A resounding, "hell yeah" to the part in bold.

But you know, in the 80's and 90's, kids weren't cussing the teachers out the way they are now. If it happened, it was handled quickly and the situation was corrected. Plus I think in general there was more respect and appreciation for teachers back then. Now students almost seem to have the mentality that teachers are there to do THEIR bidding. And with the lack of support shown by admins, students feel like they can do anything and the admins will be so scared of the parents that they will allow the students to get away with murder. It's sick.

Agree with the bolded.

I really want to know what caused the shift from that mentality (semi)recently.

Me too.

Pamela Smart? Carolyn Warmus?

I'm kind of joking, but I'm kind of not.

I think it started when the majority of kids' parents were no longer factory workers or secretaries, but were college educated. (Whether they were doing a job that they were educated for was irrelevant.) People no longer thought "well, (s)he went to school for 4 years to do this, (s)he must be right."

:) Hmmmmm. Maybe. I would like to say kids were better back then, but it is probably THAT combined with what I was saying earlier:

These were badass nonwhite kids, most of whom in public schools and that includes nonwhite kids of different social classes. When nonwhite kids do stuff, society points to the defiency of the nonwhite cultures and the nonwhite populations. When the white kids begin to do stuff, or what they do receives more attention, the majority white society of America (in terms of population size and power dynamics) points to society and questions why society is changing and/or failing.

Therefore, this is about sooooo much more than "mean bullies" and "why schools are failing." What's embedded in this topic is "mean white bullies" and "why majority white schools are failing." Does this matter? YES because some of our responses in this thread may be seen as an absence of compassion and outrage over the general topic. Instead, I see some of our responses as more of a "same shit, different toilet...let's get beyond the fluff and get to the REAL issue." I can't be shocked and awed over something that isn't so new--except for the fact that the Internet and white perpetrators are added to the equation.

:) Well said.

(Waiting for someone to find something "racist" about your comment.)

I have to say that I agree with your entire post. I do think that the more educated our society becomes, the less they tend to agree with the teachers because some parents think they are right (since they are equally educated). In fact, I think there are many people out there, sadly, that look at teaching and the education field as a "fall back" option if they don't find the job that they want. Even with all the red-tape you need to cut through to become a teacher in this day and age, teaching has almost lost its prestige in some areas beause there are teachers that have become teachers because they didn't get the job they wanted and this was their alternative plan. We need to learn to give teachers more respect. I think 33girl hit the nail right on the head.

Actually, I want to say that I agree with Dr.Phil. It almost goes along the line of a joke made at that expense on (I think) Family Guy. It commented on how when a bus full of children were killed when a bus went over the cliff, noone cared about the kids, except when they named a "white" girl. Then, the announcer said he messed up and the girl was hispanic. The group of reporters/ spectators sighed and said something like, "That isn't news." It was meant as a joke but, in all actuality, when attractive white women (Natalie Hollaway ring a bell) come up missing-the media cares. If a young black male comes up missing, people don't seem to care as much. Sad but, true.

Same here, I was born in 81 and both my parents worked, but still took the time to parent, and they damn sure didn't think I could do no wrong. If anything more "blame" was placed on me than deserved with respect to school issues. I remember in 7th grade, I was falsely accused of making a bullying statement about the student. Well good ol' Mr. Kelly told my parents and lo and behold I was on punishment for MONTHS!! My parents weren't even trying to here that I actually didn't do it.

Beer at 5:50pm. I'm sooooo jealous, at 5:50 I was rushing to class I'd make a drink now, but I'm out of my fav mixer :(

she hanged herself? thats sooo sad lol
this is y the bullying should stop AHEM MEAN GCERS

My opinion has already been covered here, no use bandwagoning. :)

And OMG.

Q F and P!

Sadly, I started at 1pm lol

OMG YOU'RE RIGHT LOL SAD LOL <3 HAHAHA SAD!

Getcho ass outta here...

My kind of teacher! LOL