Kids Behaving Badly

They should reintroduce caning. That should do the trick.

FatTire said:

Today we had a man come speak to our school. His step grandchildren are students here. He is a retired Master Chief from the USAF. He has spent the better part of his career as the steward aboard, wait for it, Air Force One. He has served 5 U.S. Presidents, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Regan and Bush I. He has met the Queen of England and has his picture taken with her, then the picture signed by the Queen.

He spoke for around 45 minutes about each President. He has a poem that he wrote for Regan hanging in his Presidental Library. He showed us pictures of his life, ranging from him aboard the 707 version of AF1, to his retirement party thrown by Bush I and Barbara aboard the 747 version of AF1. He showed pictures of him standing next to the President in the Oval Office. Pictures of each of the Presidents he served with hand written and signed notes.

To say that this man has lived an exciting life would be an understatement. He is a walking history book. An eye witness to some of this countries, and the worlds, most historic events.

And yet, instead of listening, we had students with their backs turned to him, chatting about nothing to their friends. It was one of the most vile displays put on by some of our students ever. And I sit here confused to when it got so bad. I'm sure every generation has said this about the next. These kids today.

But who's job is it to teach this kids respect? I don't care if you are bored to tears with the person, but you don't turn your back on them and start a side conversation. Parents don't seem to care, this one told me that she was probably bored, to which I proudly replied, "so am I, with this conversation" and hung up.

I'm being called into the principal's office. But I ask this question:

Are our children getting worse, or is this just more of the same? I do not remember being this disrepectful as a child. I would have never turned my back on a speaker.

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Respect starts with the teacher. I believe the respectful term is "Flight Attendant?"

It's sad, really. One of the things that has continuously impressed me about my children's school is that the kids are so damn polite and respectful. Fourth grade boys will hold the door for me, everyone says please and thank you, and behavior like you describe is frowned upon by the other students -- we once had an assembly where someone was yapping, and a dozen other kids told the yapper to be quiet.

I'm sorry this happened to the gentleman -- unfortunately, it's what he'll remember most about his visit to your school.

I'm confused. Why didn't you call the students on their behavior?

It is sad, and I do see more of it. It makes me want to smack a few of them upside the head.

Truth is the parent you spoke to is a great deal of the problem. If parents can't teach and show respect, being an example to their children, how are kids expected to learn? This is one of those issues that drives me crazy.

They wouldn't want me for a teacher. Every last one of the talkers would have gotten detention and lines. There has to be a crack down, or they never learn.

FatTire said:

I believe you are wrong. He is in the military. He called himself a Flight Steward. I am repeating how he introduced himself.

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Ahem... He WAS in the military. And just because someone calls themself something, doesn't mean you should (see umpteen *n* word discussions).




/dclary, who probably was one of those disrespectful students once upon a time...

the kids don't care.

the parents don't care.

and no one respects veterans these days.

*sighs*

Combination of parent/teacher. Parents set the standards at home, teacher enforces it in school.

What would have worked? Calling attention to them and demanding they refrain from their rude behavior.

Total lack of respect should not be tolerated.

I'm the one at the ball game, tapping the kids on the shoulder, reminding them to remove their caps while the National Anthem is sung.

dclary said:

Respect starts with the teacher. I believe the respectful term is "Flight Attendant?"

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FatTire said:

He said that he worked as a flight steward. So that is how I will refer to what he does. If he had wanted us to refer to him as a flight attendant, then he would have called his job as such. He didn't. I'm right. You're wrong.

Now, stop acting like a arse.

