Wednesday, January 26, 2011

An ode to court(ing) and love.

I'm awake and the time is only 5:37 a.m. I've already hit the e-mail box and FB for a quick check. Nothing that I'm looking for in the e-mail box.

Just recently I've put my nose back in The Five Love Languages book. Do you know that there is also a book for teens? I've seen, or heard of, the one for kids. Now I want to read the one for parents of teens. Life's learning curve sometimes throws me for incredible loops. I'll be the first to say that I have a difficult time with teens. Love 'em to pieces, just found it much easier to diaper bottoms and clean up puke. I am trying. That's all I can say.

While I'm on the subject of teens .... Brock has already posted something on his FB about court and the likes. I figure that gives me free reign. If he hadn't, I'd keep my mouth shut. It is irrelevant what he managed to get himself into, the path to correcting the mistake is what I find fascinating. His misdeed is certainly not irrelevant to life. He isn't the first to fall into this trap and won't be the last. It is irrelevant to this topic. Yesterday we met with Youth Court. I had no clue that a "jury of his peers" meant exactly that. I hope your child is never found in this position. I really want to expose you to the other possiblities available. Youth Court is found nationwide, in every state except Connecticut, from what I was told yesterday. High school students train to run the entire court room. They play the positions of judge, defense and prosecuction (with first and second chairs) and everything else. They have the case file before the court date. The defense "attorney" will call his/her "client" and discuss the case. Following the evidence in court, they deliberate and they pass sentence according to guidelines given them. I just took a quick peek at the site and must correct something. It looks as if there are different variations of the Youth Court, with adult judges in 51% of the courts. Whether or not a high school student is headed for law school, or something in the field of law, this looks absolutely fascinating! What a great way to learn about our justice system and see it work first hand. A fantastic way to be involved in your community, to positively influence your peers and make a difference in today's world. Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Conner is very active in the organization as well. If you have a teen, or know a teen, gander over and take a peek.
..... and in other breaking developments around here ...

**I am not only doing our income tax return, but the kids' returns as well. That means we have 5 of them to do. Thank you Tia for not working yet. I got one done last night and was rewarded with a major look of relief on someone's face.
**Manged to move 3 months of cd pictures to an external hard drive. This counts in the pitch 25 things a week category and I need to play catch up.
**The temp this morning is 30 degrees. We saw rain yesterday.

4 comments:

Susan Stevenson said...

My youngest son got in trouble when he was 16 and in high school. Fortunately, his case was turned over to the local "Teen Court", rather than going through our county courthouse. This not only taught him a valuable lesson, but also gave him a second chance, as it was the first time he had gotten in trouble.

I think that Teen Court or Youth Court, or whatever it's called in various communities, is an awesome program! My son's sentence was to participate as a jury member, and to also perform 50 hours of community service. We were living in NC at the time, and he went to work for a farmer, cleaning the stalls and stable. He definitely learned his lesson!

Susan

Anonymous said...

Uh Oh! What did he do? Or is it better not to mention?
~ Joyce

Anonymous said...

I don't think it matters what some one has done, but what can be done about it an learn from it.

Heather said...

We don't have youth court up here but it sounds fascinating. We have drug court and I think that is awesome - gets away from the more punitive approach and focuses on a team aiding in getting back on track. I'll have to research Youth Court.

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