Are we teaching today's children to deal with the harsh realities of life, or are we just enabling them?

Question

Here's some topics to get you started:

- No Child Left Behind and not failing students (great, or cr@p?)

- Slapping wrists instead of actual punishment

- Lack of respect for anyone and anything (selves included)

- Principles and other authorities not standing behind teachers/staff

Answer 1

I think we're doing both... sometimes the harsh reality is failing your grade... sometimes we enable them to skip their work because we don't have consequences in place.  For your topics, NCLB is a political joke.  Slapping wrists is inappropriate... violence is never the answer.  Respect is certainly lacking in this country, and you can look many places for blame, particularly in the media.  As for pricipals and other authorities not backing their teachers/staff, they have political positions and must satisfy their interest: namely, keeping the school board happy (not you) to retain their jobs.

Answer 2

well i have to disagree austen.  i think its the opposite, i do believe we are enabling them.....my kids dont even know how to think for themselves.  the words "use your imagination" can never be given as direction in my classroom.  i always have to lay out the directions like a roadmap (i teach junior high)  the kids have almost no responsibility, at home and def at school!!! i love what i do but i hate my job.......and the above mentioned topics are the exact reasons why....and thats also why we have no median teachers in the profession.  we have mostly 1 - 5 yrs and 20+ yrs teachers but no one in the middle.......its getting harder and harder to keep in the profession.....im goin to med school

Answer 3

Your topics 2,3,4  are all thanks to NCLB.

This law mandates that schools will get more funds for less disclipline issues.

The only way that the powers that be can know if schools have disclipline issues or not is to look at the schools disclipline records.

You would think that schools would actually make the kids behave so they can get this money, right/

WRONG! What actually happens is that the schools IGNORE the bad behavior so they won't have to write any disclipline reports.

No reports -- MORE MONEY!!

Lots of people here at answers say I am wrong on this, but then they wonder why admins won't 'back them up'  your point #4.

So it's not ALL the parents responsibility, huh !?!

Of course kids are going to be bad at school when they know they won't get punished!!