"... Nobody's right if everybody's wrong ..."

     Reading another AOL Journal, SIMPLY READ, I noticed an entry about “becoming your parents.” 

     Yesterday I received in the mail Guidelines: School Sponsored Dances from our daughter’s high school. Some excerpts:

Alcohol Screening Devices: Students who choose to attend school dances will be subject to spot checks for the presence of alcohol. … If the screening device indicates the presence of alcohol the student(s) will be referred to the local police.

Dress / Dance: Students must be appropriately dressed for a school sponsored event. Dancing that is lewd or sexually explicit will not be permitted.

     The Rydell High School dance scene from “Grease” would be in jeopardy under these ‘guidelines’. <grin>

     Alcohol is a legal issue and not debatable. If ‘spot checks’ deter one high school age driver from driving under the influence I applaud the idea.

     The other problems challenge school administrations every where. However I can’t think of anything more inflammatory to the teenage ‘rebel spirit’ than a subjective rule about dress and dancing. School Boards seem to like to beat drums.

     I found myself reminiscing about my own high school years. In those days I graduated from a ‘segregated’ high school. Dance concerns were about the “wrong kind of music” and the advent of anti-war music (Viet Nam) and peace symbols in decorations <grin>. I couldn’t resist pushing the late 60's jukebox button for Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”:

“There's something happening here

What it is ain't exactly clear …

There's battle lines being drawn

Nobody's right if everybody's wrong

Young people speaking their minds

Getting so much resistance from behind"

     Maybe becoming a parent or simply surviving too many years, you can now “see” the bigger picture. Fortunately, high school is only a “blink” in the timeline of anyone’s life.