Wishing Upon A Star

July 18--Shaking head

I’ve spent time with a few different friends, both last night and this afternoon, and of course the topic is the plane crash and our memories of the Kennedys. But then the topic sort of drifted into a different tangent.

We started talking about the apparent lack of respect that people have for one another these days. And it’s pervasive across almost every part of life.

I’m particularly noting it in the kids I’m teaching this summer. They come from a wide range of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, and very few of them seem to have respect for anyone or anything in their lives.

They certainly don’t have respect for their teachers. It’s not at all unusual to hear them swearing at you, and not even fearing repercussions. They can be kicked out of class or suspended, but don’t seem to care. And the chances are excellent that their parents are going to come in and swear at you themselves for picking on their child. You can’t win.

These kids think nothing of destroying property and leaving things in an enormous mess. Someone else can pick up after them, and they’ll look at you and say, "fuck you" before making any attempt to clean up or do as you ask.

They feel as if they have the right to call all the shots. If I’ve planned an activity they’re often apt to look at you and say "I don’t want to do it and you can’t make me". And they just sit and stare at you with contempt if you refuse to just let them do whatever they please.

Granted this isn’t all the kids, but enough of them (as well as their parents) are like this and it taints how you look at everything.

Things have changed a great deal in the years I’ve been teaching. I never experienced the "the teacher is always right" mentality that was around when I was in school myself, but there was some initial respect. And a willingness to listen and to try to work things out. Now it seems to be "How dare you pick on my child. S/He says s/he never did any such thing. You have to be wrong and should be fired for daring to accuse him/her."

It’s so tiring.

And it makes me sad to realize that this generation of parents is some of my peers. Although the younger ones, the early thirty somethings, seem to be the worst. There is a sense of privilege and entitlement that is so disheartening.

And you see it daily on the road, in the stores, just everywhere.

I never thought I’d be one of those people who would shake her head and wonder "What is this world coming to", but I seem to be becoming one of them.

It makes me sad to realize it.
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