Dec. 6: Classes that should be mandatory in school, but aren't

 A while ago, I read an essay from a boxing enthusiast who opined that boxing should be taught in schools as part of the education curriculum. Not sure I agree. There's always a hyper aggressive kid in the class who will happily pummel their meek classmates. I thought wrestling was bad enough. 

But hey... boxing is a great way to teach kids to man up, I suppose. I'm cool with it if it's going to be taught by some no-nonsense military type who will whup the asses of smartass tough kids.

 

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Besides that, there should be a class that teaches kids not to be idiots. That's a great name for the class, actually. HOW TO NOT BE AN IDIOT101. I don't think I'm biased here when I say that boys need the class more than girls. I believe the data backs me up on this because men are charged with sexual assault a helluva lot more than women are.

At my high school, Bishop Grandin (since renamed Our Ladies of the Rockies after it was discovered that Bishop G was a fan of the residential school system) we watched a movie about date rape. I was in Grade 10 and the movie was watched as part of the physical education curriculum, which is both kind of odd and completely appropriate when you think about it. The movie was about a teenaged couple who went to a drive-in movie together and the boy forced himself on the girl. The girl pressed charges. The last shot showed the boy, dressed in a suit and tie, looking solemnly at the girl as they prepared to enter the courthouse.

After the movie was over, our gym teacher screamed at us to not take the subject matter lightly. He said it was of supreme importance that we respect whoever it is we are dating and not to think that we are owed sex just because they're with us. I took the subject matter seriously even though in Grade 10, it was a little redundant because no girl wanted to date me in the first place.

Even so, movies like that need to be shown and there should be a class on how not to be an idiot. What should happen is each student should have a bodycam secretly planted on them somewhere so their every interaction could be monitored for an entire week. Then the video would be played back for the whole school to see and my gym teacher would tell them how many times they were being jerks. 

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Honestly, the best thing we can do is bring back public flogging. If anyone gets out of line - students included - they should be publicly flogged. Public flogging is a great way to punish thieves, vandals, bullies, deadbeat dads - basically any criminal who is non violent. I quote the late great Ted Byfield, who once wrote that the strap teaches more in five seconds than a sensitivity workshop will teach in an entire year.

In Stettler, Alberta, while covering the court beat, a police officer and I fell into conversation. One of us said: "I don't care why people behave, I just want them to behave."

Amen and alleluia. God can deal with the motives of the heart. If the only reason you're not going to steal my car is because you know you'll get publicly whipped if you get caught, well then I think I can sleep at night.