Mine is right now lying on the floor on his back, waving his hind feet in front of his face, and trying to bite them.
It's sort of like watching a baby attempt to eat its own foot and is strangely entertaining.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Random thoughts on high school dances and "financial decadence"
In the abstract, I don't have a problem with high school dances or social events. God knows that teenagers need all the chances they can get to develop social skills (including but not limited to the ability to say five words without interjecting "like", but I digress).
However, it's been my experience that over the past ten years, high school dances have devolved from social events where kids dress nicely and play grown-ups for an evening into debauched orgies of excess. Prom isn't treated like a nice opportunity to wear lovely clothes and enjoy an evening with friends and classmates; it's become an Event that's second only in scope to a wedding and is beginning to assume much of the conspicuously consumptivist trappings of a wedding.
Much of the behavior at the dances is objectionable for an educational setting. I know what people do at clubs and at private parties and on MTV, and while I personally find people humping in public squicky, I won't quibble with their right to do as they please in those places. At schools -- where students are supposed to be held to a certain standard of behavior conforming to public decency -- and particularly at religious schools, most of which have mission statements that use moral language and speak about forming the character of the student -- erotic dancing has no place. Social intercourse doesn't mean sexual intercourse!
I also find it deeply problematic (as a teacher at a religious school) that lack of rules or lack of enforcement prohibiting such dancing paints the faculty, staff, and administration in a hypocritical light in the eyes of the students. We tell them in class that they're supposed to be chaste and respect their sexuality, but then we sponsor events and let them grind to their hearts' content? It's a very mixed message! As for financial decadence, the expenditure of staggering amounts of money for proms and after-prom parties is a sanctioned replacement for the decadence of going out and getting wasted in a hotel room. Worse, people think they're doing something praiseworthy -- "I don't want Little Johnny to drink and drive, so I'll rent a limo with a fully stocked bar for him and his buddies!"
I'm all for having a good time, but spending hundreds and thousands of dollars for a dance is positively disgusting. When people spend thousands on weddings, at least there's something to show for it at the end -- a married couple. What's to show for all the money spent on proms? A crushed corsage and an expensive dress that'll never be worn again?
However, it's been my experience that over the past ten years, high school dances have devolved from social events where kids dress nicely and play grown-ups for an evening into debauched orgies of excess. Prom isn't treated like a nice opportunity to wear lovely clothes and enjoy an evening with friends and classmates; it's become an Event that's second only in scope to a wedding and is beginning to assume much of the conspicuously consumptivist trappings of a wedding.
Much of the behavior at the dances is objectionable for an educational setting. I know what people do at clubs and at private parties and on MTV, and while I personally find people humping in public squicky, I won't quibble with their right to do as they please in those places. At schools -- where students are supposed to be held to a certain standard of behavior conforming to public decency -- and particularly at religious schools, most of which have mission statements that use moral language and speak about forming the character of the student -- erotic dancing has no place. Social intercourse doesn't mean sexual intercourse!
I also find it deeply problematic (as a teacher at a religious school) that lack of rules or lack of enforcement prohibiting such dancing paints the faculty, staff, and administration in a hypocritical light in the eyes of the students. We tell them in class that they're supposed to be chaste and respect their sexuality, but then we sponsor events and let them grind to their hearts' content? It's a very mixed message! As for financial decadence, the expenditure of staggering amounts of money for proms and after-prom parties is a sanctioned replacement for the decadence of going out and getting wasted in a hotel room. Worse, people think they're doing something praiseworthy -- "I don't want Little Johnny to drink and drive, so I'll rent a limo with a fully stocked bar for him and his buddies!"
I'm all for having a good time, but spending hundreds and thousands of dollars for a dance is positively disgusting. When people spend thousands on weddings, at least there's something to show for it at the end -- a married couple. What's to show for all the money spent on proms? A crushed corsage and an expensive dress that'll never be worn again?
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