07-02-2003, 05:30 PM
You present an interesting dilema. Do parents have the right to take legal, yet (to us) extreme measures to try to change the "thinking" in their children?
Here you get into a legal "gray area" where infringing on a parents' rights to discipline their child or children. Personally, when I was a child I recieved corporal punishment. Some people consider that abuse now, but I wasn't abused. Other parents just tell kids to go to their room and take a more 'hands-off" approach to discipline. This grays area is easy to see, and it would be very hard to draw up specifics of abuse, neglect, etc. I would like to know how the DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) determines whether a child has been abused. What does abuse constitute? Another thing in the article was that it costs more than $40k/yr to send a child to these institutions. Paying that much means that both parents probably work and thus leave their children t home to fend for themselves or with a nanny. Does that constitute neglect?
Lastly, compare this with what drafted soldiers would endure in boot camp and military service.
Bad comparison. The military is a teaching environment where the troops are taught more teamwork than anything else, not the selfish attituded that these children seem to have when they are done. Sure, what you see on tv does happen, but it's not personal. Troops are encouraged the whole time. This type of punishment is personal, attacking the child's psyche. Remember the book 1984? That is what this institution is doing, psychological manipulation for the benefit of themselves.
-pakman
Here you get into a legal "gray area" where infringing on a parents' rights to discipline their child or children. Personally, when I was a child I recieved corporal punishment. Some people consider that abuse now, but I wasn't abused. Other parents just tell kids to go to their room and take a more 'hands-off" approach to discipline. This grays area is easy to see, and it would be very hard to draw up specifics of abuse, neglect, etc. I would like to know how the DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) determines whether a child has been abused. What does abuse constitute? Another thing in the article was that it costs more than $40k/yr to send a child to these institutions. Paying that much means that both parents probably work and thus leave their children t home to fend for themselves or with a nanny. Does that constitute neglect?
Lastly, compare this with what drafted soldiers would endure in boot camp and military service.
Bad comparison. The military is a teaching environment where the troops are taught more teamwork than anything else, not the selfish attituded that these children seem to have when they are done. Sure, what you see on tv does happen, but it's not personal. Troops are encouraged the whole time. This type of punishment is personal, attacking the child's psyche. Remember the book 1984? That is what this institution is doing, psychological manipulation for the benefit of themselves.
-pakman
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation - Henry David Thoreau
Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and at the rate I'm going, I'm going to be invincible.
Chicago wargaming club
Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and at the rate I'm going, I'm going to be invincible.
Chicago wargaming club