Elementary school age, Cub Scout member. On days we had "den" meetings after school at one of the members homes, we wore our uniforms to school. Part of the uniform was our folding knives which hung from a hook on our belt. We could have the knives on us at school as long as we followed 3 rules:
1. They were to never to be used as a weapon
2. They were never to be used to mark or scratch on our desks
3. They were never to be used to cut off some girls ponytail. Yes, that is a very true rule
Violation of any of these rules led to confiscation, punishment, and you and all other scouts would never be allowed to have knives at school again. Greatest fear of scouts? Causing your fellow scouts not to be allowed to carry their knives because of something you did wrong. Different times for sure.
Back when it was understood that with freedom, comes responsibility. And people took that responsibility seriously.
How to we get back to that…and away from the entitlement that permeates our culture now? I honestly don’t know what the right answer will be, but hope it doesn’t take a collapse and rebuilding of civilization. We worked so hard to get where we are…well, where were anyway, and I don’t want my kids or grandkids to have to rebuild from scratch.
We just found out our son and his wife are having our first grandchild in September (!) and it’s definitely changed our perspective. I’m hopeful, but there’s certainly a lot more anxiousness going into my thought processes these days.