Taken from a Dear Abby column on April 19th:

‘It’s hard enough wrangling an energetic kid while trying to shop, do banking or send mail without being constantly pestered by strangers. Do you have any thoughts on this? — MOM IN HILLSBORO, OREGON

DEAR MOM: If your child is so disruptive that individuals feel the need to intervene or offer “parenting advice,” then it’s time you took some of it to heart.

If she’s bored while you’re doing errands, bring something along for her to do rather than use her “outside voice” or run wild in the aisles.”

Eduhonesty: This child will be in school some year soon. As I read this column, I thought of one of my students. I have an email from the administration saying mom wants to speak to his teachers. She thinks he is being picked on and is not being challenged.

I think her kid is a major handful. Don’t get me wrong I like the kid. He has a lot of energy and he can be pretty entertaining. But I think the problem was captured when I asked him after school how his day went and he loudly belted out — in a hallway crowded with exiting students — “SHIT, YEAH!” I can totally see him doing the same in some classroom or another, just to let off steam. When he missed class a few days back for some unknown disciplinary infraction in the cafeteria, I was not surprised.

Mom would no doubt ascribe this off-the-chain behavior to not being challenged, but I don’t think a more challenging environment would improve her boy’s behavior. In fact, greater challenges might lead to greater wackiness. Upping the bar increases kids’ stress and I suspect stress may be part of my student’s problem — that, and/or seventh grade hormonal changes, along with some unfortunate choices in friends.

Like I say, I like this boy. I see a lot of potential in him. But his mom is doing him no favors by trying to figure out what the school and its teachers are somehow doing wrong to cause his misbehavior. If this boy does not start to own his own behavior soon, he may fall into that victim mode some students adopt to explain away their failures.

Blaming others for failures tends to insure those failures never end.