Recently a Catholic high school came under fire because they informed parents they would no longer be allowed to drop off forgotten items such as lunches or homework assignments. Many parents were angered by this new policy and even called the policy “child abuse.”
Seriously?
These are not children, they’re teenagers—they’re adults-in-training. Soon they’ll be in college, away from Mommy and Daddy, figuring out lunch on their own. I mean, even my five-year-old remembers his lunchbox before he goes to school in the morning. Parents simply need to stop coddling their kids.
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Absolutely there are times for grace. Everyone forgets something every once in a while. There have been times when I’ve had to call my husband to bring me his set of keys for the house because I locked mine inside. It happens. But there’s a difference between a one-time mistake and a chronic problem of carelessness.
Our children need to understand personal responsibility and if we’re always bailing them out they'll become entitled and useless. Do we really want to do that to the next generation of leaders in this country?
It’s better to let them mess up now when the stakes are relatively low. Their future bosses won’t be as kind.
I think it’s obvious that if the school felt the need to come up with this new rule they must have had a persistent problem on their hands. I don’t think educators would needlessly come up with a strict policy. Why can’t parents trust the teachers and administrators of the school they have chosen for their kids? They want the best from their students and should be your partners in helping to raise them to be functioning adults.
Instead of parents being outraged, perhaps they should consider why the school felt the need to create such a stance. Maybe these high school students were really just getting too careless and needed to learn a tough lesson in personal responsibility.
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Let's be real: No one is going to die from missing one lunch and my guess is they would figure something out, whether it’s scrounging up money for the vending machine or sharing lunch with a friend. And no one is going to fail out of school from missing one homework assignment.
But I don’t think anyone will learn a lesson from constantly having Mom and Dad come to the rescue. Using their brain to come up with a creative solution, however, could be very beneficial in the future. It’s better to let them mess up now when the stakes are relatively low. Their future bosses won’t be as kind.
As I said before there is a time for grace and there is a time for tough love. I’m thinking this is more of a tough love type of lesson.
Photograph by: Catholic High School for Boys/Facebook
