Yes, it is your fault.

 Yes, it is your fault

 

We have entered the era of “don’t blame me I am not responsible”.  This attitude sometimes takes refuge in the First Amendment guaranteeing free speech.  Just because a person may be free to say something does not mean he/she should escape the consequences for the saying.  

In the golden olden days if a child misbehaved at school, the school consequences were only the half of it.  Things would get worse when the child got home.  Not now.  It seems every parent has become a public defender securing their children’s rights to do and say whatever without consequences but with lots of excuses for the bad behavior.  Some parents have literally made a federal case out of it as the recent Supreme Court case regarding a 14-year old who used profanity online to trash her school and team because she didn’t get picked for varsity cheerleading.  The consequences were minimal but the parents weren’t having any of it.

Adults have difficulty owning up to their mistakes.  They are talented in making up all manner of extenuating circumstances explaining why they were not responsible.  Now they are attempting to pass this gift onto their kids.  It is not a good idea.

Failure to be responsible for one’s behavior is plain and simple bad character.  Why do we want to raise our students up to have bad character?  Making a mistake is not the end of the world.  Owning up to what we do wrong is being a responsible adult.  By insisting that our children own up to what they have done wrong and take the consequences for that behavior is how we teach people to be responsible adults.  

Perhaps one of the reasons for our current political division is the absence of people being brave enough to say I was wrong or calling out bad behavior on the part of someone else without huge political consequences.  

No one gets through this world without making lots of mistakes, some big and some small.  What is it about some of us that makes it so hard to admit to those mistakes.   Being wrong is ok, and yes, sometimes it is your fault- admit it, make compensation, accept the consequences and move on.  You’ll be a better person for doing so especially when it is your fault.