Dear Editor,

This is my first letter to the editor. The topic I have is in regards of our public schools.

I am a father of four, three of my own and stepfather of another. Three of them attend Lincoln Elementary. For some time I have been stopping myself from posting anything about my children’s behavior when they come home from school. I grew up kinda old school, born in ’84. Never ever have I feared any teacher. I feared my parents.

Disciplining my children at home is becoming more and more of a challenge. At first I have tried doing the timeouts and sit-in-a-corner tactics, but they work for only a short period of time. I take away games and phones, and they just cry and cry and scream and destroy our home until we give them what they want. I’m at the point of wanting to start spanking my children. Because that is what kinda worked for me.

But when it comes that time, I get threats of getting the cops called on me or even them saying they are gonna tell the teacher. Heck, I have even had the police show up to our house because of our kids screaming because they don’t wanna clean a mess after themselves and one time because I took their phone away. And this has been going on for the past two years.

During the summer the kids start behaving and getting a routine and then as soon as school starts it’s back to acting out against their mother and I. What’s going on at school? Lincoln Elementary is supposed to be a Christian-based school. Children are to respect their biological parents and fear God. We as parents should not be fearing our children calling the cops or let alone threatening to tell their teacher for wanting to discipline our kids.

What makes me even more disappointed in our schools is that they are having our kids beg for money for fundraisers instead of selling candy or doing some kind of work to earn that money. School is supposed to be a foundation of discipline and education to learn skills like writing, reading, mathematics, history, to learn about the past to help make a better future. I understand these fundraisers are to help with education, but I won’t allow my children to participate in a fundraiser that doesn’t teach them something besides going door to door asking for money.

Jeffrey Brown