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Following every mass killing, I ask myself, what has happened to our society? I also wonder what the solution is to ensure our families do not become future victims.

Many have pointed out that years ago, people would go to school and have hunting rifles in their vehicles. Yet, mass violence in schools and other locations did not happen as in society today. It makes me think that there must be a root cause that we are not addressing that has led to this change.

So what has changed and more importantly how do we fix it? Media reports of school walk-outs and gun control discussions are becoming more prevalent than ever, all in an effort to find a quick and easy solution. I think it is safe to say that there is no quick and easy solution.

I think perhaps we are not evaluating the true root cause which is obviously very complex. We must make efforts to change our society as a whole.

It’s my belief that the root cause starts with our youth lacking basic skills including respect for authority figures like parents and teachers, the ability to cope with conflict and the ability to handle rejection. Further issues like mental health and alcohol/drug use also play a role, but column length restrictions limit my ability to cover all aspects of the root cause today.

I believe it is imperative that we raise our children in a manner that instills respect for authority. While we all love our children, we need to get back to a society of parents who expect a level of respect toward both them and others in authority, including teachers. Discipline needs to be reintegrated into our society.

Parents, don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t reasonably discipline your child in a non-abusive manner. Teachers need to have the support of parents when they make disciplinary decisions and parents need to resist the urge of running to the defense of their children when a teacher feels the need to discipline. It undermines their authority and will likely be treated as an example for actions toward others in authority in the future.

What about inability to cope or handle rejection? For years we have watched as competition has been replaced by participation awards that are given to make children feel good. While no one wants their child to ever be disappointed or upset, when they are young, they need to face conflict and disappointment and learn to resolve it appropriately under the guidance of adults.

It is part of developing their personality and dealing with conflict in the future. When youth are not taught how to handle difficult situations, they must find their own way to cope, which without guidance may be result in unhealthy or even dangerous future behavior.

I am no expert and am merely giving an opinion of what I have seen in my own experience, but I feel that my opinions have merit as I have witnessed people dealing with difficult situations at the worst times of their lives.

My point in writing this is not to place blame but rather to start conversations on what truly is the root cause of violence in society. Many have strong opinions about gun control but realistically gun control will do nothing more than place a very small band aid on a much bigger problem.

It is imperative that we have serious discussions on what we can do to change the norms of our society and positively impact the decisions our youth make. It’s time to refocus our energy to affect long lasting change so that we can keep Dodge County a safe and enjoyable place to live, work and visit.

Sheriff Dale J. Schmidt

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67 COMMENTS

  1. This Smokey seems to be smarter than the average bear. Or at the very least, smarter than the average Marjory Stoneman Douglas gun control activist/student.

    • “…smarter than the average Marjory Stoneman Douglas gun control activist/student.”

      That is a very low bar you have set…

  2. When I was growing up, there was no such thing as “play dates” – planned, organized play sessions with other children supervised by adults. We didn’t constantly need to be taught what was “appropriate”. We learned by interacting with each other as children, not as adults wanted us to. We learned social skills the same way humans have for millennia. By trial and error.

    Sometimes, those were hard lessons. Sometimes we had to kick some ass. Sometimes, we got our ass kicked and sometimes we didn’t even deserve it. We won and we lost at games, sports and everything else. In life, sometimes you lose and you don’t deserve it.

    Notice how today, there is a universal reaction to injustice or even a perceived injustice – Look around and find an authority (usually the government) to remediate it.

    • Generation X started helicopter parenting, probably a good place to start. Although their parents, the Boomers, were the ones breaking down “family” values. So I guess we have to keep walking back to find the root cause. Or maybe it’s not as simple as blaming divorce rates for mass shootings.

      • Perhaps you should begin by not seeking to place blame on some fuzzy and poorly defined “generation”.

        As I learned while growing up, the only thing to do when faced with a pile of manure is to grab a pitchfork and start cleaning up.

        Blaming the stupid cattle didn’t ever cut it.

