🚀 go-pugleaf

apt wrote:

> Honest question Steve. Do really think kids have the same respect today for
> teachers and parents than kids when you grew up ?
>
> I'm assuming of course that your 30+.

Closer to 50 minus, actually.

Overall, i see the line of respect being blurred.

But, look at the difference in knowledge. At the time  grew up, popular media
was not as infused as it is today - chiefly TV and movies. As kids, the adult
world was a mysterious world, most kids kind of assumed, with obvious
exceptions, that adults were mature, responsible right-thinking types. And, no
matter what a little reprobate you may have been in your youth, you had this
idealistic target that seemed pretty expected.

Nowadays, by the time a kid is 13, he/she has had the opposite message
graphically and repeatedly driven into their skulls, and the most shocking is
usually the vision that has the most effect. They don't respect "adults" so
much as think they are plumb crazy, or junkies, and they screw like rabbits.
They have had a glimpse of their parents' generation like no generation has had
before, the veil has been lifted,, and they are shown a not so pretty picture
of people who don't deserve respect.

If that message is not countered by their parents, then that kid will most
likely exhibit very little respect. And, given the "reality" they are subjected
to, who can blame them?

My generation started the ball rolling, we had a power of numbers. But, our
generation was more focused on disrespect to "established systems", and
expectations that our parents held. It had more to do with rebellion than it
did with disrespect. We may have goofily expected a revolution to a new Nirvana
as a group, but we still showed respect for the most part when it came to
individual interaction. That has changed quite a bit, in my experience.

In my generation, public misbehavior at a young age, when pointed out by an
non-parental adult, got a far different reaction than it does these days. And,
if a parent is notified of this misbehavior, it is more common than before to
defend the kid regardless, and the "unwelcome intrusion" of another is
unwelcome, and rebuffed.

The next time you see a kid messing around in the all-u-can eat buffet, go tell
the parent, and in most cases you will be ignored, told to mind your own
business, etc. Of course, having a little urchin play with the meatballs I will
presumably eat *is* my business.

>
>
> I can say personally, we didn't dare back talk a teacher or our parents
> growing up, out of respect.

I do not know a single teacher personally that will indicate that is the
prevailing approach today. The general mood amongst public school teachers, as
far as I can tell discussing it with those in that system, is that they face a
certain struggle alone, and have to teach the basics of public behaviour as
well as academics.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that the behaviour of many parents presents the
opposite of what the teachers must, so they face double the effort.

It's not the case exclusively, but much more the norm than years ago.