Davison's Doodle

Examples in Discipline

Here are two stories that caught my attention about how adults discipline, guide, and model responsibility and accountability with the junior high and high school youth in their care.  These stores are a bit old, but have a look and you decide.

Utah High School Football Coach Suspends Entire Team Amid Reports Of Cyberbullying
Rebecca Klein | The Huffington Post | Sept 26, 2013

This high school football coach does not tolerate bullying or attitude problems, and he recently showed players in a major way.  Utah outlet Deseret News reported that the town of Roosevelt’s Union High School football coach Matt Labrum recently suspended all 80 players from the team due to reports of bullying and academic issues.
Click here to read more.

Ex-NFL star Brian Holloway may be sued by parents of teens who allegedly trashed his upstate NY home
Jaime Uribarri | New York Daily News | September 19, 2013

Several parents are reportedly considering lawsuits against the former NFL star after he posted their children’s names on a website created in the wake of the Labor Day weekend house party.

The website, www.helpmesave300.com, identifies over 100 of the estimated 300 house-crashers who trashed his upstate New York residence, and includes photos and tweets that documented the reckless destruction.
Click here to read more.

And here is one person’s commentary on the New York story.

An Open Letter To The Parents Of The Stephentown 300
Kelly Lynch | The Huffington Post | September 24, 2013

Look, I don’t blame you for what your kids did. Heck, I don’t even really blame them. Teens will be teens, and they do stupid things sometimes. We’ve all been there. It’s not fair to judge parents on the mistakes their kids make. It is how you handle that behavior afterwards that reflects on you as a parent.
Click here to read more.

Loosing is good?

When children make mistakes, our job should not be to spin those losses into decorated victories. Instead, our job is to help kids overcome setbacks, to help them see that progress over time is more important than a particular win or loss, and to help them graciously congratulate the child who succeeded when they failed. To do that, we need to refuse all the meaningless plastic and tin destined for landfills. We have to stop letting the Trophy-Industrial Complex run our children’s lives.(1)

How do you get better at something?  Trial and error.  “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”  How do you know that you cannot master a task, skill, subject, sport, vocation, job?  By doing the work, putting in the hours, and placing yourself in a position to be evaluated, graded, judged, and risk being told your best work is a C- or that you don’t have the basic skills necessary to do “XYZ” well.  I was fortunate to be raised by parents that generally weighted the adults: teachers, scout leaders, coaches, and school bus drivers, stories about my behavior and skills against my story.  I was encouraged to compete, even though a poor sport for a few years, for competitions sake to help me learn life skills for dealing with disappointment, setbacks, and learn the value of practice and time management.  Are children and youth learning those lessons today?

The quoted paragraph from an article from the New York Times can apply to people of all ages.  Click here to read more and ponder how that applies to our culture beyond children and youth.

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Note
1. Ashley Merryman, “Losing is Good for You,” The New York Times, September 24, 2013.