Is What's Wrong with Kids today, their Parents?

[mistermack]

It's pretty obvious that the real problem is a lack of guns.

The grannies should be supplied with automatic pistols, and at least three rounds for every kid that they have to monitor.

When will this politically correct madness ever end?

[Robert_S]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/2 ... d%3D172569

Good for her.

[JimC]

I think teenagers get pilloried for the actions of a tiny minority. The vast majority of the kids I teach I like and respect...

That doesn't stop me being a rather stern taskmaster, but in fact, if you show them you are prepared to work hard to help them improve, at the same time making it clear who's the boss, teaching is a very rewarding occupation indeed...

[mistermack]

Kids are sweet and innocent, and they deserve to be treasured:

[kiki5711]

When I started high school, I couldn't believe how much students talk in class, mess around, chuckle, throw stuff. It was something I had never seen in Croatia. First and foremost you learn from grade one is to respect the teacher. And in fact, not only did I respect my teachers, but I got to really like them. I could see the person, not just "teacher" and how hard they tried to help us and teach us. You never spoke back to your teacher or ever ever talked during class. If you did get caught talking or something else, you'd be sent to stand in the corner. Yea, yea, I know it sounds like a cruel and inhumane punishment, but it worked and nobody laughed at you afterward because they understood the rules.

This behavior in USA confused me totally. I felt very sorry for the teacher and didn't know why these kids were being so rude and mean.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It's pretty obvious that the real problem is a lack of guns.

I don't understand that sentence.

[mistermack]

It's pretty obvious that the real problem is a lack of guns.

I don't understand that sentence.

I don't understand how you don't understand it.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

It's pretty obvious that the real problem is a lack of guns.

I don't understand that sentence.

I don't understand how you don't understand it.

"lack of guns"?????? How could that possibly happen?

[mistermack]

"lack of guns"?????? How could that possibly happen?

It can very easily happen! A lot of pensioners don't understand that people who don't carry a gun don't last five minutes.

[maiforpeace]

I think she was too old and out of her element to be a bus driver supporter for that age of kids. Kids are mean bastards when they're not at home.

My oldest daughter was made fun on on her bus by some girl, until one day she snapped, got off the bus where she got off, and swept the cemented sidewalk with her face. The girls mother came to my house with her daughter complaining about what my daughter did. Instead of jumping on my daughter about what she had done, I wanted to hear her side of the story. Once I realized what was happening, I gave her a high five. She was never bothered by that girl again.

Another story from the same daughter, but it was at school. Some boy kept making fun of her and her hair, saying it looks like pussy hair and one day she just snapped and gave him a kung fu kick in the face. I was called to the principles office and I wanted the whole explanation because I knew my daughter was not an instigator, but she wasn't going to take shit from nobody. She was suspended, but the boy who bullied her was not. I complained that he should be suspended as well.
I came home and I gave my daughter another high five.

Kids are cruel, and if you don't defend yourself in some way, they'll keep on picking on you and make you feel like shit.
When I was in HS, there was a group of "pretty high class bullies". They kept making fun of me because of my broken English.
One day, one of the girls from the group was walking around my neighborhood, my turf. I jumped her and beat her head against the ground until she pleaded to stop.
I was never touched again by them, or looked at. They probably thought I was some kind of foreigner psychopath. But that's ok. I put a stop to them.

Kids are cruel, my mother used to say that all the time, but I know she said that only as a comment about how children are to their peers. Their generation wouldn't have even considered that kids might bully an elder. I believe there is a big difference (certainly not better or worse, just different) between bullying a peer, versus bullying an elder.

Then of course there such great examples as parents these days. Consider some of our members - and how they are to each other. We also survive the jungle by dehumanizing others, it's no mystery that bullying is next. And, in US culture youth is prized and aging is not, so it's also not a mystery that kids think they are better than elders.

I still ask someone older than me if they prefer being addressed more formally - that's how I was raised. More often than not I find myself being addressed by my first name by kids, without even asking.

