The ensuing actions of the people of
Thurston, the presence of the President of the USA and the public display of emotion in
the form of cash for the wounded and 'Heroes' of the tragic event that shook the community
and the nation, is commendable. But, as brusque as this may sound, there is an
underlying feature that few are willing to discuss or confront, let alone permit to enter
their conscience. Our teachers, bowing to pressures of the liberally enlightened or
retired 'flower children', have relinquished the power of discipline to a new, more
psychologically acceptable form of instruction, so they say. Many of us, we find, are
quite similar to the majority who argue that our schools, fret with unbridled optimism for
the mature nature in our youth, allow them to choose their courses, their time in class
and the fraternization they feel necessary, to 'be accepted'. Drugs, hours of free time
and sexual demands equal to the pagans of history, have left these youths, barely into
puberty, a world that is theirs to dictate. Teachers, unable to discipline their charges
as the parents are allowed, have taken a course of 'alternative correction'. Listening to
the 'New' wave of education, they treat this generation, who moments before could
not tell the time when it was necessary to retire for the day, as if they had the skills
to manage their life with little interference. These same instructors, in order to survive
as educators, acquiesced to the 'Popular' belief that this 'new' code of behavior control,
was correct and necessary to produce healthy unmechanized adults. The degradation, created
by these 'trial' educators, of the souls and minds of this remorseless generation is just
now beginning to surface. Unfortunately, as brutal and frank as this may sound, Mr. and
Mrs. Kinkel, both fine educators and practitioners of this faith, paid the ultimate price
for this illogical belief.
John
Caudill
