BE SMART AND ACCEPT CORRECTION By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist Arrogance is everywhere in our culture. Most people do not like to be corrected. Even a kindergartener who easily corrects his mistakes is an unusual child in our always correct culture. Most often the teacher finds the child will object when asked to make necessary corrections on a piece of work. Modern parents read one or two parenting books and immediately become experts on how to raise theirs and everyone else’s child. Our culture is producing too many self-made, all-knowing experts, not only the parents but also the children are overly arrogant. Almost every teacher who studies and learns some educational ideas and concepts for their degree may think they are going to revolutionize education. However, they quickly learn that the actual students have methods, behaviors, and techniques to thwart the best laid plans of a well-meaning teacher. As every professional or trades person learns most of the significant job training comes while actually working on the job through practical feedback from a master of his craft or profession. Hardly anyone who starts a new area of study realizes how much they will be learning from those who are competent and experienced. They learn to be more productive by approaching their work in a more open, correct, questioning manner instead of attempting to be an instant expert. The student should accept the more experienced teacher’s advice at the beginning without comment. Accepting the professional assessment may or may not work depending on many variables such as personality and the teacher’s specific professional knowledge requiring them to perform the position well. However, by rejecting a unique approach before even trying it is a poor policy. The novice student should follow the teacher’s instructions carefully. A student learning a complicated field of study should ask questions with respect without trying to demean the teacher’s status and knowledge. If a young student is learning a well-established discipline that has specific “black and white” rules such as mathematics, there is no reason to argue. The correction is done specifically one way. The more specific the teacher’s rules are, the less arguments and debate will take place. Students need to comply with the rules and follow the corrections of the professional teacher without a wasteful, impractical debate. Once students learn to follow the teacher’s corrections without a waste-of-time argument to prove they are better and smarter than their teacher they can focus on their fields of study. Too many young children in elementary grades confront their experienced teachers through challenging them by acting as if their answers are always right and the teacher’s assessment is always incorrect. Many of today’s students are told at home how smart they are by their parents and refuse to accept they could be wrong and not as competent as the authority figures. These overinflated egos and over indulged youngsters are being taught the falsehood that they are smarter than they really are. When the parents actively review their child’s sloppy and incorrect assignments, they realize the child must listen to the teachers and even them more carefully. Learning is a lifelong activity that cannot succeed if the individual is “too smart for their britches.” Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers and blogs, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and the latest book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

DEMANDING JUSTICE FROM OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist Our justice system has become more permissive as our culture has gone full force in that direction. As the age of juveniles who have committed serious crimes such as murder, rape, and assault has decreased, the usual consequences for their transgressions should have become more severe. It has not. Just like public school where a student strikes another student or even a teacher, the punishment is no longer compulsory expulsion from the school or even receiving criminal charges. More common in today’s woke culture no one wants to be seen as the “bad person” but rather as a nice person who gives infinite chances to obnoxious or physically destructive behavior. This was the beginning of permissiveness that overlooked the crime. When modern parents stopped being strong parents it led to this near elimination of significant punishment. Discipline should have prevented children from going down the road to future arrogance and justifying indefensible behavior. Permissiveness has even invaded our court system. A person sentenced to prison for nine years for attempted murder of a police officer often is released on the streets after serving less than a year. When this criminal commits the same violence against another victim he could be released again back on the street to probably commit yet another similar crime. The “in-jail-quickly-released policy” has shown itself not to be an effective deterrent. It is a procedure that increases not discourages acting out. It has been an utter policy failure. Just like parents who talk tough but do not follow through on their punishment, the child’s behavior worsens. Instead, the child realizes the parents are “full of hot air” and disregards their pronouncements of punishment. The child is encouraged to “push the envelope” because they know they will not receive a significant consequence. The child is emboldened to do greater episodes of misbehavior. Lenient district attorneys and judges are going down the same path as modern parents. The malpractice by both needs to be reversed. DAs and/or judges need to receive negative consequences if they release a criminal with a long history of committing crimes such as murder, rape, or other serious crimes. The DAs and judges who release criminals prematurely without punishment should be fined or be dismissed from their position. This would discourage the legal official from only considering the perpetrators future life but also have concern for their own careers. The DAs or judges need to consider the criminal less and the community more because that is what they are elected to do. A Texas school shooter shot two students, was not arrested but released and not charged. He went home to a party that his family threw for him. He has reason to believe he was not going to be punished for his outrageous behavior and had every right to celebrate living in a totally permissive criminal system. The present pathetic justice system is terrific for law breaking criminals but has become a disaster for law abiding citizens. Our justice system is broken, and law-abiding citizens are the ones to suffer. There is no justice in ignoring the criminals who harm, abuse, or even kill someone who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Without fear of serious consequences, the criminals will be more brazen, causing more grief to innocent bystanders. Our protection of innocent people is collapsing. Our justice system will only improve when citizens stand up “en masse” to demand the protection of our citizens, police, and court system to provide strong leadership. This will only occur when citizens stand up together with one single voice to demand justice from our entire justice system. Things will only change for the better when we unite and challenge what is happening. Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers and blogs, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and the latest book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.