In Vietnamese culture, (apparently not so much with today's generation of American born Vietnamese) elders are treated with the utmost respect and dignity. I have been both impressed and touched by the tenderness and loving care with which I see my Vietnamese aunts and uncles being cared for in their senior years. It would have to be a very serious illness requiring constant care before they would ever consider packing them off to nursing care. Just go to a assisted living or elder care facility...you rarely see Asians there.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"lack of guns"?????? How could that possibly happen?

It can very easily happen! A lot of pensioners don't understand that people who don't carry a gun don't last five minutes.

Well, that would balance out the system, it's top heavy now.

[FBM]

Kids are cruel, my mother used to say that all the time, but I know she said that only as a comment about how children are to their peers. Their generation wouldn't have even considered that kids might bully an elder. I believe there is a big difference (certainly not better or worse, just different) between bullying a peer, versus bullying an elder.

Then of course there such great examples as parents these days. Consider some of our members - and how they are to each other. We also survive the jungle by dehumanizing others, it's no mystery that bullying is next. And, in US culture youth is prized and aging is not, so it's also not a mystery that kids think they are better than elders.

I still ask someone older than me if they prefer being addressed more formally - that's how I was raised. More often than not I find myself being addressed by my first name by kids, without even asking.

In Vietnamese culture, (apparently not so much with today's generation of American born Vietnamese) elders are treated with the utmost respect and dignity. I have been both impressed and touched by the tenderness and loving care with which I see my Vietnamese aunts and uncles being cared for in their senior years. It would have to be a very serious illness requiring constant care before they would ever consider packing them off to nursing care. Just go to a assisted living or elder care facility...you rarely see Asians there.

It was that way in Korea, too, until the past 5 or so years. Now you have Korean kids beating up teachers, not to mention the constant wave of teen suicides brought about by bullying.

[kiki5711]

Kids are cruel, my mother used to say that all the time, but I know she said that only as a comment about how children are to their peers. Their generation wouldn't have even considered that kids might bully an elder. I believe there is a big difference (certainly not better or worse, just different) between bullying a peer, versus bullying an elder.

Then of course there such great examples as parents these days. Consider some of our members - and how they are to each other. We also survive the jungle by dehumanizing others, it's no mystery that bullying is next. And, in US culture youth is prized and aging is not, so it's also not a mystery that kids think they are better than elders.

I still ask someone older than me if they prefer being addressed more formally - that's how I was raised. More often than not I find myself being addressed by my first name by kids, without even asking.

In Vietnamese culture, (apparently not so much with today's generation of American born Vietnamese) elders are treated with the utmost respect and dignity. I have been both impressed and touched by the tenderness and loving care with which I see my Vietnamese aunts and uncles being cared for in their senior years. It would have to be a very serious illness requiring constant care before they would ever consider packing them off to nursing care. Just go to a assisted living or elder care facility...you rarely see Asians there.

It's like that in Croatia too. In our vocabulary we have different words we use towards someone older, someone we just meet, or an old friend. Teachers and persons in certain positions are always addressed with Mr. or Mrs. so and so.

For example:
Kako ste? means "how are you" to a person you don't know well, or a person older than you.

Kako si? means same thing, but is used for friends and people of your age.

[Warren Dew]

I think teenagers get pilloried for the actions of a tiny minority. The vast majority of the kids I teach I like and respect...

That doesn't stop me being a rather stern taskmaster, but in fact, if you show them you are prepared to work hard to help them improve, at the same time making it clear who's the boss, teaching is a very rewarding occupation indeed...

Perhaps the difference is not in the teenagers, but in you. Teens tend to pick on perceived weakness. If you'd been the bus monitor, I'd bet they would not have picked on you, as it would have been less than effective.

[Warren Dew]

Hmmmm....I don't want the fruit of my frankly rather attractive and overactive loins to be pushovers but I don't really want them to ever kick anyone in the face, either.

If your daughter was being constantly taunted by some bully at school and told you about it and you went to the school to complain, a little punishment was done, but then it continued, and even worse than before. What would you do as a father?

I would continue to complain to the school and encourage the mini Huxleys to comport themselves in a civilised fashion. I was bullied plenty at school. I never attacked anybody, physically. I don't think that avenue is a good thing to encourage.

I would do the same. I would also provide enough emotional support at home that my children's sense of self worth would not be so dependent on the opinions of their peers at school as to be tempted to violence.