      • Most of these school shooters come from households without a father. I’m not saying that’s the only cause, but it does stand out as a pattern.

        • It wasn’t gen x-ers. It was the boomers.
          I know,I are one.Nothing I can ever say can expiate the guilt I,as a ‘Baby Boomer’ feel,nay ownfor fucking up the world in which my children (yes,I have them),and theirs will have to live.

      • I’m on the tail end of GenX. I don’t helicopter parent. My kids run relatively free unless they do something stupid. They are given limits on how long they can stay out and where they can go. They don’t always listen or pay attention to what we tell them, but that’s how kids are. Play dates are stupid. My kids decide their friends. Its my job to put a stop to them hanging around kids who are a bad influence. I always encourage them to think things through before acting and to think for themselves and not let people tell them what to think.

        • Just make sure they don’t run totally free.
          I was very much a ‘free range’ child. It did not work out well. I am currently fighting a rear guard action and trying my best to make my “horrible example” available to all and sundry.
          As I said upthread ,I’m a boomer and deeply regret it.

    • It’s definitely multi faceted. There’s no changing it at this point. Much of raising children as all winners in every competition is more related to parents feeling emotionally better themselves. Distracted parents, two parents working, children influenced by internet socially plus internet harassment at home. More stress in a childs life to succeed academically in children that would benefit from vocational training more and parents stress transferring to the child. More violent entertainment, that for the few struggling with life at a early age is a major influence and outcry when played out. Illegal drugs weren’t so prevalent in say the 1950’s, 1960’s to children. Lack of respect for authority, rules of society and disfunctional parents teaching wrong behavior, mindset psychology. There’s even more, so the quickest, easiest solution most Americans think is to remove guns from society which will not prevent violent behavior.

  3. Unfortunatly, the number of followers a younger person has on the various social media platforms is the new metric of self worth but nobody wants to be themselves on social media. Young people just want to be the next Instagram star and none of them seem to be happy seeing who they are when they look in the mirror. Their profiles are simply a projection of how they want to see themselves. The shallowness of it all is having some uniquely negative outcomes on society that I don’t think will be fully understood for decades.

  4. And if only this were the national conversation we were having, but no. Alas the left has again used it’s collaborating media to coopt the conversation to banning guns.

    • The same ‘Left’ who has attempted to F with what’s constituted civil society and Societal Agreement then rails against all of the rest of it that’s actually working when things go to shit.

  5. WOW, so how to we get this out there, instead of common sense gun control, what about common sense child raising? Taking care of one’s self starts at home, not with the government.

  6. I remember getting a leather belt across my ass if I screwed up, or grounded meaning you don’t do shit for the specified timeframe, no “good behavior” treatment, also grew up with no real father figure, instead I grew up under granddads wing, learned how to fish, hunt, camp, hike, we had acre upon acre of public land to play on, drive gokarts, my cousin and I were presented with our .22 rifle to share. we spent hours after school and homework tearing up the mountains as boys, doing what boys do best. we were not sheltered or brainwashed, were not told that the government was here to help, infact we were taught from a young age that you can only depend on yourself and family, and shown how to do it.
    for show and tell we actually took the rifle in, explained what good it did for us, and how much we enjoyed the time we gained with each other because of our rifle.
    I remember riding the bus, and passing the high school parking lot full of old Ford and Chevy pickups, and how many rifles were present in those trucks, many of which were beat up old shotguns and bolt rifles.
    I look back at my youth, I am the first to admit, the belt never permanently harmed me, grounding me was never for no good reason, getting “backhanded” in the mouth for swearing was a lesson leared, and even in my mid thirties, I still have my granddad, and still have my mother, both figures in my life that taught me to be a good man, and never overly gentle along the way, I love and respect both of them to the end of the world.
    with the discipline I recieved, and the normality of firearms in my life, I never heard of a school shooting until columbine high school, never had a teacher overstep boundrys in their discipline, and didn’t know anyone who thought a firearm was anything more than an essential tool. guess what, my cousin and I are both still alive and well, we still have our guns, and we are still very close. no firearms related injuries, we’ve never considered pointing a firearm at another human being, unless we had to protect ourselves, and firearms are still essential TOOLS to both of us.
    maybe we should get our firearms to be normality again, mail-order rifles, no gun free zones, stop making psychos instantly famous, invite our good citizens to truly protect ourselves without having to worry about a murder trial if we do what should be done, stop hiring coward police forces, if you can’t trust someone with a firearm keep them locked up, stop making it a crime to tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, I guess YES, let’s be more like it was in the 50’s all the way into the early 80’s, let be free again, and start making the real criminals the “victim” instead of the instant celebrity that the media has allowed them to become.

