serious discourse - how boring

Today I had a very serious talk with my class, in whom I was greatly disappointed in yesterday today. The handicapped that a classical Lutheran education leaves you with is that the safety that we provide our students with leaves them unprepared to face the harsh reality of life in the American public schools.

I support the public schools; I�m not here to bash them. The fact of the matter is that for one reason or another we live in a world that is more violent than when most of were children. The only thing similar in our growing up experience is that we both had a President Bush in Fifth Grade.

This is my point: I had to tell my kids that they are at a special school. We�ve been caring for them since they were toddlers. We know them. We care about them. When they leave us to go somewhere else they aren�t going to get the benefit of the doubt, they aren�t going to be one of three kids in a class and their teachers will be good people but will have a different set of rules and responsibilities than I do.

If you say you�re going to cut someone at recess your punishment is going to be swift, sudden and severe. No one is going to care that you were joking. The forgiveness, love and debt of grace that permeates our school won�t be present where they end up next. There will be no second change and they�ll more than likely end up in an alternative �school� with the students who meant it when they were going to cut someone. A school full of unbalanced, misunderstood, and angry children � who�d want to go there?

I also had to tell them they were boys and many of them members of minorities. People would automatically believe anything anyone said about them if it were negative. It�s a tragic, but true, fact of life.

I hate the realities of life, they�re harsh and nasty. The world isn�t fair and I hate to send children who are brimming with idealism into it. I can�t protect them forever but I wish I was sending them into a world that would meet their expectations.