 Printer Friendly Version
Going to School Could is Hazardous to Your Health
Today, in the United States of America it is more hazardous to your health to attend school than it was to fight in the Gulf War or attack Yugoslavia.
By Roger Freeborn
Published: Fall 2000
In 1950 the top offenses in public schools were: running in the hallway, chewing gum, wearing improper clothing (which included leaving a shirttail out), making noise, and not putting paper in wastebaskets.
Today the top offenses in public schools are: robbery, assault, personal theft, burglary, drug abuse, arson, bombings, alcohol abuse, carrying weapons, absenteeism, vandalism, murder and extortion. Twelve of these are felonies. Things have changed dramatically. It is much more difficult to grow up in today's society than it was 50 years ago. You have to make decisions in Middle School that we did not have to make until we graduated from college, if even at all. Today, in the United States of America it is more hazardous to your health to attend school than it was to fight in the Gulf War or attack Yugoslavia. More students have died in the hallways of America's High Schools than soldiers in America's most recent conflicts.
Zig Ziglar writes in his book Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World:
“If I were to stand in front of an audience of virtually any kind in America and advocate drunken orgies, getting high on cocaine, pot or any other drug, they would look at me in stunned astonishment. If I gave a sales talk on incest, adultery, homosexuality, necrophilia, bestiality, and even suicide, while generously sprinkling four-letter words throughout the presentation, there isn't one group in a thousand that would sit still and listen.”
But the very group that would assail such topics are the very ones who do it every day when they allow their children to listen to “popular” music. They promote promiscuity amongst their children when they invite “Friends” into their TV room on Thursday nights. The same is true for movies, pornography, and the Internet.
How can we expect our youth to behave when we set such a poor example? Do we have to accept these things as they are? Certainly Not!
You do not have to accept life the way it comes to you. You can design it to come to you the way that you want it to.
Be An 11 Seminars empower students, athletes and teachers with the tools to design a life that's worth living, a life that you have only dreamed about up till now. In fact, you may have forgotten how to dream. It is time to dream again. BFS believes in you and your dream. We are committed and dedicated to helping you achieve your dreams. Dare to dream. Dream the BIG Dream. That's what dreams are for.
One of the important facts to come out of the Columbine High School tragedy is the fact that those responsible for the violence were alienated by the majority of the student body.
We must all accept one another, stand together, and help each other sing our songs. We must support each other in everything that all of us are engaged in during our years in school.
The mission of Be An 11 is to empower you to look beyond the horizon, to go where you have never gone before, to accomplish things previously thought to be impossible. Our vision of the future determines our future reality. Our Be An 11 purpose is to help you discover what is potentially possible if you stretch all your limits.
We at BFS believe that our future is shaped by our choices today. The fact of the matter is that:
Daily Decisions Determine Destiny.
We believe that each of us has a date with destiny; that each of us has been put on this earth with a song inside waiting to be discovered and sung.
Our personal date with destiny is decided by what we choose to do on a daily basis. It is not the BIG decisions necessarily, like where you will go to college--Stanford or State U. You go to college to get an education. The education you obtain is not so much based on where you go but the attitude you have toward your classroom and studies on a daily basis. You can get a good education or a lousy one at both Stanford and State U. The choice is up to you. Life is a game of choices. You choose your own greatness. You choose which song to play. Which song will you play?
For all sad words of tongue or pen The saddest are these: “It might have been!” --John Greenleaf Whittier
or
For all the happy words we speak or write The happiest are these:
“I won the fight!” --David Schwartz
TOP OFFENSES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN 1950
Running in the hallway, Chewing gum, Wearing improper clothing (which included leaving a shirttail out), Making noise, Not putting paper in trash
TOP OFFENSES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN 2000
Robbery, Assault, Personal theft and Burglary, Arson and Bombings, Alcohol and Drug abuse, Carrying weapons, Absenteeism, Vandalism, Murder and Extortion.
|
|
Roger Freeborn
|
|
Return to Magazine Archive Search Page