tone, "You might kick my butt; however, you
> will know I was here."

This just sounds like you are trying to show a little kid that YOU have
the POWER! Its gross! And its probably the reason the US educational
system is such a mess. Here, in my kids' school, any kid cursing like that
would be gossiped about for maybe 5 years! In the US, it happens every day
in every school.

  Several other kids were now in the area and from
> behind me I heard someone say, "Dude, just give up, the old man used to
> kill snakes with his bare hands and ate their guts raw!"   With that,
> the kid  turned on his heals and almost ran to the office.

Oh, that sounds like the way my husband gains the kids' respect! I call
him a Neanderthal for that... but the fact is, husband lived in the Amazon
for 8 months and ate only what he caught with his knife, sometimes raw,
and kids admire this! yuck!

> I laughed for almost an hour after I got to my office!  :-)

Husband and I also laugh at these things, but I usually feel like a
monster while laughing, and just think, 'well, what we did in the past
while we were in the devil's hands can be used to some good today' - NOTE
that when I discuss the wild kids, I am NOT speaking of kids in the normal
educational system, but of kids who have grown up with drug-dealer
parents, on the street, or working since age 6 and younger. The ones with
my kids are too well behaved, and too controlled - many have armed
bodyguards, and the school has armed guards too- and are kept
well-controlled. My 14 yr old has never walked alone farther than a block
from our house, which is surrounded by 7-foot fences. And I know nothing
of the public school system, in which my husband grew up and which is a
bit wild too. Perhaps you must take bad steps there just to control the
place a bit.

> For those of you who have kids in the school systems, let me give you a
> heads up, "THE SCHOOL SYSTEMS EVERYWHERE SUCK !"  

Not if you pay $17,000 a year for it, and go hang out at the school
library, and the sports facilities are where all the oil company
executives play tennis and basketball... so the school is always full of
parents who care for their kids, and mothers without jobs with nothing to
do but organize activities for the school... (BTW, I stopped hanging out
there because its where I had seizures all the time as a kid, and the
snobs now hate and fear me because I support president Chavez, who works
for the poor and oil company executives despise the guy)

  This generation is the most spoiled, selfish, rotten and
> violent anyone can remember.  

THAT has been said about every generation by the previous generation since
Adam and Eve. Its not something special or important, neither will telling
it change a thing.

Oh, Lord, help people be better parents, I BEG you! (including me)

Vanessa

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