Have Kids Gone Wild?

I teach preschool through a non-profit organization that rnus Head Start programs and I see 3-5year olds who have been taught taht it is ok to humiliate someone, hit someone, be disrespectful of adults and others and as far as I am concerned it is the parents. Not because they know better and are choosing to raise their children in this manner, but becasue they don't know better as most of them have been brought up in generations of not knowing better either. We have gone form one side of the extreme to the other. I do not believe in corporal punishment but what we have turned it to is far worse. Children are growing up with no sense of accountability, no sense of ethic and hard work, no sense of selflessness and absolutely no sense of respect. What happend to having to earn the respect of adults rather than demand that they respect you even when you make the stupidest choice possible in a situation. Basic respect for a person is given.....individual respect should be earned.

I deal with adults who are brand new in the military. Though we're in a school setting, we see the students more than public school teachers ever would. I can say that the quality of some of the students is amazing. They follow the rules, are mature, etc. And it's no surprise that they're in their mid to late twenties. The 18-20 year old students are, often, horrible to deal with. They are big little boys/girls. Many times we are made responsible to "fix" individuals who: want to marry strippers (if they're males) or fall into embarrassing promiscuity (if they're females), buy cars they can't afford, do not know how to clean their rooms or wash laundry (they openly state that their mothers did it all for them), get roped into buying cameras/computers at 3 times the cost and 21% interest, don't know how to mail a letter, fall into alcoholism, ... Frankly, I blame the parents for not preparing their children for the world, for thinking that someone ELSE should parent for them.

Maybe it coincides with the movement to "increase their self-esteem" to the point they don't ever have to take responsibility for their feelings and actions - just think of someone or something else to blame. We took away all respect for authority, such as when we told teachers (and parents) that children shouldn't be punished, disciplined, or admonished. We gave it to them. The "experts" should be taken out to some inaccessible island with a few thousand juvenile delinquents and left to "fix it." We need to stop buying what doesn't come instinctively, or what our parents didn't try to sell us. Only grandparents might be entitles to the premise that our kids are angels. . . I admire the parents that homeschool, that put ethics and education before politics and bookshelf fodder. The time and money I spent with homeschooling put my children on better footing than the public education could have, both socially and mentally. And my focus was better spiritually! What bonuses!

The problem is there is no one thing. Parents are responsible for the biggest portion of their child's behavior, be it from lack of parenting or how they treat them. If you are mean to your children call them names and make fun of them more than likely their children will do this to their peers. If you are working all of the time and the TV has been a constant babysitter for your child well look at the role model. Every year it is a little bit worse than the last things that are on TV now there is no way that would have been allowed when I was a kid. Parents have to work twice as hard to support their families which means less and less time at home. The schools that get kids who are just plain mean have a hard time figuring out how to handle the situations. We had to deal with bullies we tried talking to the parents and you understood why the children were the way they were. We taught our boys to defend themselves it worked. But how do you defend your soul from words that scar.

As I see it, we have 2 different types of children today, We have the Lone Wolfs and then we have the Party Goers. There is a stark difference between the two and each has it's own problems and solutions. The most important aspect of these 2 groups are the parents, We are literally failing them to begin with. Think of our lives as Dominoes, whereas each domino is setup to topple the next one. The utter lack of Responsibility, Compassion and Sympathy for others is too far prevalent in todays youth.

Sadly enough, the media has a habit of making great news of out “bad situations” and this is not to say that bad situations shouldn’t be highlighted but that there is also lots of good deeds that never make it to print..not all of our teenagers are out of control. Life is a forever circle and even though the underlying actions stay constant the overlying aspects changes.Bullying is not a new phenomenon nor is suicide among teenagers..Teenagers have always acted out. Today, however, these unjust acts may be more mischievous and that is so because of the technology that is so accessible; because of the non parental guidance; and because of society in itself to enforce self respect and the respect for the so-called common man. Parents need to get back into the habit of “teaching their children well” of setting guidelines and making children accountable for their actions. Our children need to understand that they owe a debt to society..the simple debt/act of kindness.

In my opinion, Dr. Spock has a large finger in this pie. He was the first to encourage parents to "talk but not discipline." Then there were the lawsuits filed against the schools for trying to make kids accountable for their actions where the schools lost. After that, the teachers weren't allowed to discipline, and it has got to the point since that parents aren't allowed to discipline either. No discipline makes for a very rough way to go for kids who need some direction in their lives.

bad stuff always happened; bullying is not new. but at the same time that parents, schools and civic leaders have all abdicated moral authority and moral responsibility, kids are subjected to extreme violence in games and media and the ugly ranting of the out of control far right. both bullies and formerly decent kids have no gauge or reason to moderate behavior, and the victims have no chance to develop self-respect, nor can they find any shelter from abuse. there is no easy help, but decent people must talk and reason, and take back control of all levels of our society, guiding next generations to self-assurance and self-understanding which transcend the bully dynamic and restore civility.

Yes,I .but if you look at the way society has been going ,it's know wonder.It all started back in the 60,s. Both parents had to work to make ends meet .Inflation plays a part in this, It seemed like the more money parents made the more things cost. When both parents work there is.nt enough attention being paid to the kids.The daycare/babysitters that look after the kids don.t really care what your child expeinces or learn when your there because the kids don,t belong to them.Also parents are so tired from their days work that they don.t give the kids the parenting that they should in the small time that they do spend with the kids .because of guilt feelings they wood rather not disturb the kids by seeming like the badguys that have to enforce rules about how they behave. Also it seems like parents are instilling the kids with too much an attitude that everything that they do is so great and when they get to school or outside the home it comes as hard reality that they arent

I strongly believe it is a result of modeling from the adults in the world. There are plenty of young people who are kind, thoughtful, generous and respectful and when you look at the influences in their lives, ie parents, siblings, teachers, coaches and so forth you can see that they have had positive role models. Sadly though there are also plenty of youth who are lacking in good role models in their lives. We also have only to look at the caustic, judgemental and over-the-top antics of some people in the media and politics to see bad behaviour and real ugliness in how people treat and speak about other people. There need to be more opportunities for moderate voices to be heard rather than giving all the attention to those who are loud and obnoxious and go on the attack.