    glad that was short…

    • Sounds like my childhood except my dad was like your grandpa. Opening up a can of whip ass wasn’t unknown to my brothers and myself.
      After he retired from Airforce. A member of the Greatest Generation, rarely talked about the war unless my uncle visited and then the kids were sent to watch TV.
      He made sure we went to Catholic School all 12 years. In those days we were taught by nuns. You screwed up it was a smack on your hands. Boys on knuckles, girls on the palm. By HS we figured out how to get away with things. Most of the kids we grew up with were rancher kids including us after he retired. He changed his method of discipline with me.
      He brought me a 9 year old quarter horse mare. The punishment now was now couldn’t ride my horse but still had take care of her. Totally effective and since when I was 12 years old so didn’t become boy crazy
      until a senior in High School.
      Oh and BTW, not only did the nuns in grade school spank us, they also ratted us out by calling our parents so 2 spankings in one day when they got home.
      And that is how I didn’t become a candy ass woman.

    • Big wooden paddle for me, and you know what? I never made that error in judgement again. My parents instilled in me at a young age to respect authority, and to give respect to those who earn it.
      I dont use facebook at all, i do have instagram. Where incidentally i found out that midwest industries is under a ban by facebook for violationg their bullshit rules.
      Anyway, you are correct that social media is a huge factor in kids lives. Sometimes its good, most times it not. Parents need to be involved in their kids lives. Invade their privacy. Go through their phones, tablets and computers. See who they are talking to, and find out what they have been searching on the internet. You as their parents are not their friend. You have the duty to be the exact opposite if you need to be. Be the bad guy. You never know, you might prevent them from doing something incredibly stupid to themselves or someone else.

  7. Dodge County is a fairly rural jurisdiction in the SE part of Wisconsin. Having grown up in Wisconsin and visiting there once in a while, I find that the older values hold up much better in such a place than in a dem/prog stronghold like Madison. I think Sheriff Schmidt is just expressing the values of his friends and neighbors that he comes in contact with every day. When I was growing up in Wisconsin (’50s and ’60’s), we never knew what a helicopter parent was – during fair weather we were told to go out and play and be back by supper – we generally had the run of our small town, and if we misbehaved, somebody would let our parents know about it. All of us kids knew what physical discipline was – not gratuitous abuse, but discipline – and we got our faces slapped if we said the wrong words or showed disrespect to our parents, got our fannies whupped and so forth. My grandmother used to think that willow switches were the proper instrument for that. And that’s not counting the schoolyard fights we got into – even though guns (usually belonging to parents) were available, we settled our problems with fists. We didn’t have violent computer games, or watch hundreds of people get killed on TV each week, either. I didn’t have a warm and fuzzy relationship with my parents. I often resented their actions and tried to stay out of their way, but I did respect their ability to lay some pain on me when I stepped out of line, and I think that, in the end, made me a better person.

  8. As a 30 year veteran LEO I can tell you since around the mid 90s Police in most jurisdictions are called to homes, mostly of single parents to “Wake their children up for school because they won’t get out of bed” Ignoring the other questions like…”Why is a Police Dept. responding to this in the first place” you must ask yourself are we really surprised at the way kids are turning out these days ? If so, Why ? I suggest you ask around and you will see, this generation is lost. Sorry

    • My ex wife used to have to do that, when my kids tried that with me I would grab them and pull them out of bed, my youngest called the cops on me because he didn’t like the treatment, the f’n deputy had the gall to tell me if he is not doing that he is suppose to do then I need to call them, I told him to get off my property and that I am the parent and i wasn’t breaking the law by doing what I was doing. My youngest soon learned he wasn’t going to get away with that crap with me.

