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Show B2 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, September 23, 2008 The FAMILY PAGE Horoscope Focus On The Family Crossword Figuratively Speaking FOCUS ON THE FAMILY Kids Must be Mature Students to Become Responsible Adults Dr. James Dobson Q You’ve said that schools need to have enough structure and discipline to require certain behavior from children whether or not they have a natural interest in the subject being taught. Then you must favor a very structured, teacherled program, where student behavior is rather tightly controlled. Why? One of the purposes of education is to prepare a young person for later life. To survive as an adult in this society, one needs to know how to work, how to get there on time, how to get along with others, how to stay with a task until completed, and, yes, how to submit to authority. In short, it takes a good measure of self-discipline and control to cope with the demands of modern living. Maybe one of the greatest gifts a loving teacher can contribute to an immature child, therefore, is to help her learn to sit when she feels like running, to raise her hand when she feels like talking, to be polite to her neighbor, to stand in line without smacking the kid in front, and to do English when she feels like doing soccer. I would also like to A see our schools readopt reasonable dress codes, eliminating suggestive clothing, T-shirts with profanity or those promoting heavy metal bands, etc. Guidelines concerning good grooming and cleanliness should also be enforced. I know! I know! These notions are so alien to us now that we can hardly imagine such a thing. But the benefits would be apparent immediately. Admittedly, hairstyles and matters of momentary fashion are of no particular significance, but adherence to a standard is an important element of discipline. The military has understood that for five thousand years! If one examines the secret behind a championship football team, a magnificent orchestra, or a successful business, the principal ingredient is invariably discipline. Preparation for this disciplinary lifestyle should begin in childhood. That’s why I think it’s a mistake to require nothing of children -- to place no demands on their behavior -- to allow them to giggle, fight, talk and play in the classroom. We all need to adhere to reasonable rules, and school is a good place to get acquainted with how that is done. What would you do if you had an elementary school child in a chaotic classroom with a disorganized teacher? I would do everything I could to get my child reassigned to a different classroom. Some very bad habits and attitudes can develop in 10 months, with an incompetent teacher. My former girlfriend and I were absolutely certain we were in love because we were crazy about each other from the moment we met. We were together every day and all our friends thought we would get married. But the relationship cooled off very quickly and now we can hardly stand each other. I don’t even like to be around her. What do you think happened to us? Not knowing either of you, it is difficult to say for sure. But I can tell you that the way your relationship began had something to do with the way it ended. Q A Q A FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING HOROSCOPES BY HOLIDAY John MacIntyre Week of Sept. 21 Holiday Mathis The autumnal equinox is the 22nd, when the sun and the earth will contemplate the equal balance between light and dark. This is heralded by the sun’s entry into Libra, a sign of polarities, opposites and dualities, also famed for preferring rose-colored glasses to dark ones. Can good exist without evil; light without dark? Or does one enhance the other? In investigating our own extremes, we get closer to achieving harmony. ARIES (March 21-April 19). You’ve been trying to make something work, and it’s just not jiving the way you’d like it to. Be willing to give up your current version of a happy ending. When you do, you’ll discover there’s an even better resolution in store. New people and experiences will help you get the perspective you need on this. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). It feels good to pour your heart out, but only if you’re doing it with the right person. It turns out that the right person this week is probably you, in your own private journal. The revelations you come to will be truly illuminating; the process, extremely rewarding. The best part is, you’ll only have yourself to praise/pay. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You’re so charming now, you can get to know anyone you want or need to know. There are lots of open invitations on the table throughout the week -- you’re both giving them and receiving them, and they mean very little. Make specific requests with a time and date attached. That’s how new relationships really start. CANCER (June 22-July 22). Relationships require so much practical attention that the original attraction gets buried somewhere under a stack of bills and your ever-growing to-do list. Remedy the situation by injecting some old-fashioned romance into the equation. This will require more thought and time than money, and is so worth it. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You’ve caught the travel bug. There’s nothing like the wind in your hair while you whip down the highway or the roar of the jet engine as you take to the sky. If you can’t make it happen just yet -- and chances are there are still a few months between you and your vacation -- the next best thing is to enjoy the planning. THIS WEEK’S BIRTHDAYS: In many ways you have felt like you’re in transition, but that ends this year as you declare, “Here I am!” and commit fully to the moment. You notice more keenly what and whom you love, and you make sure to spend more of your time engaged with those activities and people. You’ll entertain big and small groups through October and November. There’s a windfall in December as one of your projects takes off. Continued on Page B3. A love affair is usually doomed when it begins with great intensity. It almost always burns itself out in time. You may recall an old song that described a love affair that was “too hot not to cool down.” That’s the way it often works. In a manner of speaking, you and your girlfriend ran your race together as though it were a one-hundred-yard dash. It should have been approached like a marathon. That’s why you exhausted yourselves before your journey together ever got started. If a love relationship is to go the distance, there needs to be a comfortable pacing that keeps the two parties from consuming each other. That will give the bond a chance to form -- and allow “the glue to dry.” (Dr. Dobson is founder and chairman of the board of the nonprofit organization Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, CO 80995(www.family. org). Questions and answers are excerpted from “Solid Answers” and “Bringing Up Boys,” both published by Tyndale House. Copyright 2008 James Dobson Inc. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.) 36: Percentage of singles who feel that the financial stability of their suitor is more important now than one year ago, according to a pop culture and relationship survey by OkCupid.com. how their particular regional accent sounds in comparison with other American accents, according to a poll commissioned by SpinVox and conducted by Harris Interactive. 1: Rank of the New Jersey/ pay for a dating site if they had more discretionary cash. Source: OkCupid.com. New York dialect (as exemplified by James Gandolfini in his role as Tony Soprano) as the accent Americans would least like to have themselves. 47: Percentage of work- 36: Percentage of U.S. 14: Percentage who would ers who say they always or usually live paycheck to paycheck, according a nationwide survey by CareerBuilder.com. 21: Percentage of workers with salaries of $100,000 or more who report that they, too, live paycheck to paycheck. 25: Percentage of workers who say they don’t put any money aside for savings each month. Source: CareerBuilder.com. 52: Percentage of Ameri- cans with a New York accent who are happy with adults who reported they would like to speak like the queen of England. Source: Harris Interactive. 3,000: By increasing grad- uation rates by 10 percentage points, the estimated number of murders that could be prevented every year, according to The Fight Crime: Invest in Kids members’ report called “School or the Streets.” 175,000: Estimated number of aggravated assaults that could be prevented annually. $15 billion: If gradu- ation rates were raised 10 percent among males nationwide, estimated total amount of money that could be saved every year through reducing costs associated with crime. Source: Fight Crime. 89: Percentage of the over- all population who report that they use coupons when shopping for grocery, household and health care items at supermarkets, according to research from the Promotion Marketing Association’s Coupon Council. 97: Percentage of primary shoppers who report that they use coupons at supermarkets. 7: Average percentage savings reported by coupon users on their grocery bill with coupons. Source: Promotion Marketing Association. 56: Percentage of employ- ers nationwide who are experiencing a leadership shortage that is impeding their organization’s performance, according to Aon Consulting’s “2008 Benefits and Talent” survey. 31: Percentage who expect to have a leadership shortage that will impede performance in the next one to four years. 1, 2, 3: Ranks of health care (62 percent), professional services (58 percent) and manufacturing (57 percent) as the industries that are hit hardest by the impact of this leadership shortage. Source: Aon Consulting. 63: Percentage of employers who allow flexible work schedules in order to prevent good workers from leaving their organizations, according to a survey conducted for Robert Half International. 62: Percentage who provide funding for additional training/certification in order to keep their workers. Source: Robert Half International. 44: Percentage of U.S. adults who are satisfied with the quality of primary and secondary education in the country, according to a survey by Gallup. 77: Percentage of parents of school-aged youth who say they are satisfied with their own children’s education. Source: Gallup. Idle Thought Puzzle answers on Page B4. “Tear man out of his outward circumstances; and what he then is -- that only is he.” -- Johann Gottfried Seume, author (Copyright 2008 John MacIntyre Inc. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.) |
