Nonconforming Cartoons

My daughter is back at the drawing table ... well, chair with drawing pad on bent knee. I am familiar with many of the issues that cross her RADAR screen because I am in constant contact with students through work.

There's an issue with kids cutting these days. It's probably always been an issue in one degree or another. The difference today is that parents and teachers are frightened to address issues head-on. Perhaps it is - understandably - because of today's litigious society supplemented with instant communications. I suggest that another segment of these folks are paralyzed in inaction because, well, they are just plain incompetent. Regardless, kids have a refreshing way of handling other kids. You want to cut? You are trying to draw attention to yourself? Go for it! Just cut! Kids know the difference between attention-grabbers and those in real need of help. If parents and teachers would stop chasing their own fears and simply relate one-on-one to the kids - find them at their level - then maybe the difference would become clear to them, too.

A "wigga" is a white ni--, well, you know. Google if it you don't. Kids spend a lot of time emulating other people. When I was younger, I saw teens dressing and acting like Elvis, then The Beatles, and then, well, they were mostly too high to remember who they idolized. But that was the point - they emulated people they idolized, and they idolized people that had achieved some sort of broad-based success or notoriety. These days, the emulation seems to be, at best, of the notorious and, at worst, of each other. A lack of higher goals seems pervasive.

I remember asking my students what they would do if they were handed $1 Million. A freshman piped off with her wish list - so we priced it, deducted it from her bank account, and watch it depreciate. She was broke within months. Her answer? Get another million! Thankfully, other students were more conservative with their newfound wealth.