  9. We’ve turned a corner here in the US. Women can be men, men can be women. We have people telling us that men and women are exactly the same. We all know none of this true, but until the left side of society wakes up from whatever pipe dream they’re trying to achieve I don’t think society will begin to coalesce under sanity. When you teach children that reality can be altered just by saying something that isn’t true, that might be part of the problem. Parents need to parent, teachers need to teach. They can supplement each other, but responsibilities lay where they belong.

  10. The number one problem with this country: WE TOOK GOD OUT OF EVERYTHING!
    The one true and living God = one fixed set of morals to abide by(10 commandments)
    No god = Moral relativity (Anything goes, YOLO).

    GONE are the days of Billy Graham Revivals, leaving your front door unlocked, leaving your keys in the car with the windows down ( Small town Texas 50’s-80’s) . honesty and integrity.

    Fix the Anti-God/Christian sentiment all that and everything will fall back into line. What we need is a spiritual Revival.

    • Your one true God isn’t everyone else’s one true God. I am amazed other religions and cultures haven’t fallen into complete chaos by your logic.

      • Oh, I’m afraid he is; Too bad they won’t find out until after they die.

        “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

        “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”…

      • Way to intentionally miss his point. If you don’t have a foundational belief for what’s right or wrong you end up in a quagmire of relativistic goo where anything goes. Other religions have a foundational belief for what’s right and wrong even though they’re not the same religion.

        If you tell people they exist as a happy cosmic coincidence and that their life has no meaning, you reap the consequences…

        • Other religions have a foundational belief for what’s right and wrong even though they’re not the same religion.

          Like Islam?

        • “Way to intentionally miss his point.”

          Again, wrong. The author of the article danced around the Problem; I named it then put an exclamation point by it.

          The author describes the side effects of some vague solution.

          Bring God back to the forefront, build the foundation of society on the tenent’s of Jesus Christ. Everything else will fall into line.

        • @The Phad Thai nom nom monster: I made no comment about the quality of their right and wrong beliefs or if they were ultimately correct. I simply pointed out that RandallOfLegend’s and Dave’s counterpoint was totally baseless. Hindus and Buddhists have a foundational basis for right and wrong in their religion.

      • “I am amazed other religions and cultures haven’t fallen into complete chaos by your logic.”
        THEY HAVE!
        Islam/middle east Yeah, that’s a bastion of civility
        Buddhist/Asia = Communism/Socialism no Individual rights or very few
        Hinduism/India = backwards 3rd world country eating with rats bathing in cow urine and purifying themselves in the mos polluted river in the country. that’s progress

        America was great because we Were a Christian nation, Americans were very charitable
        Were the most prosperous nation in the world, everyone wants to come here for a piece of the american dream, Freedom, and liberty.
        America is not perfect (slavery ect.) A lot of men died so Everyone was treated equal; more equal than others now.
        Look at the christian missionaries in Africa (and all over the world, even risking death) digging wells, building schools to Educate little girls who are treated less than garbage by the native heathens, building churches
        bringing hope and salvation to a hopeless people.

      • Are you a fan of Western Civilization aka Christendom? Because your access to indoor plumbing is because of God.

        So you may deny God or worship another, but if you live in the West you can not deny that God and Christian morality is what made it all possible.

        Deus Vult!

        • Part of the moral decay of America can be attributed to Apathetic, lukewarm Christians.
          American Christians don’t know what it’s truly like to be persecuted or to suffer for their beliefs . Christianity flourishes in Adversity. Even Rome couldn’t stop the spread of Christianity, threats of crucifixion, Torture, and being fed to lions 2,000 years later We’re still here.
          All the disciples willingly gave up their lives to brutal torture, prison and death, for to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

        • That’s hilarious. Technological and scientific development happens despite religion, not because of it. Just ask Giordano Bruno.

      • I’m Talking about the American Youth’s attitudes and why America Is an Immoral festering pit.
        Not a teeny tiny minority of pacifist in America.

    • I may be a gay atheist libertarian, but even I think society’s standards for child rearing have gone to shit. I disagree with pretty much all of your specific points, but I still think we’re on the same page.

      The telling point is that we can disagree on the details without one of us going “OTHER! OTHER! BURN THE WRONG-THINKER!”, which is a bit more than the hashtag-warriors on the prog left can manage.

  11. Saw an interview with a college basketball player the other day and he was asked if he saw what was being said about him on social media and he said he didn’t use social media. Nitwit reporter asked how he spent his free time and he replied that he binge watches planet earth one and two and studies science. His parents should write a book.

  12. Sheriff Schmidt left out the most obvious cause of school shootings, namely, schools. Schools — with the aid and assistance of parents — create school shooters. And when pedagogical and administrative policies create school shooters, teachers and administrators double-down on the policies while stupid parents cheer from the sidelines.

    It’s insane, I know; but that’s the world that public schools created.

  13. … effort to find a quick and easy solution.”

    The masses want a quick and easy solution for everything, including irresponsible behavior. That is a major symptom of the root problem: hoards of people in our society have abandoned timeless positive values of family, constructive work, responsibility, and respect for human life (which includes respect for other people’s time and property).

    Until we get that back, we are in for an extremely bumpy ride.

  14. Respect is earned, not given. When you treat children–even 18-year-olds–like they’re six (and, recently, justifying that by pop-psychology “findings” that the adolescent mind doesn’t gel until the mid-20s),, continually defer any real responsibility or trust, act like they’re chattel–you will reap what you sow: immature, angry, disaffected kids. What’s changed in the last 30 years? Let’s see:

    – School Resource Officers. Hired guns in schools, disrupting the balance of power between teachers and students. This is particularly offensive when it comes to teenagers, who are finding their voices.

    – No Tolerance policies. Wear an NRA T-shirt, get suspended.

    – The War Against Drugs.

    – While we’re doping them up to unbelievable levels. ADD diagnosed to “treat” normal exuberance, treated with amphetamines. SSRIs for “depression.” Everyone’s a victim, everyone a diagnosis, duly noted in their permanent record (educators will note that they NEVER do the diagnosing, but they are willing participants in the process).

    – Oh yeah, “educator.” Education is something DONE TO the student, not a process the student is led through. To hell with any “educator.” I prefer teachers.

    – Butts in Seats. Stupid policies on truancy, with draconian consequences, often including “suspension in place”, to regional reform schools. Why? BECAUSE THE SCHOOL DOESN’T GET PAID IF THE STUDENTS AREN’T THERE.

    – Metal detectors. Because we have to feed the Security Establishment.

    – The War for Minds: the desire by fringe groups to program the next generation, by foisting ever-more-stupid textbooks, incorporating crackpot theories. Both left and right.

    – Intensely competitive academics. The notion, in the back of everyone’s mind, that success in life is based on education, but education is not up to the task. If you start to fall by the wayside, you’re fucked. All part of the credential culture, with an increasing gap between those headed to college and those headed to a life of meth and working in fast food.

    – No Child Left Behind. So no child is left behind. And the curve gets dragged ever lower.

    *Ideal Curriculum* no longer being taught: now it’s about passing the test, with grave consequences for the school and its funding if the students don’t do well. And a disgusting, massive bureaucracy behind all that.

    – Teaching to the lowest common denominator. Allowing severely handicapped (mentally and physically) children in the classroom, dragging down the curve for everyone. All in the name of diversity! By law!

    – SPORTS! All hail the great football cult. Millions spent on regional sports stadiums, for jocks by pathetic aged-out jocks. At the expense of academics. Go regional sports team!

