BUCKING THE SYSTEM: SOMETIMES BEST VALUE LESSONS LEARNED AT SCHOOL

Sometimes the best value lessons are still taught in today's schools. I visited an elementary school earlier this week when I got an unexpected moral lesson.

As I walked down the hall with the school's principal, a little girl came up and asked if anyone had turned in a dollar she had lost.

I sort of shook my head, thinking the little girl was crazy for even asking (remember my purse?), when what do you suppose happened?

That's right, the principal pulled the dollar out of his pocket and told the girl to go thank her classmate who turned it in. He then looked at me, smiled and said "It happens all the time."

It happens all the time.

You know, we always talk about the deplorable conditions of our schools today and how our children aren't learning anything, and yet both girls involved in that situation had learned a powerful lesson.

The owner of the dollar learned to trust her fellow man because there are honest people in the world, and she also learned that the words "thank you" are positive reinforcement.

The child who returned the money learned that honesty can be its own reward. She had helped someone in need who was grateful for her actions, but she also knew that if no one had claimed the money it would have been returned to her as a reward.

What would you do if you found a dollar lying on the street? If you're honest, you'd probably say you put it in your pocket and kept on truckin'.

Just think, you're probably the same person who grew up living with both parents, having class prayer at school and being punished with rulers and paddles if you cut up.

These are kids who for the most part don't have any of that.

Even so, who put the dollar in their pocket?

It's so easy to jump on the blame wagon when we're talking about today's kids.

All we seem to know is that the schools are out of control because the kids don't have any manners or respect for elders, they're out there doing drugs and having sex, and their clothes are awful.

The world is in a mess, we think. My question is, whose fault is that?

Kids are supposed to learn manners and respect from adults. They're getting access to drugs from adults (somebody had to fly it over here.) They generally pick up their sexual habits from watching adults.

And their clothes?

Well, adults who were once kids used to dress just like that.

So, if the world's a mess, I guess we can't really blame the kids for that. We need to blame the adults who choose to love rather than raise their children, the adults who don't believe in shared community parenting.

We need to blame anyone besides the teachers, who are doing the best they can with what they have to work with and who don't need attitude from the overprotective mamas and daddies.

That principal had the right idea when he gave that little girl her dollar back. He's trying to give his students a little of what he had as a child, and they're getting it.

More adults ought to try it.

~Tamara Zellars Buck is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.