Public? private? home? or other?

I posted the clip below of Danny Bonaduce because it was political, and because I was interested in the way Mr. Bonaduce, former child star, drug addict and conservative Republican, handled himself. I found the whole exchange fascinating on a number of levels.

However, two of my comments took issue with my closing statement and not with the content of the clip itself. I said: “This clip is definitely PG13, but probably not worse than you hear in our local public schools these days.”

Ruth wanted to know, “what about homeschool kids behind their mothers back” and Beth wanted to assure me that at her public schools such language would be reprimanded.

I think it’s an experiential thing.

I first heard the F-word riding on the bus to my local Catholic grade school. I heard it frequently throughout Catholic high school from some kids, on a regular basis. It certainly wasn’t something you could say in the hallway in front of a teacher though.

The Catholic homeschooled kids that use profanity do it underground – like on their My-spaces where they think the parents aren’t looking. I’ve made my kid clean up his act a couple of times, even though he insisted he was using the profanity as an artistic expression. Artistic or not, it was off.

I’ve got nieces and nephews who go or have gone to public schools, mainly in the 1990s and in suburbia, although I have a few who just graduated or will graduate and they have very fine language skills and impecable vocabulary skills. They can express themselves quite well without the use of one explosive expletive.

And then, there are the city schools. We live in the inner city. My husband’s business takes him daily inside of city schools. He told me this week that he heard a student threaten to knock down her “f’ing stepmother” in front of a teacher, and nary an eyebrow was raised.

This is where all of my angst for my second high school student comes in. The language is rougher, the behaviors are cruder, the dress is more provocative. In my experience, it is a PG13 to R rated kind of lifestyle that kids around here are exposed to and living.

I’m thinking that maybe it’s an urban vs. rural thing or an Ohio thing. Maybe it’s economic. At least in my experience, judging by the way others are quick to defend their local public schools, it does not seem to be a universal truth.

St. Blog’s controversy.

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