    – School systems all but designed to destroy community. You start in small elementary schools, which feed to larger middle schools, which feed to mega-high schools, populations in the THOUSANDS. And we naval-gaze about why students feel disconnected from their community or each other. REALLY?!

    – The horrifying waste of capital on computers and other gimmicks, where what’s needed is the three R’s.

    – Ill-suited teachers, ranging from cretins who can’t succeed academically so they resort to education; to young adults who never quite outgrew high school; to insecure dweebs who can’t interact with adults, so they choose to lord it over kids.

    And these are just the problems in GOOD schools. Let’s not talk about the problems with disadvantaged areas: no funding, infrastructure, even worse teachers, etc.

    But hey, the problem is “Respect my AUTHORITAY!” Cue Cartman. Derpity derp derp derp.

    This guy is exactly the root of the problem. If you want RESPECT, you EARN it, jerk. And that starts with taking care of your kids, and not applying band aid upon band aid to serious problems and selling it all to these very aware children as if you’re doing them a favor.

    School these days, compared to the 70s, has all the appeal of a minimum-security prison. And to come back with a straight face and say it’s because they don’t respect adult authority. Unbelievable.

  15. No. It’s a self-serving statement: respect mah authoriteh!

    A bigger version of his screed is that the more government does for us / to us, the less we do for ourselves. One of my favorite simple examples is all those highway signs warning of curve ahead; if you can’t see the damned curve, then you are driving too damned fast or not paying attention! While I understand the good intentions of reducing accidents, it has the side effect that people no longer watch the road as well; the government will tell them when to pay attention, so they can slack off. (This is not an argument against automated cars.) People get hit when lights turn green because they didn’t look for danger, they just assumed green means safe means go.

    The same thing applies to a zillion laws and rules and regulations. If the medicine is approved by the FDA, it’s great; if not, it’s not. If the government says too much salt, don’t eat salt. Government has taken over so many stupid little areas of life that people simply do not think of looking out for themselves. I’m not arguing that the FDA should go away. I’m arguing against “don’t drink or smoke until you’re 21” at which point it’s suddenly ok. .079 BAC? Ok! .080! Off to the slammer.

    Laws against racism, sexism, homophobia, are all part of the same problem. I personally would rather the racists advertised themselves so I could know who to avoid. But the wrongness of those laws is that they provide black and white (ha ha) lines for gray areas. Seattle just required landlords to accept the first viable tenant; no longer are they allowed to pick who they think will cause the least damage or upset the neighbors. The intent is noble, I suppose: prevent discrimination. Yet the effect is more of the same — landlords who no longer are allowed to think for themselves or take any responsibility for picking god tenants, and tenants who don’t have to build up a good reputation and can trash a place without consequence to their reputation.

    If I ran a school, reading Peck’s Bad Boy would be a requirement to graduate 8th grade.

    • Don’t forget fascist! Or, wait, are we still fascists? I honestly can’t keep track of what kind of “ist” is currently in vogue to call us, nor do I care to

  16. What about the endless glorification of the shooters in the media? I would imagine that giving them a platform to shout their message of rage to the world has certainly incentivized a number of them.

  17. Mommie, that mean boy said I have a pimple , tell the teacher to make him stop making fun of me, I HATE THAT SCHOOL!!!

  18. There are so many laws, that you can not drive around and not break laws. This just makes us all scoflaws. No one takes most laws seriously, because they were written to be used to make an example or to send a message. Why should a minor respect authority, when no one else does, not to mention authority treating everyone else like feces.

    • Take you a glass of water, make it against the law, see how good the water taste when you can’t have none at all. Seems most laws now are revenue generators

  19. I’m not a big fan of the “respect for authority” mantra. The only people with intrinsic rights to the control of children are their parents.

    All other authority comes from parents.

    I set the rules. Period.

    My kids have been taught to respect teachers, doctors, police, up to a certain point. That point is when the instructions given by those people deviates from my instructions to my kids.

