We have raised & are now raising-generations of children who are completely ignorant of their rights

[kpete]

An Epidemic of Law Detached from Order
By Charles P. Pierce


...............

Children today grow up surrounded by the police power of the state, both the soft and hard versions of it. At almost every level of their lives, they are policed, in one way or another, either by the police themselves, or by administrators and bureaucrats to whom the police and the courts have subcontracted the job. They have no Fourth or Fifth Amendment rights as soon as they walk through the schoolhouse door. They are searched. They are tested for drugs. Their rights of free expression are tightly circumscribed. Rights unexercised atrophy. We have raised, and are now raising, generations of children who are completely ignorant of the rights they have as citizens, and we are doing it through the application of the most coercive powers the state possesses.

....................

MORE: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/american-children-arrest-numbers-6620038

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be.

It's not so much that they're ignorant of their rights. It appears that they are fully aware they do not have those rights. Those of us who had them, but lost them, are nostalgic about it. The new generation can't remember having such rights.

-Laelth

[frazzled]

2. You romanticize the past in terms of children

When I was a kid, growing up in the 1950s and 60s, girls were not allowed to wear "slacks" (or any kind of pants to school). Honestly, if you were a girl you had to wear a skirt, except one day a year when you were given the privilege of coming to school in something comfortable. And I grew up where it was cold all winter. So I kind of have to laugh when people are shocked that a kid isn't allowed to wear a neo-Nazi or anti-(name politician) T-shirt to school, or gang colors.

You could be taken to the principal and sent home for chewing gum in my (public) school. Not caught with drugs or even cigarettes, mind you, but gum.

We couldn't vote at age 18. That law wasn't changed until the 26th Amendment was adopted in 1971. I was already 21 and had been unable to express my political opinions.

I don't know what kind of rights of expression you are talking about being circumscribed. But let me give my opinion that kids today have a lot more freedom of expression than we ever did. And that schools have an obligation to educate without distractions; they're not democracies. If we're looking for total freedom for school children, we're looking at potential anarchy.

[saras]

8. You romanticize your own ignorance and naivete

Girls were not allowed to wear slacks in my school when I was growing up. WE CHANGED THAT, WHILE I WAS THERE. I personally didn't do that much, but LOTS of kids were aware, they made their parents aware, they fought, and they won, because wearing skirts in the snow is FUCKING STUPID. And it was the kids who organized the change, not adults.

The gum thing also was largely put to an end. Gum itself remained forbidden because of the cleanup mess (i.e. the majority of kids, after having to clean up some old gum, concluded that it wasn't reasonable to allow it in school), but other food became acceptable. Unfortunately, the nature of kids resulted in this 'other food' largely being candy.

Gum, cigarettes, drugs - you'd get in trouble, but you wouldn't get sent home for anything less than violence or gross misbehavior. And as long as your stuff, whatever it was, was in your pockets, it was NO ONE's business, because the right-wingers thought so too. I suppose if someone showed up with a syringe the police might get called, but it didn't happen.

Teenagers couldn't vote, but they could and did work for, or against, local political candidates. Not all of them, but those who were either interested or saw their future in the local business community. They could also get a lot done through Grange, 4H, the Chamber of Commerce, the still-active fraternal organizations (Lions, Eagles, Odd Fellows, Elk, Rotary, and more), where young people were introduced to the local political power structure.

I knew kids who were aware and kids who were unaware, but I knew none like the many I meet in college now who will actively, intelligently argue AGAINST human rights. They've been taught that it's cool to disrupt and overthrow traditions, because they're all oppressive. And human rights is an OLD tradition, from the humanist tradition, which is the 'enemy' to postmodern theory, even more so than fascism, which is the normal preferred state of things.

[frazzled]

11. Thank you for calling me ignorant

You certainly didn't learn much about "human rights" and dignity at the, um, Elks Club, if you feel you can call someone you don't even know "ignorant and naive." Nice work, there.

I actually supported McGovern, though couldn't vote for him, hung out with gay people almost exclusively, and was involved in a lot of counter-cultural activities. But we were definitely restricted in school in ways my children never were.

[shraby]

9. I don't know where you went to school, but the girls had no restrictions

on wearing slacks or levis where I went to school. In Michigan where it was cold in winter.

[frazzled]

10. In the 1950s and 60s?

Maybe we're not the same age. I graduated from high school in Indiana (pretty conservative, though not me--by the end, though I couldn't wear pants to school, I did wear very mod Mary Quant type mini-skirts) in 1968. Moved to New York City for college and went immediately hippy dippy.

When I was young, maybe up through age 12, we used to wear white anklets and white gloves to go downtown for lunch. We're talking the olden days. Panty hose weren't even invented when I got my first pair of stockings.

[shraby]

12. In the 50s and 60s. I was in high school in the 1950s, graduated in 1960.

Wore pedal pushers, slacks, some girls wore jeans (I didn't like em). No rules on what we wore..and the kids were pretty reasonable.
Oh, we wore those things that looked like colored panty hose but weren't. Can't remember what we called them now.

[treestar]

3. They know they have rights

All they have to do is watch a few cop dramas.

Surely they at least get some instruction in history class.

The problem with most people is they are afraid. They know they have the rights, but choose the path of least resistance.

[kestrel91316]

4. They not only don't know of and understand their rights, they

don't care. They like things the way they are and see no need for silly things like that. It's only important that DWTS appear on the magic screen on schedule.

[Phlem]

5. There's a reason our education system

is the way it is now. It's been years in the making but now we're actually graduating sheeple. Mostly because that's what they've been taught by their loving parents. I see this everyday and have relationships with family who's kids can't fathom that mom and dad might be wrong about anything. And those very kids passionately back those ideals up to the death.

So kids these days are getting triple whammied by a broken education system, propped up by their clueless parents, then graduated out into the world with no prospects.

I feel so bad for children these days because of the non-future they have and fear for my little girls future everyday. My wife and I both work our asses off just to make ends meet and now we have to spend what very little free time we have making sure our child is being educated properly.

Our education system has a massive effect on our society and it's been heartbreaking to watch it crumble more and more every year.

The worst part is the situation we're in now with our education system had been planned for a long time, and well executed.

Sheeple are easier to manipulate than educated critical thinking adults.

-p

[evilkumquat]

6. I've drilled the First Amendment into my children's heads

My ten-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son can each tell the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (something many Republican politicians can't do) as well as to recite four out of the five freedoms enshrined by the First Amendment (Speech, Press, Religion and Peaceably Assemble) but have trouble for whatever reason with the Right to Petition section.

My education growing up was lousy when it came to civil rights and I don't want my kids to go through the same crap.

[athenasatanjesus]

7. They have the right to be rich and famous.

They know that right,why are there other rights they should know?