by Megan Steele

Created on: July 15, 2008

Having worked with emotionally disturbed high school students, the majority of whom didn't want to be in school, I can say with some confidence that parents are more to blame than the schools. Our ridiculously materialistic society has bred a generation of parents who don't care about their kids' emotional and educational well-being. Our desire for things and money have supplanted our desire to have a strong family life and a real connection to our children. I'm sad to say, a majority of parents these days work all day, come home after picking up their kids from daycare and spend the evening finishing work, doing household chores, and maybe spending a small amount of so-called "quality time" with their kids. What kid is going to respect and try to please someone they never see? I wouldn't.

That being said, with being gone alot of the time, the parents don't know the kids. If you don't know your kid, you can't relate to your kid. You can't discipline your kid, because you don't know what works and what doesn't. We had a student in our classroom who threatened the teacher. The teacher called in the principal and the school police officer. The student's parents were called in. Know what happened? The student yelled at his parents. The parents threatened to sue the school district for causing distress to their bratty kid. Who won out here? Nobody. Obviously, these parents don't know how to discipline their kid. I saw a lot of students with that same attitude of entitlement and lack of self discipline and respect.

Without discipline and respect, no kid is going to want to sit in school for eight hours a day, listening to some boring teacher go on and on about something they don't give a darn about. Kids don't care about history, social studies, English or economics. I know I didn't. With discipline and respect, kids are going to want to please their parents. Who wants to get grounded for a month for getting bad grades? Parents who teach kids to listen and behave will have kids who sit still, take notes and at least get passing grades in order to avoid losing privileges.

Parents, we need to wake up and smell the coffee. We aren't doing our kids any favors by buying their affection. Spend time, LOTS of time with your kids. Teach them self discipline, control and respect for others. No, it's not easy. Yes, it takes sacrifice, both time and money wise, but in the long run, won't your son or daughter be better off? We need to teach our kids to live life and take responsibility for our own actions, not to slack off and blame others for everything that goes wrong in our lives. Our kids are smart enough to graduate from high school, we just aren't smart enough to teach them how to stick with it.

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