Hosted by
The Center for Education Reform
Hosted by
The Center for Education Reform
COLUMNIST SAYS 'YES' TO JUST SAYING 'NO'
by Dr. Michael E. Tomlin
Signature Newsletter , September 19, 1996
The federal government is trying to strengthen its support of families by getting involved in the war on teenage (and younger) use of drugs, tobacco, alcohol and the viewing of adult programming on television. The two biggest movements currently are the one against teen smoking and the proposed television program rating system along with the technology of the so-called "v-chip."
The Food and Drug Administration recently reported going through sacks of mail from school children, some of it scribbled in crayon, urging federal action to curb teen smoking. Some of the letters were obviously the result of class projects as it was reported that one New York school alone sent 500 letters.
And we have all seen President Clinton and Republican Presidential Candidate Bob Dole claim to be the antidrug and pro family values candidate. We undoubtedly will see more as the campaign progresses to election day. Both men claiming the moral high ground in a war to protect the safety of the Nation's children.
The President and Mr. Dole are right minded in desiring to protect our youth. The war against bad underage choices is a good war in that any progress made can be a victory for all. But it will be a failed war if we let legislative or political partisan momentum override what is right. And this is one issue where there is a right side.
As a former public school teacher it is hard for me to criticize the schools for having children write letters to their government supporting anti-drug positions, yet it is here that some of the criticism must lie. And while it would seem that the involvement of children in citizen action and the political process in schools teaches. them adult lessons there is a fly in this carefully orchestrated ointment and that is that Nancy Reagan was right. We can legislate and restrict and control and penalize all we want but if children just say "yes" it will all have been for naught.
I am not saying that we should allow tobacco advertising on school grounds, or unrestricted access to all television shows. But there are two distinct lessons that children need to be taught about moral issues and the schools have too often reinforced the wrong ones. Lesson number one is that it is not the responsibility of the government to protect people from their own moral choices. But this is a prevailing feeling today. Whatever is the problem we run to the government and ask for laws. If we fail to get the laws we want we run to the courts to have the old laws overthrown. We wrongly teach our children that smoking can be cured through laws rather than through strength of character and personal choices.
We wrongly teach our children that they are to be prevented from viewing inappropriate television shows only by parental programming of the television, rather than through parental supervision, strength of character and good personal choices. This lesson is a negative one for the strength of our democratic republic, and it leads us directly to the second lesson.
Children in today's schools and today's homes are too often taught that they are not in control of all of their choices. They are taught that Ritatin will cure a lack of self-discipline, condoms will solve promiscuity, and that if the evil tobacco advertisers would go away no one would smoke. They are too often taught that "just saying no" is not only nerdy but is not effective, when nothing could be farther from the truth.
Recently at the Democratic National Convention Vice-President Gore spoke sadly of the death of his sister due to smoking-induced cancer. He told us how she had smoked from her childhood. He told us of the need for more laws to protect children.
He is wrong. Parents should supervise their children and just say no to their bad choices. Children should be raised to take confidence in their own character and belief systems as reinforced by their parents, the schools and their churches. It's those belief systems that make them watertight - impervious to the drug culture or to immorality. It's their character that allows them to live and move about in an imperfect world without taking in water when the seas of peer pressure and bad choices kick up high waves. These are the lessons that should be taught. Not to run to the government to restrict their choices, but rather to look inwardly to their character and make the right one, sometimes by just saying "no."
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Dr. Michael E. Tomlin is an education columnist.