An excerpt from a recent post by Jove:
"For me, the particular words are of less concern than the intention of their use. Swearing I don’t have a problem. Even swearing while teaching. Swearing at students (or anyone, really) is another story altogether. I am sometimes struck by the way that parents who would chastise their children for swearing might leave them alone if they use made up words to express the same emotions. In particular, if a child is name-calling with the intention of making another child feel bad, I don’t think it matters whether he calls him a shithead or a boobledeeboo. The intention to make another child feel bad is what is wrong with the scenario, not the choice of vocabulary to execute that intention. And I think sometimes objections to “bad language” are standing in for objections to the emotions they express."
I do see her point; I really do. But if my baby J were to up and call someone an S-head I'd about flip. Well, for joy. We want the kid to say ANYTHING, SOMETHING, please! We can work on controlling our language once we have some extra to put away in the "do not say" file. I would have to say I'd really wonder where the kid got it from because we don't speak that way around here. No, not getting uppity. Just saying we don't. So I would be just as surprised if J spoke French suddenly.
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Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
((Mrs. C))
ReplyDelete"We want the kid to say ANYTHING, SOMETHING, please!"
I SO understand this feeling.
Words, verbal expression of emotion, maybe even used in a self-advocating situation - yes, I'd take swearing at this point and be happy to have it :0)
ReplyDeleteWe totally don't cuss around here. Ha ha. The funny thing is these are my kids way of expressing frustration:
ReplyDelete"Oh brother!"
and
"Good Grief!"
No seriously. We do not cuss at our house ever. Bad, bad habit and completely stupid.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, meant to mention. I think when people cuss, something about it just makes them seem less intelligent. I don't know why, it just sounds that way to me. Like they couldn't think of a word to express their feelings so they just say f***.
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is not directly related to the post but, as I was reading this I remembered an incident that occurred when Marissa was in, I think, second grade. I had to go to the school to meet with the teacher because Marissa had told another child to, "Kiss my..." while slapping hers.
ReplyDeleteI had punished Marissa before going to meet the teacher and I nearly choked when I learn the other student had first called her a "Dead Loser" while making hand motions to slit his throat and then holding his fingers up in an "L."
Now, I don't necessarily approve of Marissa's response. We have worked oh so many years on teaching her to ignore some people who are just jerky... but I did wonder why in the world the boy's mother wasn't sitting across the table from me talking about her child's behavior.