Lazy -vs- Neglect

Is a person being lazy? Or are they neglecting their child? This question has plagued teachers, if not mankind, for many years.

Part of me wants there to be a very visible, very “no-doubt-about-it” line. The kind of line that once crossed sends up flares and sets off sirens. The kind of line that leaves no question at to whether CPS should be called.

However, the more rational and sane part of me knows that a line like that can never exist. For without this lazy/neglect gray area, there would be parents who would walk right up to the line and even flirt with it without ever going over. So, as hard as it is for me to accept, this gray area may actually be protecting some children.

In the eleven years I’ve been a teacher, I’ve had to call CPS on two different occasions and it broke my heart both times. Both were cases where I suspected neglect. However, both cases, after being investigated by overworked CPS officials, were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

As a teacher, I’m required to file a report with CPS if I even suspect that there could be abuse happening in a child’s home. Abuse can be as obvious as physical abuse, or as hard to spot as neglect or emotional abuse. If, or when to call is a quandary I’m faced with every year.

So, I leave you with this question:

When does being lazy, on the part of a parent, cross the line and become neglect?

No, I haven't disappeared...

As usually happens, my school-time postings are few and far between. Clocks are an unforgiving taskmaster, and time an all too precious commodity. Between class, daily after school meetings, tutoring and simply being a husband and father, I don’t have the leisure hours to devote to writing like I do in the summers.

Even as I write this I can hear this I can hear your hateful grumblings...but I’ve heard them all before.

“Poor little teacher only gets two and a half months off…boo-hoo!”

“Must be nice to have all that free time.”

“Quit your whining you lazy bastard!”

However, I am working on something…

Blog Spam

Recently I’ve been getting LOTS of blog spam. I don’t really see the purpose of blog spam, unless of course it’s someone’s desire to be a pain in my butt. If in fact someone does have that as their desire…then they have succeeded.

Anyway, since “blog spam” is evidently done automatically by a computer and the person responsible never actually logs onto my site (a fact which only adds insult to injury) I’ve had to activate a thing called “Word Verification.”

If you leave a comment it’s a simple word you type in box to verify that a person is actually leaving the comment. I’m quite sure some smart cookie will figure out a way to get the computers to bypass this step, yet still leave a comment. However, until that day arrives this Word Verification is what I’ve got.

Cross your fingers, and let’s see if this works.