Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance

I just saw on CNN a story about a kid who got suspended
from school for hugging his girlfriend.

Not a 'love rub', as my Algebra teacher used to say;
just put his arm around her for a few seconds.

Why all the hub-bub?

The school has a 'no-touching' policy.

No hand-holding. No handshakes. No high-fives.
No touching whatsoever.

The policy is supposed to prevent problems in the
middle school. It's designed to protect the students.

The trouble with Zero Tolerance is that it's too
black and white. No thinking involved. No
critical judgment. No humanity.

When the PTA president was asked about high-fives,
she said this:

"High-fives can lead to trouble. Two guys start
high-fiving, then a few of there friends want to
get involved, then there are high-fives everywhere,
elbows flying, a traffic jam in the hall, then
someone could get hurt or knocked down or fall and
get stepped on...and we don't need that."

No, I'm not kidding, and yes, she said it with a
straight face.

We can't have high-fives flying everywhere all
willy-nilly now, can we?

Bad touch--bad. Uninvited touching--bad. But even if
some handshakes are 'gang signs', there's nothing
wrong with kids touching each other.

Actually, it's essential.

The CNN segment also included some input from a
child psychologist, who reinforced the importance
of touch, especially at the middle school age.

So, in trying to help the kids, we're actually hurting
them (or at least these idiots in VA are)...

Zero Tolerance doesn't work in eating, either.
This black-and-white thinking will unravel even the
best of intentions.

I got a good quizzing this weekend from my parents
about Caveman Cuisine
http://www.drvinceonline.com/caveman.htm

What about corn? What about potatoes? What about
baked potatoes? What about sweet potatoes?
What about oatmeal? Steel-Cut oatmeal?
What about peanuts? What about beans?

And I know they were a little frustrated, but a
little happy, because I didn't say that they were
'bad', but I didn't say they were good, either.

I just said that certain things were in the original
diet and some things weren't. And there are options
to reduce, avoid or eliminate certain foods.

Some people call grains, beans, potatoes, and such
'no-nos' or 'forbidden fruit'.

Not me. I'm practical.

I know that the body can adapt, and there is a built-in
fudge factor in our anatomy and physiology that lets us
eat some 'inappropriate' foods without paying for it.

Which is also the problem with adaptation. We don't
pay for it, so we keep eating it. THEN it catches
up to us later...and we've got epidemics of diabetes,
obesity, etc...and our kids are out of shape and
gonna die much sooner than we are.

Unless we change.

Unless we model and teach them that life is more
about gray than black and white, and we should
apply our human mind, judgment and use our brains
to think about what we do...and the choices we
make.

How we touch each other, how we treat each other, and
the food we put into our mouths.

In fact, my closing tagline (which I'm glad so many
of you love) implies that we have choices in our
lives and how we live them.

So teach your kids to take control of their choices,
and Live like They Mean it...

Dr. Vince

PS The Caveman Cuisine QuickStart Guide and CD
details the 'reduce, avoid and eliminate' strategy,
as well as other ways to get healthy and lose weight
really FAST...YOU can get them when you take the
Dr. Vince Caveman Club test drive...right here
http://www.drvinceonline.com/caveman.htm