Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

One of my favorite people is beginning this semester as a brand new PTA president.  The previous president resigned, though he wasn't very effective when he was in place anyways.  But that is the way things go sometimes.

I am never surprised at the changes that come up, seemingly, all of a sudden.  They usually aren't sudden for the person who causes the change.  They ARE all of a sudden for those who have to pick up the slack.

I've served as president of our Junior High PTA this year and for the whole first semester I haven't gotten any feedback from parents in terms of comments or concerns.  Then suddenly--see, I have to deal with the changes--yesterday I had two parents who were very concerned about two serious issues.

One requested a specific speaker, who has been on national TV shows, etc, for his founding of  the"No Cussing Club" in his junior high school several years ago.  She wanted him to come do an assembly that all the students would attend to hear a message about proper verbal communication and the corresponding drop in bullying where these clubs are instituted.  The speaker she asked for charges $2500 for a speaking engagement.  (Yikes!)  I will bring it up with the principal, but that is a LOT of money--regardless of how valid the message.

The other parent asked why we do not have a "white ribbon" week at our school.  She asked me to put together something that would teach our kids Internet safety and pushes an anti-pornography message.  Now, I definitely understand the importance of that message too, but questions my place as a community leader to indoctrinate my student's classmates in a moral issue.  Sure, it is a safety issue--but more than that it draws on a family's moral compass.  On the other hand there are plenty of families that don't or won't talk to their own kids about the seriousness of this and all of that child's peers are in danger when that doesn't happen.

These are the issues that make me tired of working in PTA.  I feel like it is all I can do some days to support our administration in the eyes of our unparticipatory parents, fight for public education against the state legislature's attitude and subsequent rulings and legislation, encourage the faculty and staff of our school who are in the trenches, as it were, with our kids everyday.  I tire of imagining new ways of communicating with parents who insist they "never know" what is happening at school, and above all that I have to create or continue ways that make money to support the programs we already have implemented in our school to help kids, teachers, administration, and families.  Whew.

Maybe I should just crawl back into bed.

Then my conscious is flicked and I know that if I didn't do this, is there someone else that would?  Maybe.  But I sure have to beg, borrow, and steal the willing parents I do have helping out.  And they are not beating my door down to take over.  So, I'll stay my course for another year after this, as that is what I have committed to do, then I will just be a happy helper until The Boy is finished with his public school career.

At that point, I'll have to figure out what I really want to do when I grow up.  It is too much to consider today.  I have to go save the junior high students for moral disintegration.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Last night the kids and I watched this week's episode of Glee.  Up to now we have been faithful watchers of this usually clever, musical show where the "outcast" kids gather into the show choir family and find acceptance.

I believe the three of us have come to the conclusion, it is not the show for us anymore.

This week the questionable stuff that has been building gradually finally reached a tipping point for me.  We enjoy the music a lot--in fact, The Girl seems to prefer the soundtrack numbers to regular radio, which might actually be a good thing--have you listened to regular radio lately?  But the discussion and wishful activities of the otherwise sweet, gay character Kurt were up front and personal again.  Two cheer leading skankalicious Glee club girls were shown in an active make out scene on a bed.  One of the same skankalicious girls slept with the wheelchair boy who was trying to forget his other crush.  And the current "It Couple" sang a duet with seriously creepy sexual overtones. And this all followed last week's episode where the It Boy, Finn, discovered Jesus' face on his grilled cheese sandwich and believed it was the source of prayer and power for him; and, Kurt flatly refuted the idea that there is a God and angrily tossed out his friends' spiritual efforts on behalf of his sick dad.

I have had enough.

Early in the show, I used the gay-themed story line to talk to my kids about understanding differences in the society they live.  Then, I used the teen-pregnancy story line to talk about the choice and consequences of living a moral, sexually-pure life.  We talked about the Glee Diva Girl who discovered her birth mom, and discussed how families don't always look like ours and the importance of honesty in our relationships.  We used the teacher, his crazy-not-quite-ex-wife and the school counselor love triangle to talk about the contrasting healthy, honest, cooperative partnerships preferable in marriage.

At first I tried to use the thematic elements to talk with my own kids about what I believe and what our values are as a family.  I am not so naive as to think that they will never experience things that are portrayed on the show.  If anything, I am cynical enough to think they certainly will, and yet still hopeful they will have the foundations of faith and strength of character to behave in accordance to what I have taught them and what they have found to be true for themselves.

But the past few episodes make that ideal feel unattainable.  I feel like I am pushing my family's morality, like a boulder, up a hill on a gravely path.  It is getting to be a slippery slope, and the emotional well-being of my kids (and my own too, for that matter) are on the line.  It is too serious not to take a stand--at least at our house. 

I had them shut off the TV after the episode finished and told them, I think we need to seriously think about the way this show made them feel while they watched it.  Would they still watch it if Jesus sat in the recliner next to them?  I asked them to think about it overnight and we'd talk about what we should do this morning.

This morning they chose to shut it off.

After their decisions, I told them now that as we are deciding NOT to watch the show anymore, the next few episodes will most likely be completely cute, and clean, and honorable.  That is just how things seem to go sometimes.  But contrary to the popular idea at the moment, we are saying good bye to fictional McKinley High School Glee Club and will discover something else that will lift and inspire and encourage the values we have as a family.  They agreed, with smiles on their faces.

Shaun the Sheep is still another favorite. Maybe we could go back to that.

Unpopular Realization

After hearing of the handful of recent "suicides by bullying" in the news in the past few weeks, it made me think about these young adults and teens who chose to end their lives.  I feel really, really sorry for them--that they felt they had no one to talk to who would understand their problems, who would support and protect them, and who might help them see 'this too shall pass'.

The really curious thing I came to understand, especially in light of the Rutger's student whose gay sex encounter was secretly taped by his roommate and them broadcast on the Internet, is, that gay or straight, had he lived a chaste life that would have never happened.

He would not have been taped having sex.  He wouldn't have been outed on the world wide web.  And I like to think he would have still been here to play the violin and go to college.

A while ago a high school girl hanged herself after some risque, sexually charged images--shot for her boyfriend at the time--were shared on cell phones and Facebook by the boyfriend after they broke up. 

If she was living a virtuous life, she would not have ever taken those kind of photos in the first place, and her death could have been avoided.

I know in today's society it isn't considered realistic to live a morally pure, sexually free single life.  But it occurs to me that today, more than ever, our kids, our young adults, and our friends need to know that option is still avavailable.  In fact, it is not such a bad way to live when you consider the trouble you automatically avoid simply because you have chosen NOT to put yourself in the way of danger, bullying, or judgement.

God's laws have been the foundation of society's laws for millenniums.  There is a reason He gave them to us.  He is our Father, and He loves us.  He doesn't want to see His children hurt each other--especially when we can choose better.