BY MIKE CETERA
The Sun-Times had piece over the weekend about high school -- and even middle school -- students ratcheting up the sexually suggestive moves during school-sponsored dances. The report calls the dance style juking.
Of course, this battle between school administrators and students has been fought before. Just last year, the Oswego School District banned "objectionable, sexual dancing."
According to a reader poll last year in The Beacon News, an overwhelming majority of people (roughly 75 percent) think sexually suggestive dancing has no place in school.
Here's some sampled responses:
* "I just think it's very disgusting and just something that shouldn't happen at a high school event."* "It's remarkable that everybody sees the obvious but the parents today."
* "I think it's terrible the way the young people dance nowadays. It looks like they're just having sex on the dance floor."
* "It comes down to a basic lack of respect for authority. Every generation has had it, but this generation today, it's a whole lot worse."
* "What are they going to do next, provide cots in the hallway for the kids?"
* "I think the principal should realize that they're going to grind no matter what and so I think they should just cancel the dance. I think the adults should take charge."
* "I would say if this is the way they move to the type of music they listen to, we should provide some different music for them to listen to."
* "I've seen this type of dancing with the kids and it's disgusting, and a couple of years from now they're going to look back and say the same thing."
According to the Sun-Times story, schools like Naperville North are going as far as posting rules on the back of dance tickets clearly outlawing "sexually explicit" and "front-to-back dancing."
"It's simulated sex. That's my definition of juking, and scarily, the kids are very good at it," said Bruce Romain, Evanston Township High associate principal. "We don't think it's school-appropriate."
My question here is, what do adults (and parents) think dancing is all about? Dancing has always been an expression of sexuality. Should kids be grinding against one another? No. But to expect a group of hormonally-charged teens to act chaste in a situation designed for sexual expression is a bit much to ask. It's like asking a lion to choose the salad over the giant hunk of meat in his cage. Mixed signals, anyone?
If adults are (rightfully) concerned about what their children are doing, isn't it better to remove them from the temptation (take the meat out of the cage)? With homecoming season upon us, should we revisit the propriety of school-sponsored dances?
Take the meat out of the cage? We should let them dance naked?
Juke dancing wasn't a problem in the Chicago Public Schools but as soon as it hit the suburbs, it became a problem.
Tyring to prohibit this kind of dancing is just going to make it more appealing for the kids to want to do. We say no and they want to do it even more. It is kind of like in the old days when teachers would go around with rulers making sure that the dancers were no too close to eachother. I do not agree that kids should be doing this but the way this is be addressed I believe will not make it stop. Besides I think that we should be a litle more worried about what kids are doing after the dance when they are left alone to party and drink