    My kids know that if another kid is assaulting them, their first redress is to leave and tell an adult. If that is not possible they are to attack in a way that will not cause permanent damage, a knee strike to the thigh, a punch in the throat, a kick in the balls.

    They also know that if an adult ever tries to physically move, touch, or take them without their permission they are cleared BY ME. To bite their fingers off or gouge their eyes with their thumbs.

    Perhaps most importantly they know that I ever find out that THEY are aggressing another child, there will be punishment.

    My kids are taught the difference between violence and aggression. Aggression is never justified. Violence is sometimes an unpleasant necessity.

    Finally, my kids know that in the event of a school shooter, they are not to shelter in place. They are to throw a chair through a window and go out it if possible. If they are on the 3rd floor or higher, they are to go out of the room and into the hall. Listen for gunshots and run in the other direction. And if a teacher, tries to stop them the kicking, biting, and gouging are allowable.

    Sorry. But authority over children comes from children. MY kids have learned respect for authority. Mine. Everyone else must earn it.

    • One other thing. I sound a bit like a tyrant here. I’m not. I’m a fully engaged parent who works to earn his kids respect and love. They know that as long as they behave themselves, I am the best friend they will ever have. They also know that the limits I set for them are rigid.

      My kids are my life. I am blessed to have the means to spend a lot of time with them. We ski, bike, hike, rock climb and shoot together. I let them do things that other parents won’t let kids do precisely because things like rock climbing and shooting build self esteem. “Dad trusts me to belay my sister and not drop her”. “Dad trusts me with this gun”.

      This, not participation medals, is what really builds confidence and self esteem.
      Also, at an early age, I put my kids (both girls) in gymnastics. They are now 7 and 9 and are stronger than every boy in their class. (how many of you can do 16 hands forward chin ups??) THEY have chosen to move on to compete at a fairly high level. They know they don’t have to.

      I frankly don’t care if they do. The benefits are already there. Both of my girls are strong, fast and in better shape than most kids. They can place their bodies in space with a sense of balance that blows my mind.

      One of them also had Dad’s passion for speed. I’m hoping she takes up ski racing. It will give me an excuse to breath the free air of New Hampshire, more often.

  20. Such moronic drivel. Does this Sheriff think that corporal punishment has receded because of some sort of unsubstantiated pansification of the culture? It was discouraged because multiple peer-reviewed academic studies have found that childhood corporal punishment makes people MORE violent, not less violent. There is not a left wing conspiracy against you smacking your kids. It has simply been proven that smacking your kids is associated with antisocial behavior in adulthood.

    Robert F., you need to bring everything before a minyan before you publish. You are embarassing us. You are close to losing your J-card.

    • Moronic drivel?

      A minyan???

      SMH… Funny, I don’t think it’s Robert who is embarrassing “us”…

  21. I accept that educators have gone too far left. I recognize that “off label” prescription of psycho-active drugs to “treat” adolescent boys for behavioral issues have created almost ALL of these insane monsters who have murdered kids in schools. I understand that the “welfare system” has created an entire culture of drug gang murderers who actually commit over half of ALL murders in this country. I know that semi-automatic rifles are actually used by murderers to commit their crimes fewer than 400 times a year in this country – vs 500 or 600 times a year that murderers use blunt objects, or nearly 1,000 times a year knives are used by murderers. I even accept that there really are too many easy victim zones (gun-free) in schools that have been used by the off-label drug created monsters to kill. But one real world fact doesn’t seen to register:

    Every study of school safety done in the past decade shows that our schools are actually SAFER than ever! That’s right, kids in schools are safer than they have ever been! (example: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=49) While clearly we can do more to protect our young people from the monsters our medical profession have created, the fact is kids are much safer in schools than they have ever before been. Our youth are much more likely to die in a car accident, or from choking when overeating, or from a random accident on the way to or from school; than they are at risk of gun violence on the school grounds!

    I know, little “details” like truth or facts will not get in the way of the liberal media or the democrat leaders in D.C., when a tragic event gives them such a golden opportunity.

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