Kids today are, not so bright.

[Viewfield]

Blame it on the schools - half the teachers now are as dumb as the kids. Keeps the masses in their place though !!!!!.

This is a typical excuse to cover the failings of parentage. Our society expects everyone to have three holidays a year, drive a Mercedes and eat out every night. To achieve this both parents have to work, who suffers, the kids!
Schools are there to educate, not to teach good manners and how to behave, these are parental responsibilities.
Most teachers are not 'dumb', they just spend to much time trying to accommodate the failures of parenthood instead of teaching the three 'R's'.
Here in Germany you very rarely hear the words 'please' and 'thank you' and some youngsters hold their knife and forks like spears and eating with an open mouth is common practice.
Don't blame everything on the teachers, they have a hard enough job, people should look in their own backyard for the mistakes they have made instead of shifting the blame, although they would never admit it.

Rod

[Fox]

Blame it on the schools - half the teachers now are as dumb as the kids. Keeps the masses in their place though !!!!!.

This is a typical excuse to cover the failings of parentage. Our society expects everyone to have three holidays a year, drive a Mercedes and eat out every night. To achieve this both parents have to work, who suffers, the kids!
Schools are there to educate, not to teach good manners and how to behave, these are parental responsibilities.
Most teachers are not 'dumb', they just spend to much time trying to accommodate the failures of parenthood instead of teaching the three 'R's'.
Here in Germany you very rarely hear the words 'please' and 'thank you' and some youngsters hold their knife and forks like spears and eating with an open mouth is common practice.
Don't blame everything on the teachers, they have a hard enough job, people should look in their own backyard for the mistakes they have made instead of shifting the blame, although they would never admit it.

Rod

I do 100% agree with your point of view !

[YYS4BOB]

So do I. BUT a lot of parents now see schools as a child-minding facility rather than an education centre it would seem. My financial drain (sorry, wife) is a cook supervisor in a primary school which has a Breakfast Club that opens an hour before the school day starts, and numerous after school activities which retain the little angels within the school confines for another hour or more at the end of the school day. Add to that the fact that some 40 different languages are spoken by the children, many of which don't speak English, and you can see why the education standard suffers. The school ended up in "Special Measures" due to poor performance. I wonder why?? Basic life skills SHOULD be taught by the parents, but half the parents don't seem to have any either. We sadly have generations that have no respect, no values, and no common sense.
I'll get my coat.

[Idris]

All I can say is that both my stepsons seems to have almost nothing in the way of general knowledge. Not only that, but they also don't see it as a problem and appear to have no interest whatsoever in rectifying the matter.
I regularly threaten to get them both T-shirts reading "Pig ignorant and proud!"

[Ecclesley]

Two concluding observations:

1. A lot has changed, notably common sense.

2. In the conduct of children one can see the shortcomings of the parents.

And let me add a personal experience. I have been a teacher of German language in a secondary school. Something which I could keep up for just 7 months. When I started doing this, my thoughts were that I was a teacher who would do his best to educate young boys and girls.

However very soon it dawned on me that I was only there to keep the kids from the street, and that teaching was not the main subject. If I add up how many completely ill-mannered, rude, offensive, neglected and horrible children I have had to deal with, this forum would be to small. Often parents who would call school to complain that teacher so and so had been unkind to her son/daughter. One incident I will never forget. A young girl was in my class and she had a terrible cold, sniffing and sneezing all the time. I was so bad that it often interrupted my lesson (for as far that was possible from the outset). So afterwards I told her in a normal tone, that it would have been wise to stay at home and if going to school to take some handkerchiefs along. Next day the parents had called to complain about me, saying that their daughter was completely shaken about what I has said.

School management praised me for being enthusiastic en for doing the best I could, but I was completely disgruntled of what I had to cope with.

[Idris]

My wife used to be a supply teacher.
One day, the children in the class she had been asigned to started misbehaving. As punishment, she kept them it at break time so, in order to get their own back, one of the children, backed up by his friends, decided to make an assault claim against her. This resulted in my wife being arrested and having to appear in Court where the case was dismissed by the Judge for lack of evidence.
However, my wife now has her DNA and fingerprints on the police database, has something on her record which will come up on CRB tests and so, as a result, has had to abaondon teaching and start a completely new career.

Who'd be a teacher today? I know that I wouldn't! (Pearls before swine.)

[numi]

...millions of kids may not so bright but heres one among many to ponder over.
numi

[nearlymint]

Blame it on the schools - half the teachers now are as dumb as the kids. Keeps the masses in their place though !!!!!.

This is a typical excuse to cover the failings of parentage. Our society expects everyone to have three holidays a year, drive a Mercedes and eat out every night. To achieve this both parents have to work, who suffers, the kids!
Schools are there to educate, not to teach good manners and how to behave, these are parental responsibilities.
Most teachers are not 'dumb', they just spend to much time trying to accommodate the failures of parenthood instead of teaching the three 'R's'.
Here in Germany you very rarely hear the words 'please' and 'thank you' and some youngsters hold their knife and forks like spears and eating with an open mouth is common practice.
Don't blame everything on the teachers, they have a hard enough job, people should look in their own backyard for the mistakes they have made instead of shifting the blame, although they would never admit it.

Rod

I do 100% agree with your point of view !

I to agree 100% with this point of view, look at the parents not the kids.

J

[fixer]

My wife used to be a supply teacher.
One day, the children in the class she had been asigned to started misbehaving. As punishment, she kept them it at break time so, in order to get their own back, one of the children, backed up by his friends, decided to make an assault claim against her. This resulted in my wife being arrested and having to appear in Court where the case was dismissed by the Judge for lack of evidence.
However, my wife now has her DNA and fingerprints on the police database, has something on her record which will come up on CRB tests and so, as a result, has had to abaondon teaching and start a completely new career.

Who'd be a teacher today? I know that I wouldn't! (Pearls before swine.)

such a shame Hugh
i worked with an old rocker/biker who was a social worker who looked after mentally handicapped teenagers/young adults
he was falsely accused of assaulting one of the boys in his care and was suspended pending investigation , the alleged incident took place in a conference room with cctv
all they had to do was watch the tape to see he was completely innocent, he still had to wait 6 months for reports and subsequently left as he felt the system had failed him
he too chose a different career

[motorman]

Don't forget kids don't have a choice who their parents are, it is very much a birth lottery, with some winners and many many losers. In my line of work i see many children from deprived backgrounds who get zero support, guidance and love from their parents and inadvertently rely on the teachers at school to act as a surrogate parent for 6 - 7 hours a day. So it is hardly surprising that teachers are at breaking point with not only educating these children but also being social workers, counsellers, shoulders to cry on etc etc. The only chance these kids have, is getting an education and leaving school able to read and write, I am sure that most teachers are intent on ensuring children gain these basic skills.