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Originally posted by smoothmoniker
Are we leaving no room for the possibility that parents are dropping off undisciplined, angry, ill-prepared kids with no respect for adults or authority, and that the best of teachers with the greatest of intentions is wasted on being a warden?
My wife teaches 1st grade at a private school, and there are students who flat our refuse to follow any instruction she gives, who are being trained by their parents that if they scream loud enough, they’ll get to keep playing with their toy, or watching TV, whatever.
My dad was a math teacher at an urban school for 35 years, in the trenches of education. By the time he left, it wasn’t because he didn’t love teaching; it was because he wasn’t able to teach. He spent his whole time on classroom management, and it was on things like “Don’t smoke week in my class”, “Stop copping a feel with your girlfriend in my class”, “Please don’t knife another student in my class.” How do you solve that with money?
Our culture has lost their ability to raise up their children...
-sm
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And basically we have a culture that does not value education. It is a very anti-intellectual time in the US.
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I agree with all of this. Schools emphasize sports over education, and let athletes get away with murder. People who can't spell are graduating because they can throw a ball or run. They're setting these kids up for failure, because the chances of them making the big leagues is almost nil; and when they DON'T make it, they have absolutely NO skills to fall back on.
As to the brats who are being sent to our public schools today: parents seem to think that it's the school's responsibility to discipline their children, and yet they bitch when the school does. It's also led to this "zero tolerance" for aspirin, prescribed meds, and a kindergarten boy kissing a kindergarten girl (sexual harassment....riiiiiiiiiiiight).
Of course, our government is contributing to the undisciplined nature of the kids nowadays. If you don't discipline your children, they want to hold you responsible for the kid's bad behavior, up to and including fines and jail time for parents. However, if you DO discipline your children, it's abuse.
Schools are here to teach the three R's, not discipline our children, or advocate religion or sexuality of any type (those three are the parent's domain). The social-work group doesn't help any, either, by refusing to hold children responsible for their actions because it's easier to blame the parents, environment, or society. As a result, kids learn that they won't be held responsible, and will always find someone willing to back their claims that it's someone else's fault. Therefore, why NOT run wild?
Because of that, the increasing dangerousness of today's kids, people don't WANT to be teachers. They don't get paid enough to go into a war zone, to be assaulted, cursed at, etc. That's why it seems that teachers don't give a shit anymore. They're counting the hours till they can escape, and do you blame them?
It's time to let people whip their kid's asses when they get out of hand. A paddling is NOT abuse. It is discipline. If parents were once again allowed to take control of their childrens' discipline, I think we'd see a decrease in juvenile delinquency.
When I was a kid, I was way more scared of my mother than I was of the cops. She never beat me, and she only hit me ONCE in my life. But she followed through on her threats to punish bad behavior. ....back when you could still pop your kid's bottom without someone calling child services on you.....
Sidhe