Common Sense: The Eulogy

On My Soapbox

The headline in the Saturday, August 22, 2009 Ft. Worth Star-Telegram read: “New Texas law seeks common sense instead of ‘zero tolerance’ in punishment of students.”

Here’s the definition of common sense according to my ancient Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary: Common Sense n : 1 : sound and prudent but often unsophisticated judgment 2 : the unreflective opinions of ordinary men. Wow! No wonder so few of us display it. Webster makes common sense almost sounds like a bad thing.

Also, according to Webster, if your opinions are reflective, they’re “thoughtful and deliberate.” Does this mean that if you practice common sense, you’re deliberately not thoughtful? I think I need a new dictionary!

“Common sense is not so common.” Voltaire

There are good reasons for Zero Tolerance: consuming alcohol under the legal age, illegal drugs, driving under the influence of alcohol, violence and weapons at school. Then what happens to peoples’ brains that make them suspend a student for a baseball bat in his car when baseball is a school sponsored activity? Was it because that student was not on the school’s baseball team? Actually he was on the school’s junior varsity team.

This really happened to Cory Henson, a 16-year old sophomore at a Texas high school, in 2004. The so-called bat was no more than eight inches long and it had broken off a trophy. What's even sillier is that there was a full-sized aluminum bat, along with other baseball equipment, in the trunk of Henson’s car. “Sgt. Daniel Garcia of the Fort Worth Police Department School Initiative Unit said he was not aware of the full-sized bat in the car. ‘If the student plays baseball at the school, then common sense would prevail in the situation,’ he said.” There’s that phrase again.

“You can’t legislate intelligence and common sense into people.” Will Rogers

Since Zero Tolerance was enacted, there are countless stories like Cory Henson’s all over the nation; and, dear unreflective reader, many are even more ridiculous. Students have been expelled for having a legal, non-prescription Advil on their person. Elementary students have been expelled for pointing pencils and saying "pow," and for drawing pictures of soldiers. In Texas an eight-year old student was expelled for bringing a butter knife to school to help with the preparation of his lunch. Wouldn’t it have been less traumatic for the child and better for all concerned if the teacher had taken the knife, helped him spread the peanut butter and jelly, then called the parent and said, “please come get your knife; we don’t allow them in school?” As for drawing pictures of soldiers? Come on!!

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

This is not an attempt to diminish the value of strong disciplinary policies in our schools. There are real problems in schools. I gotta think school administrators are just so overwhelmed nowadays that handing children over to the police for shooting a rubber band at someone makes some kind of weird sense to them. To their credit, many Texas school districts have changed their conduct policies since state lawmakers gave school administrators the option of “considering mitigating factors when deciding punishment.” Isn’t that what our judicial system supposedly guarantees our citizens? And shouldn’t the punishment fit the crime? School children have been denied this right since Zero Tolerance came to be, and school has become a circus of paranoia.

Frankly, I’m afraid that even mandating common sense wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of working. If there was really more common sense, would people leave babies and pets in cars in the summer—or anytime for that matter? We have to have laws about these things so people will use their heads.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)

Does it make sense to suspend a third grader for drawing a picture of his big brother, who was serving in the Army in Afghanistan, because the figure in the drawing had a gun? Does tossing a paper clip on a teacher’s desk constitute assault? Think about how being taken out of class by the police might affect a third grader and his classmates. Surely common sense tells us this kind of discipline is overboard.

So let’s revive poor old “common sense.” Mr. Webster may say it’s unsophisticated and ordinary, but surely it’s worth the effort. And good for Texas lawmakers! Let’s keep them aware of our feelings on these and other issues. Most of my readers no longer have children in primary and secondary schools, but we do have grandchildren, nieces and nephews in them. We are an enormous voting bloc with knowledge and experience and yes—common sense. Let’s share it!

Donna