This article has been going the rounds lately. Before you read the rest of my post, check it out.

Frankly, the author has a point, a pretty damn good one.

In many modern societies, violence is not only frowned upon, it’s is considered inherently wrong. And as a result anybody involved with anything that comes close to violence is regarded with suspicion and incomprehension at best. More often than not, they’re seen as a brute or a barbarian. Given that martial arts are a big part of my life, I’ve run into this mindset now and then, to put it mildly…

The funny part is how this post captures the essence of several conversations I’ve had this last week. Here goes.

The one with a former teacher.

We talked about how before, you wrote the student a note when he misbehaved in class and that was the end of it. Now she has to write four different notes: for the parents, for the principal, for the administration and for a monitoring committee. Then the parent writes a note back or calls her up to complain and the whole process starts over. Writing two notes during a given hour in school means she has more work than it’s worth. So teachers don’t do it unless absolutely necessary and little Johnny learns squat because he gets away with everything in class.

Later on, the parents complain because their kid gets bad grades or fails every class. And then they blame the teacher…

They fail to see the problem, which is: it’s not the teacher’s job to raise your kid, it’s yours. If he acts like a total prat and you refuse to have him punished, regardless of whatever crap he pulls, then you have no right complaining when he doesn’t pass. None.

My mother was a school teacher so I know a wee bit of what I speak: it didn’t use to be like this. Kids were supposed to go to school and if they got bad grades, they got punished by their parents. People didn’t shift responsibility for the upbringing of their children to the school system and its teachers instead of doing it themselves. The took care of their own, they handled the responsibility. Today, this is less and less the case.

The insane gunman.

Last week, an insane gunman went to a Christmas Market here in Belgium and killed five people. He threw grenades into the crowd and opened up with automatic gunfire before killing himself. Read More→