Some people are nuts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090508/ap_on_re_us/us_school_dance_flap
Suspend a kid for going to another school's prom?
I love zealots like this who say the kid is choosing a selfish path, yet they are the definitive authority on how to interpret God's commandments?
How about trusting a young man who they have schooled and trained to make the right decisions about attending his girlfriend's prom to do the right thing and confirm all that they have taught them? Or do they have so little faith in what they have supposedly instilled in this young man that he will - in the span of one evening - have sex and get drunk?
And the part about rock music inspiring rebellion. Can't argue that. But if you study the roots of Christianity in Rome, the early Christians were some of the greatest rebels in the history of the world.
What is this school preparing this young man for? Will they revoke his degree five years down the road when he enters a bar? Has a beer at a football game? Watches an R rated movie? Opens a dirty email?
Trust him to do the right thing.
As Young Goodman Brown learned - we all take that walk in the wilderness with Old Scratch at one point in time. Do we cry "Faith look to the heavens!" and resist temptation or do just follow along and give in?
1 comment:
I agree with you, Kurt, that going to a prom should not, necessarily, present an "occasion of sin" for this young man; but, there is a larger question involved here.
According to the article, the young man had signed a contract earlier, in which he, as a student, agreed to certain behaviors. For me, the issue is "How valid are these contracts?"
I do not know the contents of the contract that was signed in this case; but, we see variations on this all over the country. Two that come to mind are contracts regarding chastity and use of alcohol. The statistics on how well students abide by these contracts show that they are often ineffective.
The contracts that I mentioned are usually generated by "social" groups whose goal is to promote specific behaviors. The contract that this kid signed was formalized by its attachment to an institution that he had the option of not attending. When students in public schools sign contracts for grades, are they not adhered to?
As foolish as this contract may appear to most of us (let's not forget that we have students at LHS whose religious beliefs forbid dancing), at what point should students learn of the significance of a contract and all that it implies?
I suspect that most students sign the chastity/alcohol contracts in the presence of a fair amount of peer pressure. I'm not sure that the same can be said for a contract to abide by certain conditions if you want to be a member of a specific institution.
Might this not better be approached as a "teachable moment" to caution kids to be careful about what they sign?
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