OPINION Blog | The Dallas Morning News

by letterseditor

The story of the Mesquite 4-year-old who doesn't want to cut his hair needs to have a followup in 10 years.

What we see in 2009 are two proud parents who are rearing their child to rebel against rules he doesn't like. What we will more than likely see in 2019 is two distressed parents of a rebellious 14-year-old whose rebellion is turned on them.

It is not a pretty scene to see normal teenage rebellion exacerbated by early intense training in defying authority.

This is when the parents come crying, "Help me control this child," to -- guess who -- the school.

Whether the Mesquite ISD hair rules make sense is not the point of this discussion. Children should certainly be taught to think for themselves and to question authority in an appropriate manner.

However, to make a public spectacle of an adorable, impressionable 4-year-old to fight a battle that has already been fought and won by the school district on numerous occasions is the wrong battle. The message they are sending to this precious little boy is one they will regret.

Re: "Rules don't apply ..." by Randy Smith, and, " ... to Mesquite 4-year-old," by Judy Gaman, Friday Letters.

Mesquite ISD will not admit that "long hair distraction rules" are irrational and futile, and Smith and Gaman have similarly learned to accept rules blindly.

Rules that don't make sense are unreasonable and often coercive. And a boy's long hair is not distracting; such a notion is unreasonable and absurd. It was invented, preached and absorbed.

It's archaic, old-fashioned, coercive -- a way to begin and maintain some arbitrary uniform.

We have rules and laws to protect individual rights. Thus it is "against the rules" to murder, steal, drink and drive, etc. since individuals have the right to be alive and, we all agree, to have property. The long hair of one individual does not violate any rights of another individual.

I found Smith's response laughable. He wrote that Taylor would "enter society with an attitude of disrespect and self-entitlement."

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