Fatherhood

In California, it was called ‘freaking’. I think.

My wife was a high school Spanish teacher, and I was dutifully playing the role of Teacher’s Spouse by being a chaperon for the spring dance. The gym was dark, dank, and hot. I hadn’t been to a dance since my senior prom.

The kids didn’t dance; they had sex. They ground their hips together, and rubbed against each other. Sometimes a girl would be caught between two boys. Occasionally several students would coalesce into a line of writhing, undulating, groping bodies.

Somehow ‘leave room for Jesus’ didn’t seem adequate. I wasn’t a prude, but I was disgusted. These were kids!

A high school in Concord, New Hampshire has canceled all school dances until students clean up their act:

‘A furor over what Concord High School administrators call an “overtly sexual” style of dancing at school dances has split the school community: There are those who defend the students’ right to dance however they want and those who believe the moves are just plain inappropriate.

Principal Gene Connolly is with the latter group. He said the school will cancel all remaining dances, including the upcoming homecoming dance, unless students step forward to help halt the “grinding.”

…But some students and parents don’t see it that way. They say that like the jitterbug and disco before it, grinding is just a sign of the times.’

Read more →
Concord Monitor

Yay, relativism! Laissez-faire doesn’t work as an economic policy, and it doesn’t work in parenting. I was in high school. I remember living in the throes of burgeoning hormones. There were a lot of things I wanted to do, that I thought were fun. And, morality and self-respect aside, they were fun. It’s not as though I don’t understand the students’ position.

‘Addressing the [Parent-Teacher-Student Organization] and Connolly on Tuesday night, [Senior Caitlind Cooper] objected to the way the situation was handled.

“We go to a dance to have fun, and you telling us how to dance is not fun,” Cooper said.’

As parents, it’s not our job to teach our kids what’s fun, and what’s not. It is our job to teach respect and responsibility and temperance. Discernment must be learned.

I’ve always wanted to have a ballroom dance at high school. My school offered a ballroom class during gym, and I remember everyone having a great time. Ballroom dancing takes skill, but it also requires restraint and—above all—respect.

(Thanks, Jason!)