Archive for the ‘Discipline’ Category

Click It or Ticket — For Kids Too

Saturday, June 4th, 2011

When I was growing up, my siblings and I were absolutely required to wear seatbelts at all times when traveling in a car.  Considering the way my mother drove, that’s a very good thing.  Back then, it was a matter of personal choice; today it’s the law.  Electronic signs along the freeways I drive to work proclaim “click it or ticket”, the slogan law enforcement agencies are using to remind people to wear their seatbelts and officers are indeed handing out tickets for failing to comply.  As one Texas ten-year-old found out, that applies to kids as well as adults.

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Disrupting Graduation

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

It’s a time for Sir Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance.  It’s a time for formal dances and the robes of academia.  For many, it signifies the end of childhood and the start of their adult life.  Graduation from high school is no minor event and should be treated with the reverence it deserves.  In Duncan, South Carolina, school officials and law enforcement are serious about making sure that’s the case.

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Kids Not Welcome In Restaurants

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Whether you applaud this trend or condemn it will likely depend on how old your kids are — or if you even have kids at all.  In Singapore, more and more restaurants are setting a minimum age requirement for their patrons and it has nothing to do with the legal drinking age.  Some are even going so far as to ban anyone not yet a teenager.

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No Internet For You, Young Man

Monday, December 20th, 2010

According to a new study, parents see internet access similar to how they see watching television — especially when it comes to using it as punishment.  More than half of American households take away television viewing privileges as punishment, a figure that has not changed significantly over the last ten years.  What has changed is the number of parents that use internet access as a form of punishment as well.

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Teacher Tapes Student To Desk; Gets Off Scotch Free

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

One would like to think that we’ve evolved beyond the use of corporal punishment in our public schools but it appears that’s not entirely true.  Even if teachers aren’t rapping on knuckles with wooden rulers, some are still using pain and humiliation in order to maintain order and instill discipline.  Not surprisingly, some parents take offense at this.

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Zero Percent Abuse

Friday, November 12th, 2010

For years, hateful bigots have tried to associate gays and lesbians with pedophilia, claiming that gay and lesbian couples cannot possibly be allowed to be parents because it wouldn’t be safe for the children.  It looks like these folks are going to have to find a new boogeyman, based on the results of a new report.

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The Wheel of Consequences

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Move over Vanna, there’s a new wheel in town.  We’re all familiar with spinners used in board games (and game shows like Wheel of Fortune) but who would have thought they could be useful in parenting as well?  When two of her kids began fighting and arguing excessively, Julie Butler figured out how to put a simple board game spinner to work and, in so doing, put an end to her kids’ battles overnight.  She has since packaged her discovery into a Windows-based software package and is making it available over the internet.

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Spelling Is A Safety Issue

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Proper spelling is important for several reasons — it avoids ambiguity of meaning, it presents a professional image, and prevents the reader from being distracted from the core message.  According to one charter school, however, spelling correctly is also a safety issue.  So much so that one student was given a ten-day suspension for misspelling the school’s name.

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