Eating Our Own Young

a For Crowing Out Loud commentary

I've not taken much time to explain what I do. I am a middle school teacher. Yes, I help mold the young minds of tomorrow's leaders. I teach in a school with an over-representation of poverty, special education students, and discipline issues. No one problem bears the blame for my school's plight. With that said, chief among our issues is poor parenting. Parenting causes me to crow (I guess maybe buzzards squawk; I dunno) so loudly today.

I watch the kids with whom I work struggle daily with growing up. They admire and emulate rappers and sports stars who communicate a self-satisfaction message. Every day, my kids gain friends who assert some influence over them. Many of them deal daily with violent circumstances crouching around the next corner. For those who struggle the greatest, nothing undermines their maturation than their homelife.

People entrusted with children's lives often vacate or abuse their responsibility. More and more, we witness parents who commit sins against their children. Sins like physical and sexual abuse dominate headlines. These crimes make me particularly furious. Also, many parents stand guilty of what we consider lesser offenses like ignoring or passing their children off to someone else. Either way, the next generation already bears the mark of their parents raising.

I do not want to just point an angry talon at others. I want to help. Sometimes I just don't get involved. At other instances, my efforts are shunned by the parents in question. Too, I am cautious to recognize my own need to be a better parent.

I guess the question that keeps "circling in my head" ( punny in a buzzard kind of way) is this: "How can we stand idly by while children are immersed in corruption and ask 'Why are these kids so bad?!'" After these kids fulfill their destiny, we condemn them. Rightly, they are punished, but not all of the guilty suffer. Many of their parents and the surrounding adults suffer no consequences other than bewilderment. Other adults even delight that, " they got what they deserved. Thanks be to God we don't all get what we deserve.

Buzzards begin to circle when something is dead. I am not sure that some humans wait that long.