I have this conversation with Sophie so often, I guess because we both work with kids. We're like two old ladies talking about our health problems and "young people today".
Anyway, the problem is that parents have an expectation these days that teachers will handle a child's entire education. There is a misconception that the teacher is responsible for teaching a child about more than just maths, english and such. That somehow schools are responsible for a child's social skills as well. Parents expect schools to discipline kids and instruct them in social norms.
Teachers, in today's modern everyone-sues-everyone, children-don't-deserve-to-be-beaten-with-a-massive-stick world, are not ALLOWED to discipline children, or instruct them in social skills that are outside the educational curriculum.
So they're not learning it at home, they're not learning it at school, and we, the innocent childless who would certainly be better parents than most parents, suffer the consequences of this.
Back in my day, kids behaved better. And I'm not kidding. I work with kids from about 8 to 16, and I can still remember being in that age group. Seriously, when I was the age of the kids I teach now, even the "bad kids" were not as bad as some kids today. I'm not saying they never misbehaved. I'm saying that the majority of kids listened, and could be controlled by their teachers. They would, for the most part, obey an instruction when given by an authority figure (especially in primary school, there was a bit more rebelliousness in the teen years). The reason for this, I believe, is because both parents and teachers instilled some sense of good social behaviour into young children.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2006-02-24 12:34 am (UTC)Anyway, the problem is that parents have an expectation these days that teachers will handle a child's entire education. There is a misconception that the teacher is responsible for teaching a child about more than just maths, english and such. That somehow schools are responsible for a child's social skills as well. Parents expect schools to discipline kids and instruct them in social norms.
Teachers, in today's modern everyone-sues-everyone, children-don't-deserve-to-be-beaten-with-a-massive-stick world, are not ALLOWED to discipline children, or instruct them in social skills that are outside the educational curriculum.
So they're not learning it at home, they're not learning it at school, and we, the innocent childless who would certainly be better parents than most parents, suffer the consequences of this.
Back in my day, kids behaved better. And I'm not kidding. I work with kids from about 8 to 16, and I can still remember being in that age group. Seriously, when I was the age of the kids I teach now, even the "bad kids" were not as bad as some kids today. I'm not saying they never misbehaved. I'm saying that the majority of kids listened, and could be controlled by their teachers. They would, for the most part, obey an instruction when given by an authority figure (especially in primary school, there was a bit more rebelliousness in the teen years). The reason for this, I believe, is because both parents and teachers instilled some sense of good social behaviour into young children.
They just don't do that anymore.