How Liberal Are You?

Chelsea June 15th, 2008

Teachers at a high school in El Camino, CA recently tricked high school seniors into believing that several of their classmates had been killed in an automobile accident while driving under the influence. Some of the kids wept and some became hysterical. The hoax was not a prank, but a lesson. The teachers aimed to educate the kids about the dangers of alcohol.

Of course this sparked a bevy of criticism over whether the teachers had gone too far. Some said that alcoholic drinking was a national epidemic and scaring our kids is necessary. While others such as Geraldo said that this caused too much trauma to the kids. Its all hogwash and it has very little to do with kids.

Its hogwash because it ignores the fact that plenty of teenagers get into car accidents without being under the influence. Furthermore, these “children” had to obtain the alcohol from someplace and drink it before they got into the car. The real problem is that kids should not be driving under the age of 18.

Their brains are underdeveloped causing them to make mistakes on the unforgiving highways of America. But the idea of taking away their sweet sixteen rite-of-passage is unthinkable for most Americans. So parents who feel guilty for letting loose raging hormones on the highway try to scare kids into behaving the right way.

Kids should be thought of as nasty, evil elves ready to wreak havoc and spend money. Indeed, by examining medieval folklore, children today closely resemble Puck, the medieval mischief-maker, most memorably embodied as Robin Goodfellow in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The trickster Puck was seen as capable of doing both good and evil, but his unpredictable and wanton nature was feared. Every folklore had its version of Puck and scholars regard him as an archetype necessary for the survival of a culture because his existence reminds everyone of the practical realities of the world. In other words, the real world is both helpful and unforgiving and praying to god does not always ensure a positive outcome. Nowadays, such pagen tricksters have disappeared from our vocabulary, but not from our collective unconscious. Scaring kids into driving safer is both condoning Puck’s mischievous existence and also admitting that his ultimate actions are out of our hands.

But the truth is that teenagers are controllabe. Kids do not have to drive at age 16 or 17. American kids have way too much power over adults, yet the adults are the only ones who can take their power away. Parents should stop being so liberal with their child-raising and focus on punishing and holding their kids accountable for their actions. These kids are not uncontrollable Pucks but young adults who can be disciplined and controlled.

Tags: children

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