when ridlin fails you

Kids are just out of control these days. Between swearing and sex and partying and dancing and music and rebellion, I swear, what we need is a good gulag-style lockup to set them straight. Make sure that there is plenty of demeaning punishment, physical and mental. Make them wear signs advertising that they’re still f-ed up. Lie them on their faces for 24-hours, and if that’s not enough, do it again. What would be even better is if they were taken in the dead of night, without warning, and denied communication with their families for the better part of a year. I saw some kids just the other day, and judging them by what they were wearing, who knows what they are capable of?! Out of control.

Sadly, this is a reality. Parents are paying good money (25-40000$$/year) to send their kids off to a place in Jamaica just like this. For years. There is an agreement that the place gets 49% custody of the child (whatever that means….it sounds wrong…I suppose in the case of a divorce they’d become the controlling partner) and keeps the kid securely locked up for up to several years, as long as they deem necessary. It’s astounding, the lack of responsibility that parents are feeling regarding their children these days. Not all, of course, but from an outsider’s perspective (and having spent time in the classroom) it looks as though a great number of parents take no interest or effort in educational development, including morality and behavior modification, instead leaving these to overburdened schools and questionable drugs. A lot of children are being prescribed Ridlin, Prozac, whatever, because they’re a bit hyper. This is ludicrous. Maybe extreme cases warrant these chemicals, but in the vast majority of them a modification of diet (no more oreo cereal and cola for breakfast), patience (they’re developing, and active parenting are sufficient. Now they’re sending the kids away to prison…like in Papillon. These parents are negligent jerks, and should be imprisoned themselves. Boarding school, military school, these are range from significant to extreme, Outward Bound, an interesting and sometimes very successful approach, AmeriCorps too. But Tranquility Bay is an injustice. via Robot Wisdom.