Watching the drama unfold on the campuses of pricey Ivy League U.S. schools and now at least five Canadian universities over the past few days, I keep asking myself this question:Where are the parents in all of this?
Parents who’ve paid up to $70K per year to attend these halls of upper learning have, for the most part, been strangely silent about the odious activities of their little darlings.
We’ve witnessed a motley collection of keffiyeh- and mask-clad students creating encampments on college and university property, shouting hateful chants about Jews, in the case of Columbia occupying a building and holding maintenance staff hostage, and at some American universities (UCLA being one) blocking Jewish students from entering the college grounds.
It took two weeks to clear out Columbia – the worst situation of all, where entitled students were upset that food was not being delivered directly to the building they occupied.
One PhD student – an avowed leftist – told the media students were going to die if they did not get humanitarian aid.
Encampments or sit-ins have also been set up at McGill, the University of Alberta, University of Ottawa, University of British Columbia, and most recently, Toronto Metropolitan University.
At McGill, the administrators claimed they were trying to “negotiate” with the protesters, who like all the others are not just denying the atrocities of Oct. 7 but goading Jewish students to “return to Europe.”
Their latest demands involve calling for university and college administrations to divest from Israeli companies and boycott Israeli academics – which is blatantly antisemitic.
There is no negotiating with these out of control brats.
I have wondered and continue to wonder how parents feel seeing their little darlings spouting hate on TV, or refusing entry to Jewish students or in the case of the leftist PhD student at Columbia, what they think about a daughter who expects food to be delivered to the building she and her colleagues trashed and vandalized.
Are they the slightest bit embarrassed when their semi-articulate progeny mouth the same talking points on TV and cite lies about the number of Palestinian deaths?
What do they think when their kids prevent Jews from entering the grounds of the colleges where they are students?
Are they the slightest bit upset that their kids are protesting instead of completing their final exams or looking for a summer job?
Are they proud of their hateful little darlings?
Or are they in denial?
I know from covering the Toronto District School Board and other school boards in Ontario that there are many parents who have completely abdicated responsibility for their kids to the school system.
There are also parents who are invested in their kids’ schooling and have tried to stand up for what’s right.
They have found themselves shut out, patronized by school administrators, subjected to name-calling, or simply treated horribly. I have witnessed that at several school board meetings. Often the parents back off for fear it will impact on how their kids are treated in the classroom.
That said, these parents are at least invested and likely ensure their kids have boundaries.
But judging from what we’ve seen on college and university campuses in the past few weeks, it seems invested parenting is a thing of the past.
I’m certainly no expert but I have watched the decay of morals and respect during my journalism career.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem that kids are learning right from wrong. They have no moral compass, no direction and no boundaries.
In fairness, most of our political leaders lack a moral compass and the leftist professors at colleges and universities indoctrinate them with impunity. The administrators of these colleges and universities throw up their hands and do nothing, citing free speech rights.
Weak parents, like weak politicians, likely find it far easier to pander to their kids, to give them everything they want than to deal with the fallout (including childish temper tantrums).
Problem is, parents either want to be best friends with their kids or shower them with praise, cash and material objects as a substitute for actually spending quality time with them.
How many times have we seen entire families at a restaurant dinner playing with their iPhones – or allowing their kids to tune out and text or take selfies.
I’ve seen parents trying to reason with their brats when they act out.
I’m not at all saying they should engage in the kind of physical punishment that was common when I was growing up. But the pendulum has swung completely in the opposite direction.
They support them financially no matter what, there is no withdrawal of any privileges and as many have said, they likely bailed out the kids who’ve been arrested for their crimes at American universities.
It horrifies me to think that there may also be radical parents who think there’s nothing wrong with what their kids are doing because it is all in the name of free speech and democratic rights.
There are ignorant parents too, as we’ve seen from the crazy activities and pronouncements of our NDP politicians in Canada.
But there’s also the idea that some parents are simply afraid of their kids.
Because of a soft upbringing with no consequences or through no fault of their own, these kids go off to university and become easily indoctrinated, easily swayed through peer pressure to belong to whatever cause–and come home mouthy and insolent.
Remember these are the potential leaders of tomorrow.
It makes me terribly sad to see this absolute abdication of consequences, boundaries and plain old discipline.
The kids are certainly not alright.
