Many parents in today’s culture worry about what kind of a world their children will grow up in. Will they be able to tell right from wrong, will they remember not to talk to strangers, will they be able to manage their bank accounts, respect their elders, and sync their electronics? But is there something more sinister than those violent Veggie Tale video games that are destroying the minds of today’s youth? The answer is yes. It is the previously acclaimed book series made popular in elementary school nationwide written by Gertrude Chandler Warner: The Boxcar Children. These books are a dangerous example to the youth of today by running away from home, disrespect of elders, skipping school, their blatant disregard for law, even going as far as taking the law into their own hands instead of going to a trusted authority figure for help.
First off, this riff-raff of a group of children runs away from their parents to scavenge and live of nature in the forest outside a nearby town of Greenfield. Sure, their parents are dead, but that’s no excuse to run wild around in a forest and living in an abandoned boxcar and using a can and a stick for a soup ladle. I mean really. What twelve year old girl *cough, Jessie* knows the correct boiling point at which water is purified to drink or make soup? That’s probably the whole reason Violet gets sick and has to stay at grandfather’s house, it’s not due to a fever, Jessie knowingly gives her family poisoned food to get rid of them, only this attempt went awry and now she’s stuck with them all for the rest of her life. That’s natural selection and survival of the fittest right there. It’s practically a regular CSI: Greenfield, Horatio Cane, we need you to set these kids on the straight and narrow.
Second, when they finally meet their grandfather after Violet’s suspicious illness, they completely act like he’s not there and treat him like a convict fresh out of prison. The four of them stick together incessantly and fail to branch out or attempt to make friends. They ignore and are standoffish with their grandfather’s housekeeper and secretly hate her cooking, giving little hints as to the nature of their opinion. Even at school, the children’s teachers have to rein in their behavior, constantly setting up meetings with their grandfather to discuss his lack of discipline in his household.
Speaking of school, that brings us to the third point: the boxcar children set a horrid example for today’s youth by always skipping school to hang out together and participate in recreational activities instead of doing schoolwork like the rest of children their ages. It is a mystery how these children appear to be so educated based on their school day to vacation time ratio. In every book they are on vacation or are conveniently “on school break”. I don’t think so. These children are irresponsible trouble-makers who take a month off in the middle of the school year to go on a cruise and live on an island. Their teachers give them make up work, but they leave it by the wayside, swimming, tanning, and making googley-eyes at boys. (The girls that is. The boys act all mature and “help out” around the ship. We know they’re just scoping out all the good rooms to take for themselves.)
Next, these children have a blatant disregard for local and governmental law, even to the point of taking the law into their own hands and attempting to apprehend random criminals they think are “up to no good”. These kids are just a bunch of crazies! Everywhere they go they seem to notice “mysteries” and “inconsistencies” in their chosen vacation location. They should not be demonstrating this incessant curiosity toward there surroundings, it’s unnatural, not to mention mentally unhealthy. In one book, the children are specifically told not to look into some strange activity and even threatened with a scary note, but what to they do? They gather up some matches and a flashlight and go looking for clues in the dark, at midnight, in a city square they are unfamiliar with. Very irresponsible and careless. It doesn’t even matter that no one ever gets hurt and the criminals are always caught red handed, these four boxcar children are just so stupid and inconsiderate for others and the law in general!
Another example of their lack of regard for law is that Henry, who is only fourteen mind you, “drives the family station wagon”. And he has a job which means he obviously lied about his age on his application and continues to pretend he is older than he actually is. It is illegal to drive a car alone if you are under the age of sixteen, except for some rural farm areas located north of the Boondocks, as it is illegal to work under a certain age without parental or guardianship permission. And since we all know Henry’s parents are dead, and there is no mention of his grandfather signing any permission slip of any kind, we can only logically come to the conclusion that Henry lied on his application for his job and drivers license. Is this the kind of role model we want for our children today?
There are many, many other examples of the moral corruption of these children and their lifestyles located in these sinister books, but these are only a handful. Books like these, and especially this particular book series, are corrupting today’s youth teaching that it is okay to run away from your parents, disrespect one’s elders, skip school, and disregard the law or enforce it yourself. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (and authors after) are corrupting the minds and morals of today’s youth and we shall not stand for it! Give them something better to focus their attention to like drugs and alcohol, at least the consequences for those are positive and predictable: coolness and elevated social standing among peers.
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