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From www.dictionary.com

stew·ard

/ˈstu

ərd, ˈstyu-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[stoo-erd, styoo-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1.a person who manages another's property or financial affairs; one who administers anything as the agent of another or others.
2.a person who has charge of the household of another, buying or obtaining food, directing the servants, etc.
3.an employee who has charge of the table, wine, servants, etc., in a club, restaurant, or the like.
4.a person who attends to the domestic concerns of persons on board a vessel, as in overseeing maids and waiters.
5.an employee on a ship, train, or bus who waits on and is responsible for the comfort of passengers, takes orders for or distributes food, etc.
6.a flight attendant.
7.a person appointed by an organization or group to supervise the affairs of that group at certain functions.
8.U.S. Navy. a petty officer in charge of officer's quarters and mess.
–verb (used with object)
9.to act as steward of; manage.
–verb (used without object)
10.to act or serve as steward.

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Bold is mine. So it doesn't really matter fellas.

I think we should flog the parents. Sounds good to me.

FatTire said:

He said that he worked as a flight steward. So that is how I will refer to what he does. If he had wanted us to refer to him as a flight attendant, then he would have called his job as such. He didn't. I'm right. You're wrong.

Now, stop acting like a arse.

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Ha! Who says I'm acting!?!

tjwriter said:

It is sad, and I do see more of it. It makes me want to smack a few of them upside the head.

Truth is the parent you spoke to is a great deal of the problem. If parents can't teach and show respect, being an example to their children, how are kids expected to learn? This is one of those issues that drives me crazy.

They wouldn't want me for a teacher. Every last one of the talkers would have gotten detention and lines. There has to be a crack down, or they never learn.

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And, unfortunately, you would have been the one sued for demeaning the children and damaging their fragile little souls and ruining their self-respect and violating their right to free speech and preventing them from getting that football scholarship and condeming them to eternity in a trailer park and a drug habit and just destroying their lives, in general.

Not that I don't agree with you; it just seems like we're all one step away from getting sued.

BenPanced said:

Not that I don't agree with you; it just seems like we're all one step away from getting sued.

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That's part of the problem. In this "kids are fragile, we can't do anything to discipline them because it might damage their self-esteem" world we've taken away our own ability to teach respect and other important things.

Nobody wants to do anything about us all going to hell in our cheery lil handbasket.

Our generation at least pretended like we were listening...

If I had a dollar for every time my mother said "no" or punished me for any reason...

On the other hand

I'm all for flogging parents of bad kids (and bad drivers, rude waiters, drunken sailors...) but it appears I am in a contrary mood this afternoon. So, with that in mind, let me ask a couple of questions with a view to defending those rude little bastards.

Is it possible that the speaker was too "old" for his audience? I would be fascinated to listen to two politicians debate health care policy, a crucialy important subject, but if a bunch of kids were asked to listen to them...

Were they polite for a while and then bored with both the subject matter and the tone of delivery? Remember, an interesting person does not automatically make for an interesting story-teller.

Actually, that's all I have. I'm done. They were probably just rude little buggers, so please return to your normal program of flogging.

I went to do a story at the high school recently and sat a few rows back from some of the teens. Our attorney general was there to speak to them about bullying. Now, first of all, he did not lecture them, as you might think, he simply gave examples of things that kids might do as a group that would get all of them into trouble, even if one person was not even doing anything wrong. I think he tried to speak on their level, not preaching.

And yet, there were kids in the audience who turned to those next to them and started talking, ignoring the speaker. When that happened I noticed a teacher would go over to them and tell them to pay attention or something to that effect(I couldn't hear what he said to them).

Rudeness. Yeah, I think kids are worse today than when I went to school. It is the parents' job to teach them manners and respect. But many don't.

dclary said:

Respect starts with the teacher.

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I waited a few days to respond. Nothing changed since my initial reaction to your reply. I agree. When students don't respect the teacher then there is something wrong here. I don't blame the students as much because the role of a teacher should demand respect. Unfortunately, that's not always the case with leaders who are either weak or don't inspire their subordinates enough to command respect.

Respect is earned, not a given. So I suspect the fault rests solely on the teacher because he/she didn't earn the students respect and it showed.

Either fire the teacher or require they take courses on how to earn the respect of children.

FatTire said:

To say that this man has lived an exciting life would be an understatement. He is a walking history book. An eye witness to some of this countries, and the worlds, most historic events.

