He’s just being a boy!

Son, put the gun down and step away very slowly!

Uh! Scared you, didn’t I? No, my son is not a serial killer. No, he doesn’t have a violent behavior problem. But he does have an interest in guns. Is this an indicator that he will one day have a violent behavior problem? Or is it an indicator that he could be one of those kids who go to school with the intention to murder someone else? No! What this means is my son is a boy!

I recently listened to a podcast about America’s school system today and the zero tolerance policy in place. I wish I could remember which podcast it was but my memory fails me at the moment. What I do remember about it, though, is the valid points it had about the zero tolerance policy and how it is affecting our boys. The example in the podcast was about a teacher asking his students to write a story about something, anything, of interest to them.  One of the students, a young boy, wrote about a terrible tornado which came through his town and leveled his family home, killing all of his family. This young boy was immediately sent for an evaluation due to the violent nature of the story. Why? Did the story indicate this boy was prone to violence? No!

Why are we, Americans, not allowing our boys to be boys anymore? The school system is geared more toward graduating successful females instead of males. We want our little boys to sit still and imagine peaceful, pretty stories. We want our little boys to act like little girls. We are setting them up for failure from the beginning. Boys are more aggressive than girls by nature. It’s that little thing called testosterone!

Perhaps I’ll home school my son.