During her time as First Lady, Hillary Clinton wrote a book called It Takes a Village. The title came from what she claimed was an “African saying” that “it takes a village to raise a child” (which no one has actually been able to verify). In the book she espoused the liberal belief that children can only be successful in life if they are immersed in government-run programs from the day of their birth that dictate their day care, nuitrition, how they learn to read, what they see on TV, how they learn math, how they learn about sex and gender, what bathrooms they can use and revised versions of our country’s history. Meanwhile, the rest of “the village” is only expected to foot the bill for all of these programs.
One area where it does not “take a village to raise a child” is the holding of children responsible for their choices and actions. The latest example of that is Todd Kennedy–a volunteer grade school football coach in Connecticut–who made a player on his team run laps because he bullied some of his teammates. Kennedy says he made it clear to the team early in the season that he would not tolerate bullying–and after kids continued to complain about one of the players–he made that kid run around the field a few times. A few days later, the parent council that oversaw the football league fired him. In true chicken-bleep form, members of that committee have refused to comment on the firing or to provide any explanation for their actions.
Since I come from a generation of adults that are independent and have self-worth built upon overcoming challenges and being allowed to fail or to be embarrassed every once in a while–instead of just being told every minute of every day how “great” and how “special” you are–I would like to applaud Coach Kennedy for sending two strong messages to the members of his team: 1–That bullying will not be tolerated and 2–You will be held accountable for your actions–and that accountability will take place in full view of your peers.
Since the football committee won’t comment on Kennedy’s firing, we can’t know for sure their reasoning. But I’d be willing to bet that if the coach had skipped practicing one day and just had the kids sit in a big circle and “share their feelings”–instead of holding a misbehaving child accountable for all of five minutes–he would have been well on his way to “Coach of the Year” in the league–instead of taking his own two kids to a different league and team.
I guess “the village” has spoken.
