S is for Students

Good evening!  Whew!  I am caught up and working towards staying caught up with my posts!  How are you today?

I have been visiting blogs from the A to Z challenge list and am excited to have found several new ones to follow.

I have had a lot of questions and heart to heart conversations with my mama about life in general lately and people.  You know, life is so easy as a child but you can't wait to grow up.  Once you are grown you wish a lot of times that you could go back and have that easy road with no worries.  At least I do.  Don't you?

For the letter S, my thought is on students.

My how the times have changed.  When I was a student in school, we were expected to behave.  We were to respect our teachers and to do exactly as we were told. For those that chose not to,  the consequences were not fun.  There was still paddling when I first started school and even after that was gone, the threat of calling your parents was enough to scare you to death.

I always behaved.  I was scared not to.No, I was not perfect, but I knew better than to act out.   I knew the punishment that awaited me at home would be worse than any punishment I could receive at school.  Not only that but having to face the fact that I would have greatly disappointed my parents was enough to keep me in line.

But...what has happened?  What has changed?

Being a teacher and working in schools, I have found the respect is gone.  Most students could care less how they talk to their teachers or how they behave during class.  If they get in trouble, it's not their fault. They run home crying to mama and daddy who in turn blame someone else.   It's sad.  It's really sad.

And for the ones that do behave...what happens to them?  From what I have seen, instead of being the ones that are getting the attention, they are being ignored.  They are quiet and do their work therefore they don't need the teacher much.  She can focus all of her attention on the "others."

I have observed this first hand with Darbee. She is not a perfect child and she definitely has her moments but she does know how to behave and how to have respect.  She is in an extra curricular class during the week.  She knows at that class she is to behave just as she would with me or at school and she does.  But what does she do when the others are running around the room chasing one another with no respect for what the teacher is trying to teach?  Furthermore, the parents are there and do nothing.  Darbee sits and stares.  She doesn't know how to react.  The kids ignore her because she is not "in their group."  If that is how they behave, I had rather her not.  But...what has happened?

Have the parents given up with discipline?  Are there any parents left out there who care anymore or those of us who do still care the minority now days?  This behavior and way of life seems like the new normal now.  Is this just accepted?  Sorry if it seems like I am venting but this is just something I wanted to get off my chest.  It aggravates me so much!

How do you feel?  Do you notice a change?

Until next time....