And yet, instead of listening, we had students with their backs turned to him, chatting about nothing to their friends. It was one of the most vile displays put on by some of our students ever. And I sit here confused to when it got so bad. I'm sure every generation has said this about the next. These kids today.

But who's job is it to teach this kids respect? I don't care if you are bored to tears with the person, but you don't turn your back on them and start a side conversation.

Click to expand...

Here's the thing though. As an adult, if I was bored to tears with someone I wouldn't be rude and just turn my back on them but I would try to get out of the situation as soon as possible -- we all do this at times with boring phone calls or lame party guests. Kids stuck in school don't have the option of gracefully getting out of anything. None of the kids could have asked a teacher if it was okay to leave and do something more interesting. None of them could have made polite excuses about having somewhere to be to the elderly man.

When we force kids to sit and sit and sit while listening to topics that may not be interesting and exciting to them for 15 plus years some side conversations are bound to occur. I was one of the kids who skipped and had side conversations. I don't think that I had a lack of respect for any one individual I was just bored out of my skull in school.

Overall, I'll agree that some kids 'seem' less respectful of others nowadays. But also I think that parents and other extended family members are spending less and less time with kids today. My son is unschooling (long story short - child led learning) and when we go to unschooling events the kids always seem to be acting kinder to each other than the schooled kids we hang out with.

But most unschooled kids have more together time with their family than schooled kids. I really believe that the more time family members (and extended family and friends) spend together the more respect there will be all around. Also, most of the unschooling parents I know think that kids can be respected to know what their interests are and encourage the kids to follow those interests instead of having them follow a cookie cutter education that they should be interested in.

I'm not saying that all schools or teachers are evil. But I do think that it's an easy out to say that kids are "just being disrespectful" instead of thinking about the fact that most kids choices are limited and how we would act in that situation.

Sorry this got off track -- I guess I'm saying that I'm with the kids on this one.

~ Jennifer

I'm not surprised. I see this everywhere, and it certainly HAS changed over the past decades. It starts with children being allowed to burst into adult conversations with their own demands for attention, and the parents saying nothing. Keeping silence when a speaker is speaking is a minimum of good manners.
Boredom is never an excuse; the ability to deal with boredom is a very important life skill.

FatTire said:

Today we had a man come speak to our school. His step grandchildren are students here. He is a retired Master Chief from the USAF. He has spent the better part of his career as the steward aboard, wait for it, Air Force One. He has served 5 U.S. Presidents, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Regan and Bush I. He has met the Queen of England and has his picture taken with her, then the picture signed by the Queen.

He spoke for around 45 minutes about each President. He has a poem that he wrote for Regan hanging in his Presidental Library. He showed us pictures of his life, ranging from him aboard the 707 version of AF1, to his retirement party thrown by Bush I and Barbara aboard the 747 version of AF1. He showed pictures of him standing next to the President in the Oval Office. Pictures of each of the Presidents he served with hand written and signed notes.

To say that this man has lived an exciting life would be an understatement. He is a walking history book. An eye witness to some of this countries, and the worlds, most historic events.

And yet, instead of listening, we had students with their backs turned to him, chatting about nothing to their friends. It was one of the most vile displays put on by some of our students ever. And I sit here confused to when it got so bad. I'm sure every generation has said this about the next. These kids today.

But who's job is it to teach this kids respect? I don't care if you are bored to tears with the person, but you don't turn your back on them and start a side conversation. Parents don't seem to care, this one told me that she was probably bored, to which I proudly replied, "so am I, with this conversation" and hung up.

I'm being called into the principal's office. But I ask this question:

Are our children getting worse, or is this just more of the same? I do not remember being this disrepectful as a child. I would have never turned my back on a speaker.

Click to expand...

I know of a teacher who strictly mphasizes manners and respect as part of his curriculum, Tire. Apparently, he's had tremendous results.

Perhaps you've heard of him...

May I expose my ignorance, and ask who that is?