Sharing Roles with Parents

12 Steps to Raisng a

Juvenile Delinquent

1. Begin with infancy to give the child everything he wants. In this way he will grow up to believe the world owes him a living.
2. When he picks up bad words, laugh at him. This will make him think he’s cute.
3. Never give him any spiritual training. Wait until he is twenty-one and then let “him decide for himself”.
4. Avoid the use of “wrong”. He may develop a guilt complex. This will condition him to believe later, when he is arrested, that society is against him and he is being persecuted.
5. Pick up everything he leaves lying around. Do everything for him so that he will be experienced in throwing all responsibility on others.
6. Take his part against neighbors, teachers, and policemen. They are all prejudiced against your child.
7. Quarrel frequently in the presence of your children. In this way they won’t be so shocked when the home is broken up later.
8. Give the child all the spending money he wants. Never let him earn his own.
9. Satisfy his every craving for food, drink, and comfort. See that his every sensual desire is gratified.
10. Let him read any printed material, and listen to any music he can get his hands on. Be careful that the silverware and drinking glasses are sterilized, but let his mind feast on garbage.
11. When he gets into real trouble, apologize to yourself by saying, “I could never do anything with him.”
12. Prepare for a life of grief. You will likely have it.

Taken from the pamphlet entitled Twelve Rules for Raising Delinquent Children

Distributed by the Houston Police Department.

I recieved a copy of this from a colleague about three years ago.

I share this with parents on Back to School nights.

More and more parents are more concerned with remining buddies with their adolescent children rather than defining clear expectations in the development of character and integrity.

This places an ever increasing burden on the roles of teachers as educator, mentor, role model, disciplinarian and guide through this very trying time in a teenagers life.

The role of teacher becomes more powerful as most students entrusted to our care, will spend more waking hours in our classrooms than with their parents throughout their high school years.