A new policy at a boys catholic school has some parents hopping mad, and some singing praises.
Let’s say your high school aged kid forgets his lunch. So you receive a telephone call.
“Mom, I left my homework on the kitchen counter,” he tells you. “Can you bring it to me, pretty please?” As a parent I would jump to it; however that may not be the best thing for him. A Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, Arkansas has banned this.
Catholic High School prides itself on teaching reading, writing, arithmetic and problem-solving.
“Come, boys, so that you can become men,” is their challenge — engraved in a monument attached to the school’s bricks.
There’s also a big sign plastered on the front door — a message to moms and dads.
“If you are dropping off your son’s forgotten lunch, books, homework, equipment, etc., please TURN AROUND and exit the building. Your son will learn to problem-solve in your absence.”
Brilliant!
Those Catholic school educators don’t mess around.
And parents from coast to coast are giving the Catholics a thumbs-up for teaching boys about self-reliance and personal responsibility.
- “This is beyond awesome! I find it hilarious that anyone’s bellyaching about a Catholic school encouraging parents to cut the umbilical cord and force their kids to develop self-reliance.”
- “Treating your high schooler son like a baby will make him soft and weak.”
- “It’s called learning through natural consequences. A child doesn’t learn responsibility when mommy or daddy comes running to the rescue.”
- “Those Catholics are one tough bunch.”
- “You can’t learn responsibility always depending on someone else.”
But not everyone was thrilled with the school’s methods.
- “This is disgusting.”
- “Surely this is just a suggestion and not a rule. No way, no how would any school person tell me what I could or could not bring to my child.”
- “If a school refused me being able to bring a forgotten lunch or a book he left because he was in a rush, I would find a more understanding school.”
I understand the mentality of this school, if we don’t start to teach our kids responsibility, then what good will they be in the world? Maybe we coddle our kids too much, and if they get a bad grade, or miss out on lunch, maybe they will learn for the next time.