Is America Raising a Generation of Weaklings...

Again, this ignores the reality of teaching. Your comment ignores my commentary about the role of parents in the teaching process, that they are invited to participate, unlike police or any other professions you might care to mention. You can't deny that all parents have been students and understand a heck of lot more about this process, what worked for them, their thoughts about their education, the effectiveness of the teaching methods as shown by the process of their children. You can make the same comparisons with other professions despite attempting to do so, because teaching is different and parental input is sought and needed. If you can tell me how it's different, then please do, but to dismiss it out of hand, because you don't like it, doesn't suggest a very logical approach to discourse.

 

We live in a highly competitive society. I think there's a fine line here that we're missing with kids. Bullying is wrong, full stop - but so is allowing a child to take a test over and over again. That won't be allowed in the workplace.

I think good teachers, and that includes parents who are the first teachers, need to be able to correct children without hurting their self esteem. "Let me show you where you went wrong in your math proof, and see if that helps you to grasp this better" is a whole different thing than "You're stupid, you failed that math test."

Every generation thinks the kids coming up behind them are over privileged, whiny weak ass kids who are bound to failure. I think it says a lot about the nature of humans rather than a specific generation of children. To be sure, education could be a lot better in this country. When you read letters and such written in the 18th century and hear that educated young men then read both greek and latin, could quote the ancient writers at will, etc., it's a bit of a wake up moment. I think education can and should be far more rigorous than it is now. I don't think kids should be passed along from one grade to the next without learning anything.

What we miss with a lot of kids, however, is that if teaching them in a particular way does not get the knowledge through, repeating that isn't likely to cause a lightbulb moment either - you need to find a *different* way to teach the material to kids who do not get it in the "traditional" rote way we teach. Some children are terrific at that kind of learning, but others need another method.

When I was in sixth grade, I was the best speller in my grade, so they gave me a group of the ten worst spellers to work with - and how they did determined *my* grade (no, it wasn't fair and the teacher was WAY out of line, but save that for another discussion). In working with those kids, I learned that not everyone can grasp material in the same way. I set up games - I took over a bulletin board and made it into a football field. The kids were divided into teams, and the football started on the 50 yard line. Each correct word move the football 10 yards, and scoring was in "touchdowns." Those kids learned, because it was fun, and engaging. Copying the word, using it in a sentence - that hadn't worked for them.

Just a vicodin laced screed on things ;-)

 

Maybe because I was a teacher, so I know that inviting a parents' opinion in a classroom is the same as my barging into an OR and saying 'hey, doctor! You should use the forceps on the brain surgery- I think it will work better!' The process of inviting parents into the classroom came from a movement of baby boomers who said 'THAT'S MY UNIQUE AND SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE!!'. There was a time when kids went to school and parents said 'You do what they say. That's it, and that's final. If you got an F, that's on you.'

Too many people have too many opinions. If you have an opinion- great. But don't expect me to follow it. That's another issue- opinions are like assholes, as they say- everyone has one. That's great. I love opinions, but if I went to school to be a teacher I expect that I will be given the proper respect as a professional, and ultimately, what I say goes in my classroom.

Too many cooks in the kitchen ruins the soup, especially when all but the head chef are coal miners.

 

True. I wouldn't advocate anyone's dick chopped up in a blender (or overt torture) - but I guess it would depend on what they had done and who you were, standing on the other side of the gavel. If they were truly convicted by DNA and all evidence and/or confession with none to contradict, they should be either dead or wishing they were dead (I still haven't decided how I feel about the death penalty when it comes to DNA convicted individuals.)...

If one would support torture, one should just as well renounce one's claim to be human, IMHO, although that is hard to support when one sees what was done to people in the name of justice, throughout history.

 

this post made me hot. lol.:smt049

I wish there were a little tiny heart, instead of that big banging one :smt081...

 

First of all men don't start wars the wealthy start wars and whether its a male or female in power they both do the same things to keep it. No matter who suffers for it. Good try though.

Every privilege you enjoy as a white western woman is due to aggression.
Aggression lead the dominance of the US in both the military and as a capitalist country. In a world that's becoming more and more competitive. The let's hold hands and work together approach ain't gonna cut it. Sorry kid.

 

LMAO at DK saying "sorry kid" to Huntress. :smt043:smt043

 

Uh, no. It's the aggressive tendencies of men. And if you want to get right down to it, men are also responsible for western religion, which is also one of the most brutal, evil things on the planet. Before 'men' took over, we had matriarchal societies and religions that didn't involve war, subservience to men, or any of that other bullshit. It was just people living their lives, worshiping the natural order of things. There was no law to go sit in a purple tent while you were menstruating- that was beautiful. Childbirth was considered beautiful. Sex was considered beautiful. The human body was considered beautiful (images of Sheela-na-gig pasted everywhere is a great example of this disconnected between human bodies and childbirth being beautiful- once the 'Church' came around, they defaced every single one of these images they could find because they found them disgusting).

