As a kid, I did OK in school and my parents never gave me any grief about my report cards. It would never occur to me to hide my report card or not give it to my mom when I got home from school.

In junior high, one of my buddies, Kevin, didn’t get very good grades. I was shocked to find out that he parents would beat the crap out of him for every grade below a C on his report cards regardless of the teacher or the subject. His dad would scream at him about being an embarrassment to his family for being below average and that no one in his family was below average but Kevin.

In my mind that is abuse, but back then no one would call out people for abusing their kids or their wives. People just suffered through it. There is still abuse like that going on in today’s world. I don’t think anyone has a solution to a huge social problem like this. The abused kids and wives don’t speak out because their alternative to that kind of home life would be living in a shelter and being in poverty for years. They have to choose between two evils, and most people stick with the familiar, no matter how brutal and unfair it may be.