Well, at least we know Covid paranoia has passed. Where grown-ups once were aghast at the “coronavirus challenge” — a dare that had youngsters licking everyday items and which was called “disgusting” — now, licking away with the kids are the adults.
Or, are they “adultescents”?
This question can be asked with the revelation that teachers at a middle school in Washington state engaged in a “licking game” with students, an activity that sparked outrage and also has been called “disgusting.” In fact, some have even claimed it was sexual in nature and accuse the educators of being “groomers.”
Per Fox News:
In a video recorded by appalled students at Desert Hills Middle School in Kennewick, minor students and adult teachers are shown licking marshmallow cream off of either side of two clear plexiglass panes at the same time during a competition at a school a pep rally on March 31.
Students in the crowd could be heard screaming, “Ew,” “Disgusting,” “That’s so gross,” and “What the heck?” in the video, which was later posted to Facebook by a concerned mother. Another student yelled, “Who thought that this was a good idea?”
…In the video, the principal is seen laughing while taking out his phone to film the scene, according to [parent Megan] Sa. She also said she was “baffled” by another part of the video that showed a grown adult holding a child’s head to the plexiglass while licking the other side of the structure, although she said she was “most” alarmed by the final scene where the security guard “looked like he was licking the marshmallow off of the plexiglass in a sensual way.”
Some have actually defended the “game” and, after conducting an investigation, the Kennewick School District claimed the activity was “innocent and not ill-intended,” relates the Atlanta Black Star. In fact, while this outlet writes that teachers suggested the game as a fundraising effort, Newsweek cites parents who aver that students chose the activity.
As for the district, a spokesman stated that its officials did not approve of or endorse the event and that it would never be repeated. The principal, Casey Gant, who was seen laughing and videoing during the game, ultimately apologized and made the requisite damage-control-oriented statements, vowing that “future activities [would] meet the highest professional standard.”
Yet amid the posturing and the two extremes of claiming the event was good or grooming, a deeper issue is missed. Before getting into that, however, note that video of the game is below.
To the school district’s credit, it actually did touch on the deeper issue. The “fact that the activity was planned, occurred and not stopped,” its spokesman told Newsweek, “shows a lack of sound discernment and good judgment.” And what are the consequences of corrupted adult judgment?
Well, for one thing, people today often complain about youths’ lack of respect. But there are two sides to this. To wit:
To command respect, you must be respectable.
The Desert Hills game might have been meant innocently. Yet it surely reflects great naiveté — about proper roles and necessary boundaries.
There was a time when class systems reigned (e.g., India’s caste model), which could be stultifying and prevent warranted upward mobility. Yet today we’ve gone to the opposite extreme, forgetting that there are necessary hierarchies among men just as exist in nature. Failing to maintain them literally imperils civilization, too.
A relevant story: While students at my high school back in the 1980s were generally well behaved, some of us would nonetheless take liberties at times. Yet I never saw this happen with one particular teacher: Mr. Harrison.
Oh, he wasn’t cruel or harsh. But I’ll never forget the first day in his history class: He mentioned that laxity had beset education and that required was a good “dose of academia.” Far more significantly, Mr. Harrison carried himself with profound dignity and professionalism; you knew he took his job seriously and expected you to mirror this as a student. It was clear he wasn’t my “friend,” but I didn’t dislike him, either. Most significantly, I respected him.
This matters because kids won’t learn from you if they won’t listen to you, and they likely won’t listen to you if they don’t respect you. Thus are respectability among authority figures and respect among children (along with discipline and obedience) prerequisites for learning.
Yet what is witnessed today? Where kids once strove to act and look “grown up” — late-19th-century children’s clothes were often small versions of adult apparel, for example — the Peter Pan Syndrome is now common. Hence the appearance of “adultescents,” grown-ups who aim to dress, talk, and act like kids. They often want to be “buddies” with the youths, too.
But try too hard to be cool and you appear a fool. Act like a 13-year-old around 13-year-olds and, well, they’ll treat you like a 13-year-old.
They’ll regard you a bit more like one, too, and this gets at the problem: Failing to maintain the necessary, respect-engendering boundaries between authority figures and children makes it difficult to properly mold the next generation. Fail in this, and civilization fails.
Some people want too badly to be liked by kids, or even crave affection or adoration from them, selfish motivations both. A parent is not his child’s friend, but a parent. A teacher is not his student’s friend, but a teacher. We forget these truths at our kids’ and nation’s peril.
