A Love Supreme
For the last week or so, I’ve had NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter’s words ring in my head in his response to the current consternation about NFL running backs Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. His quote “My mom did the best job she could do. My mom was wrong” juxtaposed with “You know what? Take em off the daggone field because, you know what, as a man, that’s the only thing we really respect. We don’t respect no women. We don’t respect no kids. The only thing Roger and them do, take them off the field cuz they respect that” made me think about schools and parenting.
In particular, it made me think of the unwritten rules about parent-teacher communication, and how often many of us would observe parents not just threaten to beat their kids, but also hear of students get a beating, prompted by that educators’ phone call. Some of us might have even hoped that the phone call would lead to such a beating.
Yet, as my friend Alexa (@alexachula) said this on Twitter:
“Listen, beating your kids doesn’t work. They’re still not doing HW, fighting, cussing, & talking back. I spend 6.5 hours w/your kid, I know.”
This is a critical aspect of the Adrian Peterson conversation for educators. In the past, I’ve been of the mindset that sparing the rod meant spoiling the child. When I think about the hundreds of students I’ve taught and met, my best students never got beaten. Love, structure, and A Love Supreme | The Jose Vilson: