My Kids' Moral Character Starts with Me ... more on the Rowers

 

So, two kids have a brief brain explosion at an airport ... 

 

(photos from Facebook)

 

There is the Blog by Brendon Malone doing the rounds on Facebook entitled "Son, Your Character is More Important to Me than Legal Action".  This takes the writer's personal point of view as the parent of a two year old and imagines what this two year old might say in his defence, if as teenager he had been sent home having broken the law on a sports trip.  It basically argues that the boys parents have undermined the school's view of the code of conduct and by doing to have done a disservice to their children's upbringing and character.  A commonly held position on this issue.

I agree with Malone that kids need consequences and that it is bad for parents to be wishy washy on rules. 

I disagree with Malone's application of these principles to the current case.  Malone's argument is fatally flawed for four reasons:

Thoughts on the Row over the Rowers ... Putting the Just in Justice

So, a news story dominating our headlines over the last few weeks has been that of a couple high school rowers who acted like a pair of delinquents at an airport on the way to an important rowing event, the Maadi Cup.  The parents of the pair applied for a Judicial Review of the decision and won an interim injunction enabling their sons to attend the Maadi Cup.