ADD, ABSENT DAD DISORDER

 

 

 

Coach Dave Daubenmire
March 1, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

American public education is always looking for an excuse.

The NEA says schools are failing because of money. Some pundits say they are failing because of student/teacher ratios. Others say it is the influx of immigrants, or (ahem) discrimination.

One of the latest scapegoats is the rise of ADD. For those who may not be aware, Attention Deficit Disorder is the latest �learning disability� to swamp America�s school children, having been �discovered� in the latter part of the 20th century. Some �experts� estimate that as many as 20% of fifth grade white boys are receiving some type of �medication� (drug) for the disorder. While the jury is out on the impact that it is having on American young boys� ability to learn, I believe that this disability, real or imagined, is more environmental than biological.

We could save a lot of time and money if we would merely acknowledge the real cause of what was once called �hyper-activity.�

ADD can best be defined as Absent Dad Disorder.

Our public schools are a mess. We don't want to admit it, because of the consequences of such an admission. For a generation we have been told that the education system would show improvement if only we would pour in more money. President Bush's answer has been the federal over-reach of No Dollar Left Behind. It sort of reminds me of what a friend told me about his fishing boat. It is great when it works, but most times it is just a hole in the water into which he pours his money. Sound familiar?

Can the schools be fixed? I don't even want to dive into that debate, but I can tell you that the present system, with Humanism as its god, moral relativism as its foundation, and tolerance as its goal, has doomed America unless some drastic changes are made. If you don't mind my bias, after 28 years of working within the system, I think there is one glaring weakness that needs to be pointed out.

America is in dire need of men.

I walked away from education 5 years ago after a 2-year battle with the ACLU, but I still substitute teach now and then. It is a great way to stay informed on what the enemy is doing. Because I am no longer dependant on the system for a livelihood, my perspective has changed. I visit different schools, different classes, and different kids. Without exception, I have yet to see a school that wouldn't benefit from a fresh influx of testosterone.

Women, for the most part, operate on emotions. They believe in fairness, being nice, and genuinely ache when they see a young child�s feelings hurt. It is the way they are made.

Men hurt too, but are more analytical. They realize that a little bit of pain is a good thing, that life isn�t always fair, and that sometimes a kid deserves to be smacked in the mouth. Women worry their sons may be bullied. Men worry their sons might become wimps.

�You wait until your Father gets home.� Why was it that my mom knew I would react differently to my father, but today�s PC sociologists don�t? The problem is, some fathers never come home.

I can only imagine how living without a daddy would have made me behave when I was six. I assure you, Ritalin would have been named after me! America�s kids need Dad, not doped.

Recently I spent a day as a sub in K-2 physical education class. I didn�t get much done because I spent most of the time peeling kids off of my legs. Man-starved little urchins swamped over me, hugging my legs, pulling on my arms, aching for the missing man-in-their-life. Like a nicotine addict on a smoke break, they sucked the maleness right out of me.

�Yipee!� squealed one little 6-year old girl as she entered the gym, �a boy teacher.�

We are a nation of broken families. Family trees now resemble a shrub. Over half of our children no longer live with Dad. Some studies show that nearly 7 out of 10 black children are born into a home without a father.

Boys are confused. A national epidemic of single family homes has deprived America�s children of a solid, consistent, male role model. Some turn to gangs, some to drugs, some turn to homosexuality.

Girls are abused. Promiscuity continues to skyrocket among the Britney Spears generation as the young prosti-tots display their wares. Navels in school are now more common than navel oranges in Florida. The daily headlines reveal the latest sex-capades at the hands of public school teachers, the fruit of young girls striving to find that male connection.

Women dominate the lives of our young kids. Even in homes where there is a dad, he is usually so consumed with �earning a living,� that he neglects the home fires. Raising kids is women�s work. Real men earn money.

So how do we respond to America�s dearth of dads?

We send them to institutions run by women.

Think I�m wrong? Look around. How many female superintendents do you see? How many principals are women? Even the men have become sissified. Most male teachers, feeling insecure because of their own inadequacies, relish the power they have over children, and the safety from the dog-eat-dog business world where they would be chewed up and spit out by testosterone-laced executives demanding results for the money they were being paid. Most have traded their manhood for a promotion, afraid to be scorned by the touchy-feely, make-every-one-feel-important, self-esteem-promoting, policy-making, gurus.

In a nation where 50% of our children don�t live with Dad, the discipline in the home falls to mom. It takes a strong woman to handle a rebellious boy. So how do we respond? We hire female principals in our schools. When a kid gets in trouble and is sent to the office, what does he find at the end of the hall? Another woman.

Take it from a man. A fire breathing man scares a young boy more than another visit with a get-in-touch-with-your-anger female. Can anyone imagine Donald Trump as a high school principal? �You�re Fired, punk�!

Think I�m sexist? Maybe, but it is still the truth.

Education was one of the first places that women were able to gain equal status with men, a place where they had real input into the decision making process. Now they run it. According to the NEA www.nea.org only 9% of America�s elementary school teachers are male. Even fewer are men.

Yes, America's schools need men. Not males. Men.

Our young children need to face men who are gruff, men who are tough, men who will teach a boy how to be a man. Men who will say "suck it up, get over it, quit being such a baby." Men who will explain that life isn't always fair, that not everyone will tolerate childish behavior, and that sometimes you have to fight for your turf.. Yes, we need real men who will teach our kids to get in touch with reality rather than with their feelings.

"Hey Junior, quit whining and get to work. Stop acting like a girl." (You do remember when men and women were different, don�t you?)

There are rough days ahead for America and today�s metro-sexual man won�t cut the mustard. Unsuccessful at getting the average woman to behave like a man, the feminist agenda instead focused on getting the average man to think like women. Tolerance, diversity, and fairness have become women-speak for lack of spine.

Call me old-fashioned, a Neanderthal, or whatever demeaning adjective you want to use to distract from the message. No amount of name-calling will change the facts. Manhood is in serious trouble in America.

Brokeback Mountain, blatant homosexual propaganda, has been all over the news. Disguised as a movie, it is nothing more than a commercial to try and normalize deviancy. If the makers of this movie were really honest, the �cowboys� in the story would have been that sissy little man on Will and Grace and Elton John. Instead, they try to sell us John Wayne and Hoss Cartwright in a pup tent.

I often think back to a segment on the The Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was the host. He used to love to have Burt Reynolds on. I think he enjoyed the roughness that macho-Burt exuded, a real man�s man, if you know what I mean. In one particular segment I could sense Johnny probing to find out what made Burt so, well, manly.

�So tell me Burt," Johnny queried, �How does a man know when he is a man?�

Expecting Burt to give some deep insight into his woman-conquering prowess, Johnny simply stared at the profundity of Burt Reynolds� curt reply.

�Johnny,� his dark, deeply-set eyes sparkling, �You ain�t a man until your daddy says you�re a man.�

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Where are today�s men? Probably sitting dutifully in a diversity class at his local place of employment, while his local woman-dominated public school teaches his son how to be more tolerant.

�Hey Dad. Can I get my ear pierced? Mr. Stevens, my Health teacher, has two of them.�

�Go ask your Mom.�

We need a return to the Burt Reynolds America. Pass the testosterone!

Don't miss Coach Dave's recently released book "A Season Ordered By the Lord." For more information visit www.ptsalt.com/season.

Related Article:
Where have all the Men Gone? by Devvy Kidd

� 2006 Dave Daubenmire - All Rights Reserved