The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

The Destruction of Our Children

Parents or guardians are not only responsible for providing for the health and welfare of their children but also for raising children to become productive and contributing members of society. Society has a duty and responsibility to ensure that children are properly cared for by their parents or guardians and that children are properly educated. Unfortunately, in the last several decades, this parental/guardian and societal obligation have fallen short of meeting its duties and responsibilities. Some of the issues and concerns are as follows.

Our biggest problem with our children is the fostering of their self-esteem without merit. Achievement through effort and positive results is the best self-esteem, while self-esteem without merit leads to narcissism. We often treat them as adults capable of making important decisions without them having the knowledge, experience, or wisdom to make these decisions. We also have been deficient in teaching them self-control and self-sacrifice as we allow them to behave as they see fit, and they are rarely fit to behave properly and socially. All of this leads to children becoming self-centered and self-important in their adulthood, which is not good for them or society. Much of this is a multi-generational problem, as the current generation of parents were raised in the same manner. Consequently, they know of no other way of raising their children.

The American people have always believed in the importance of education, and schooling for children is part and parcel of our society. However, public education should be limited to teaching knowledge and critical thinking skills, as I have Chirped on "02/17/22 Public Education Responsibilities". To do otherwise is to foster an “Indoctrination versus Education” of our children, which is not only harmful to the child but also to society. Those children that cannot think with "Rationality" and "Reasoning" are at a disadvantage in their adulthood, and they cannot make intelligent decisions about their life choices or their choices (via voting or activism) in correcting the problems of society.

Social Media is also playing a large role in the destruction of our children. The distance contact of social media interactions lessens the in-person non-verbal skills of the participants. It also increases impolite, rude, and bullying speech, as there is little immediate feedback on improper comments on social media. It also produces a historical record of negative comments that can stay with a person for many years, if not decades. Gossip, slander, and libel are a staple of social media, with no effective means of countering this gossip, slander, and libel. Falsehoods are rampant in social media, and children have minimal skills in detecting falsehoods or questioning the veracity or accuracy of comments made by others on social media. Children are also spending an inordinate amount of time behind their cell phones, tablets, and computers engaged in social media communications rather than playing with each other. And playing with each other is an extremely important facet of childhood, as it teaches proper social interactions as well as being good for the mental and physical health of children. It can also bate them into actions that may have a deleterious impact on their physical and mental health. Social media also exposes children to predators against children, which can ensnare them in dangerous or illegal activities.

Our responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have also been destructive to our children. The masking, distance learning, and social distancing of children, who are the least affected and almost nonimpacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, have stymied and damaged their education, their mental and physical health, and their social skills. During their formative years, children set the pattern for their adult life, and if this pattern is not properly set in their formative years, they may have the proper pattern to properly function in their adulthood. This is something that will take them years to overcome if indeed it can be overcome. Consequently, we have damaged an entire generation of children with our COVID-19 pandemic responses.

A new form of child abuse has also entered into the life of children—in our zeal to affirm the rights of the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (one's sexual or gender identity), intersex, and asexual/aromantic/agender) community, we have thrust this lifestyle upon our children, adding to their confusion at a time in their life when they are ill-equipped to handle this confusion. Children are always confused as to their sexual and non-sexual identities while growing up. It is this process of determining their identity that allows them to define themselves and become mature adults. Exposure to the LGBTQIA lifestyle via Gender Identity public education is beyond the scope of public education responsibilities and is best left to the parents or guardians to educate their children on this lifestyle. However, teaching our children to be polite and respectful to all is important to their growth and is part and parcel of the proper education of a child, including their public schooling.

We have also even gone so far as to allow Gender Reassignment Surgery to be performed upon our children, sometimes without parental guidance or approval. Surgery that has a life-altering consequence that recent research has shown to be disproportionately negative. Therefore, any gender reassignment surgery performed upon children, with or without parental or guardian consent, should be banned until after the age of adulthood, when the adult can make informed consent to this surgery. Society has the duty and obligation to not allow intentional harm to children and, thus, can outlaw gender reassignment surgery for children. Any physician or medical person that performs or assists in this surgery is also acting in an immoral and unethical manner, and they should have their medical license revoked if they do so. Even for an adult to undergo this gender reassignment surgery, there should be thoughtful counseling on both the positive and negative consequences of this surgery to achieve fully informed consent before undergoing this surgery. We should all keep in mind that; ‘just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something.

This destruction of our children does not bode well for the future of America, as we are not raising our children to become productive and contributing members of society. A self-centered and self-important population cannot exercise self-control and self-sacrifice to solve the issues, concerns, and problems that we face in America.