Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
Why the early bird gets the worm;
Life isn’t always fair and,
Maybe it was my fault.
Now, I’m not so sure that it was a natural death. I tend to believe that common sense was bludgeoned to death by society. So many of the things that we have done seemed to contribute to the death of common sense. For example, we reward every kid who participates in an activity, even at times to the point where there are no winners, then we are amazed that kids are not motivated by competition.
In ourr schools, we have held common sense down and beaten him senseless. Teachers don’t teach. They pass on a series of facts and the students copy them down. Common sense would tell you that the kids don’t learn anything that way. They learn th facts just long enough to recite them on a test. Actually, common sense can’t tell you that becuase he is out back getting his butt kicked by zero-tolerance policies.
That’s another weapon in the arsenal against common sense. Now, I understnad that schools need rules. I also understnad that certain things are bad to have in schools. Zero-tolerance policies only accomplish one thing. They make sure that common sense gets nowhere near any decisions. When a school treats a kid taking an aspirin the same way that it treats a kid dealing cocaine, common sense is dead and buried.
Every time you see a kid doing something lacking common sense, think about why that kid did what he did. Most likely, it’s because an adult showed him that way of thinking. Kids only behave in the way that they see adults behave.
We can raise common sense from the dead just like Jesus did Lazarus, but we have to start with the kids. When you hear of a school coming up with a policy that lacks common sense, speak up. When you see an adult do something stupid, speak up. Maybe, just maybe we can bring common sense back to life.