The summer vacation has ended for school-aged children. The 2017-2018 academic year has begun.  The summer months tend to see an increase in juvenile crimes.

School is the training ground for children’s civility. However, the home is the nucleus for positive behavior and character. According to Dorothy Law Nolte in a poem titled, Children Learn What They Live, “If children live with fairness, they learn justice. If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect. If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.”

Good parents and outstanding educators model, at home and school, high moral standards and high expectations for students.

Our children should practice the positive experiences in their lives as a mechanism to reduce the high juvenile crime rate that plagues some communities. Oftentimes, schools that are located in high crime areas have excessive student office discipline referrals.

We must constantly tell with our students that, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people,” said Eleanor Roosevelt. There is power in positive students. Positive students become successful adults. They make valuable contributions to society.

Gerald Shirley
Retired School Administrator   
Selma City Schools
Selma