A few weeks ago, I read an open letter to parents of school children from “The Illusion of Adulting” by K. R. Schneider. Here’s my take for expressing its content with fictitious names and role plays.

Jack, a high school student, lives in a broken home. His parents are rarely there and when they are, they argue through the night. Sometimes they break things. Jack and his father have actually had fist fights while Mom screams at them to stop.

Jack is a discipline problem in the school he attends.

Jill, from the same high school, lives down the street in a home where everything she wants from her mother and her father she gets. Her mother tries to be Jill’s best friend. She even buys beer for her 16-year-old daughter and her high school friends on Saturday nights.

Jill is a discipline problem in school, too.

Just last week, this happened with Jack in his history class.

“Jack, please stop slapping your hands on the desk while I’m trying to teach.”

“I got a song in my head that’s really cool and I’m playing the drums along with it.” Jack keeps slapping the desk.

“I’ll ask you one more time to stop slapping the desk or you’ll have to go to the office.”

“I gotta finish my song,” he said with a smirk. “This is what I do to get me through this boring class.”

“Go to the office,” the teacher says. He slaps the desk with both hands, storms out of the room and slams the door closed behind him.

Down the hall, Jill takes out her cellphone in English class and begins texting.

“Jill, would you please put your phone away while I’m teaching?”

“Now why do I have to do that?” she says. “I might get an emergency call from my mother.”

“If there’s a problem, your mother can call the school.”

“I don’t think so,” said Jill. “My mom told me I can use my phone in school and what she says counts way more than what you say. I’m going to text her right now,” Jill begins to text again.

“Please leave the room and go to the office,” says the teacher.

“This stupid school is worse than a prison,” Jill shouts. “You wait until my mother hears about this!”

She leaves and slams the door behind her.

The principal tries to have Jack’s parents come to the school, but repeated calls go unanswered.

He calls an uncle whose name was on the family contact list and the man arrives two hours later while Jack waits outside the office.

“Mr. Johnson, Jack is being suspended for three days for insubordination of one of our teachers. This will be his third offense. I’ve checked his progress reports and he’s failing every class.”

“Not my problem,” said Mr. Johnson. “I have nothing to do with him or his parents. We had a falling out two years ago. I’ll take the kid home this time, but don’t call me no more. Like I said, he’s not my problem.”

Jill’s mother arrives and enters the principal’s office while her daughter waits in the lobby.

“What’s wrong with this school?” she asks. “No wonder that your teachers are pathetic and the kids hate it here. Jill has my permission to send me a text message whenever she wants. What’s the big deal? You know, I can get a lawyer and sue you for harassing my daughter.”

“We have a rule that cellphones cannot be used during instructional time,” the principal says.

“Rules, rules,” replied Jill’s mother with a laugh.

“My daughter and I have a wonderful relationship and I have told her that she doesn’t have follow any rules if she doesn’t think they are helping her learn. I told her to show no respect to anyone if they don’t respect her first. You tell that to her stupid teacher who went crazy over a cellphone.”

There is an alarming shortage of teachers in America. In Nebraska alone, there are 1,000 openings at every level from elementary to high school.

The letter writer points to the two problems that were role played in this column. One is absentee or neglectful parents who have never taught their children a sense of discipline and structure in public places. The other problem is “yes” parents who never say “no” to their children which gives the kids a sense of entitlement to get what they want, a dilemma that might begin when they’re two years old and cry for a toy that mothers give them just to keep them quiet.

The open letter was written for “parents who don’t parent.” Ironically, it mentions that kids crave structure and discipline though they will always test the boundaries.

Without structure, their lives spin out of control because life in the public requires that they respect authority. They will disrespect their coach because their parents have bad-mouthed him or her.

They will make racist remarks because they have heard their parents make them. They will quit jobs because they don’t like bosses telling them what to do.

A disturbing consequence about parents who don’t parent is not only a rapidly declining number of teachers in America, but also the diminishing numbers of college students who want to get degrees in education.

The author of the letter writes, “If we want this tide to turn, to pull teachers into the classroom instead of driving them out – raising our children is where is starts. This lack of parenting is an epidemic and your children deserve better than that. They deserve every opportunity to learn how to be good people and while we can absolutely reinforce that concept in schools, it starts at home.”

Email Rich Strack at richiesadie11@gmail.com.