I've had retiring and new school teachers tell me the parents are getting worse along with the kids. If you misbehaved in our day, you'd also have to deal with your parents' wrath. Now, the parents side with the kids. The teachers have a much harder time with kids who won't do their work or disrupt classes. They don't get disciplined at home about it. And a conference with the parents doesn't produce anything but things against the teacher and for the child. Don't get me wrong, I've known a teacher or two that I'd never have wanted my kids to have. But, overall, I think the teachers are having a tougher time in the classroom. And, I agree with the predominance of bad news everywhere. This has been a topic around our household. First we had newspapers, then radios, then television, and now satellite coverage. What used to take awhile to get to you in now in your home pronto. While that is not that bad, being informed is not a bad thing, the emphasis is almost always on the bad. And, then it is rehashed over and over and over. And, then other bad stuff is predicted and rehashed before it happens. All this negativity is mind numbing. Sometimes, I wonder if it is self fulfilling.
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