Young' uns and some questions...

I find it interesting that in the last few days a couple of youngsters have shown up on the media-scape that passes for news these days.

One, the absentee UFO pilot from Colorado, is undoubtedly known to all the readers by this point. The other, a student from a local school who refused to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance, is probably less well known at this point.

I wonder if either of these boys would be known outside their immediate family's circle of friends if it wasn't for the technological advances in information distribution we have today. But this isn't really about that...

First, ET2. While this whole thing might be a publicity stunt dreamed up by the adults in the family (adult in this case being those that have reached the legal age of majority and not necessarily referring to any advanced state of mental processing), I see a more common scenario as the more likely possibility. A six year old boy hosed up while looking at an attractive nuisance, knew he has hosed up, was fearful of the consequences and did what six year old boys do in these circumstances... hid, hardly daring to breathe, hoping that he could hide long enough for the adults to achieve amnesia about the whole thing.

The biggest question is that why didn't the adults on scene at the house do a thorough search of the premises? Not the parents, they could be too emotional to do a good job. The arriving police though should have assigned each room or area to an individual officer, who would then search it methodically. Find the boy. Helicopter hovers over big balloon using prop wash to force to ground... end of story. If this did happen, what are the consequences to the officer assigned to the area where the boy was eventually found?

This of course is just conjecture because for all the airtime and words going out by the media this morning...no real answers are forthcoming.

The other lad, is currently the center of a small local debate. Seems that a student at the West Fork Middle School (West Fork being the small town closest to our hill), refused to stand for the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance. Apparently this happened for four or so days, the substitute teacher reportedly 'harassed' him to the point that he eventually made an insubordinate retort back thus earning himself a trip pricipalward.

Some comments I've seen in the local media seem to indicate that there are folks that want to make this into some liberal vs conservative type of issue. The odd part about that aspect is that the liberal/conservative roles seem to be a big reversed in this case. Usually, it is folks labeled as conservative whacking at public schools and their staffs while folks labeled as liberals are the ones saying the schools are fine enough that parents don't need any real choices in selecting which schools their kids attend...just go to the neighborhood one.

While details of the broader picture of this incident are lacking, my thoughts run more along the lines of... 10 year old boy, substitute teacher... kid looks as job description for 10 year olds, sees the plainly written clause of "cause as much grief as possible for substitute teachers" and properly executed his job description.

It was reported that he refused to stand because the U.S. is not fair to homosexuals and to say the words of the pledge would be a lie. It's entirely possible this it true. If it is then I have some questions... If the parents knew of this belief and what actions he was planning on taking in support of this belief, why didn't they hie themselves to the school house to let the teachers/administrators know what was going to happen? Seems like a little proactive parenting would have been a good thing. Gotcha type of parenting protocols with the school is about as productive as gotcha type of reporting with vice-presidential candidates.

Also, did he acquire these convictions, and stand (or sit) his moral convictions all during this school year, or did this burst of empathy occur coincident to having a substitute teacher? If he had previously been sitting through the pledge, did the teacher put that note in the substitute plans? Seems like a little proactive substitute lesson planning would have been a good thing.

Another question is that after he refused to stand for the pledge on the first day...did the substitute seek guidance from the principal about how to handle our recalcitrant young lad? Seems like a little proactive substituting would have been a good thing.

These cases seem to be good examples of the problem with information gathering...there never seems to be enough information if you actually want to think your way through the situations...of course going all knee jerk reactionary seems to work for those in the NFL hierarchy...so why not for the rest of us.

...take care... t