And then the crazy men came along and decided that women, sex, and everything connected with a woman were disgusting and should be hidden. And OH, we can't have women in control, because they are ...what...soft?

And just because someone is 'wealthy' is not a reason. You're always looking for a scapegoat for your own tendencies- this is the work of men. I've studied a lot of this stuff, and I don't hate men (as someone kindly assumed in a rep they left me awhile ago).... the reason I'm pointing this out is because men continue to defend the very thing that will ultimately be the undoing of a culture- heck, the human race if you look far enough in the future. Violence and aggression are NOT positives. The sooner people can wrap their heads around that, and accept that violence does not equal strength, the faster we can have a discussion about who we are as people and what are values are/should be.

It makes me LOL. Mostly because he thinks that calling people 'kid' or cute pet names means he wins.

 

Ummm no I don't. That's just how I talk and you know that better than most. I call everyone kid just like I refer to everyone as fam good try though.

Truth be told in your reference to the "utopia" that men existed before men "took over" never made sense to me. Life is violent by nature, watch national geographic or the discovery channel to see that. I never bought that notion of mutual cooperation where everyone got along especially during an era where humans weren't as civilized as they are now but if you believe it I guess that's all that matters.

The Church along with governments and other institutions are coercive apparatuses designed to indoctrinate and keep everyone down. Much like they pit us against each other based on race they do it based on race. If you want to see the purpose of any system just look at who benefits most. And its not all or even most men, its a small select few and their families like the.... oh no like the Royals. Guess you have to hate them too since they promote the very thing you're against.

 

I never said it was utopia. Utopia doesn't exist and it never has. I'm talking about respecting people for who they are. Men and women were on more even ground. There are anthropological studies and evidence of this. This isn't just me saying it existed. Do some research on this topic, because your entire response is lacking any kind of factual knowledge on the subject.

 

What are you talking about? What part of my post said that it wasn't true? I just said I hard time believing it. My response had citations from the well acclaimed Communist Manifesto. Maybe you've heard of it?

 

The Communist Manifesto?

Andrae, keep up. We're talking about anthropology, not politics. :smt043

 

And the two aren't linked genius?
You were talking about the distribution of wealth and power and how it related to the male female relationship. The Communist Manifesto is as much sociological as it is political.
Why do you insist on seeing enemies where they don't exist.

Besides the main topic is are we raising weak children and.... never mind.

 

I disagree that it's been totally hijacked. Education begins at home. School shouldn't be about building self-esteem. That's a parent's job. Kids need to have positive role models in their life at home. We depend on schools & teachers FAR too much to raise our kids. Parents need to build the foundation & work with teachers to build upon it.

In answer to your original question, yes, I think we are raising weaklings to the point where we depend on someone else to teach our kids morals, manners and respect. If they are brought up the right way, they won't have to be coddled at school.

 

COSIGN!!!

 

No. I was not. Your reading comprehension is pretty selective and creative sometimes. lol

Weak children.....depends on how you define weak. That's also why I said parents need to let teachers do their jobs and parents should do their own. Every parent wants to protect their kid, unfortunately it's at the expense of everyone else. If you were unable to sue schools and teachers, that would solve a lot of problems.

Instead of pointing fingers, people need to look in the mirror. If you're raising a kid who imagines he's so special that he never has to do anything, he lives at home, still has his laundry done, his room cleaned, and his groceries purchased by mom and dad....he will expect that forever.

 

My reading comprehension skills are selective? Sure thing DB lol

The parents aren't as big of a problem as the administration who goes along with everything. They're only in it for a check.

 

Yes.

 

I disagree, the current attitude is primarily attributed by the "pull yourself by your own bootstrap" mentality which usually favors the few but punishes
the majority. The problem that comes across with any sort of blanket
slate approach is basically destroying those that which this blanket slate
wouldn't work. Thus, it's extremely important to judge and perform feats
on individuals that would deem best to work with them.

For example, bullying. Statistic shows that bullying is one of the leading
causes of suicide for teenagers. "Toughen up" is not going to help that on
all cases. By just performing that idea alone, you either a) toughen up
the kid like you hope would happen, or b) plan on purchasing a casket
for a kid in the next few months.

In the end, we can't express how we enjoy and love individualism when
we strive for a case of conformity when dealing with certain issues. That's
not individualism at all. Some people can handle the entire world on their
shoulders, others need a guiding hand, a loving hug, or what have you, to get
through it, and to respect individualism is to respect that people
need to be handle on a case by case scenario.

 

you aint eva lied playa