Copyright 2007 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
There has been an ongoing spate of incidents wherein a few adult school teachers have been initiating romantic dalliances with students. It may bring to mind the old teenage fantasy of scoring with an attractive high school teacher. Fantasy is not reality, and in actual cases the reality is terribly sordid. The strange thing is that is it is not limited to a few pedophiles who managed to get teaching jobs. The current crop of malefactors have not fit the classic pedophile profile. Instead, they appear to be male and female teachers who would otherwise seem normal.
The first major case happened a few years ago, when a teacher named LeTorneau aimed her affection at a 12 year old male student. That shocked the nation, as have the subsequent shenanigans of the former teacher. More shocking is that other cases crop up with an eerie frequency. The latest involved a 26 year old woman who ran of with a 13 year old boy.
What ever happened to the days when teachers saw their work as a social responsibility, and acted accordingly?
Most teachers are responsible people who genuinely care for the welfare of their students. The few sleazers who prey on children are not representative of dedicated educators. Instead, they represent an awful malaise that has affected our society for at least two decades.
Forty years ago, people were taught to temper personal satisfaction with the good of others. They learned that it was wrong to take advantage of others just to satisfy oneself, for any purpose. There was no excuse. These days, people are taught a looser set of ethics. They are given the impression that life is a Me thing, not a We thing. They are taught that they are entitled to enjoy whatever they want. As one writer put it, “I can do whatever I want, and nothing is my fault.” There is no concern for the rights or well-being of others. I describe it as a “Me first, screw you” mentality. While that way of thinking is more annoyance than anything else, it can become malevolent. Look at the recent spate of road rage incidents as but one example of selfishness at an extreme.
This new era of selfishness has a sick and predatory fringe element. In the old days, a person who did shameful things would say nothing. What was shame then is now touted as “right” by the perverted malefactors of the current day. That is the height of absurdity, yet how often do we hear of people excusing every sort of extreme behavior? And excuse or not, it does not change the facts. It is an evil mentality that makes the well-being of children secondary to the pleasures of an adult. No excuse can mitigate such a thing.
Years ago people had a social conscience. This prevented many from acting on their worst urges. Cases of perversity were less common. With no sense of social responsibility, people who might otherwise behave feel no restraint from doing wrong. This is why we have so many incidents of predatory shenanigans, from teachers wooing kids to Internet freaks trying to seduce children. Sadly, it was almost a national sport thanks to sensationalistic shows such as “To Catch a Predator.” That kind of “entertainment” is nothing more than self-righteous video voyeurism.
The cure is to instill in the young a sense of social responsibilty and the fact that life is both a WE and a ME thing. People need to know that they are responsible for how they treat others.
We already have a glimpse of a future when it will be harder to enforce ethics. The cure is simple: instill a set of self-reinforcing standards in the young. Teach people to accept and live up to something better. We cannot rely on schools or government,. This has to be done in the home, by the family.
