Are children taught enough about manners and respect today ?Agree or disagree ?

Question

was on a public bus home the other day and it was full of school kids.The kids were all shouting/swearing and when the bus stopped to pick up an elderly passenger not one child offered their seat.My own kids would not behave in this way as I've brought them up as I was told to behave.

Answer 1

I would say that most children are not taught respect and manners in today's world. We now live in a time where there is no accountability and most people are all about themselves. Just look around you at all the "it's all about me" people who talk loudly and non-stop on their cell phones in public places. How about people getting on or off an elevator - how many people actually pause to let someone else on or off first ?

Answer 2

Wow! What a question!!

Short answer: no. Kids as a whole aren't taught manners like they were 20 years ago. Please know I'm speaking in a generalization here, and that there are exceptions to the rule, but this is just my general overall observation!!!

I realize some beahavior is just a function of youth, testing boundaries, or whatever, but on as a whole, people are ruder now more than ever!

I think it's partly because we've got kids having kids - seriously. Teenagers who don't necessarily have a full grasp of etiquette and manners and social graces (because they are kids themselves!!) are raising children.

I think the other part is due to the fact that while we're more networked than EVER, we still live very isolated lives - yeah, we've got the internet, and myspace, and yahoo answers and text messages and cable TV and kids can play playstation games with some other kids in Japan and all that jazz, but kids are growing up without the face-to-face social interaction necessary to learn how to give up a seat to an elderly person or a pregnant woman on a crowded bus, or to hold a door for someone. Or how to say please and thank you. Or how to be polite to their elders, and that saying "j/k or I'm just kidding - GAWD!" doesn't excuse certain behaviors. It's all about instant gratification and living a very "me" centered life. Scary.

Now, I realize we can't take the internet back and un-invent it, and I'm not saying that technology is the sole cause of the decline in civility. But I think that it's a major contributing factor, and it IS the responsibility of the parents to instill some form of social graces in their children!!

Seriously, I am starting to think that finishing schools might have a place in 2006!!

Answer 3

that incident you just mentioned is exactly the sort of thing i have come across, every time i get on the bus on my way home from university. some of them- and NOT all kids are rowdy, obnoxious, swearing, shouting etc. i can't recall what it was like for kids of my generation during the 80s but back in the 90s, it was bad and yet today's kids are even worse in comparison. i dread having to stand or sit in the bus as those rude and immature teens behave like lunatics. do i think children are being educated about respect and good manners? no, and sadly not enough is being done to address this problem. the thing is kids these days have an easy life compared to us adults- likewise, they don't have to pay the gas, electricity, phone bills and the mortgage- and yet for some or most of them, depending on how you look at it, wish to make the most out of it by behaving like yobs and act in an unorderly and uncivilised fashion. when they are out in public.

the words manners and respect don't mean much to many youngsters these days in britain- other than the whole 'me, me, me and screw everyone else' attitude and culture. what they care most are material possessions-wearing trendy clothes and looking the part, jewellery, mobile phones, even money. frankly, it is this type of attitude that people have which makes me sick. i wasn't born in this decade but back in the 70s or whatever, kids would never have behaved in such a disrespectful way that the majority of them are doing today.

parents need to realise that although in todays age most of them don't have enough time to lecture and discipline their children, this still has to be done. they have to stamp their mark and tell them what is and what isn't considered as unacceptable behaviour. how and what should be done in regards to the ways parents should go about doing so however is of no business of mine, but they need to AND have to do it.

Answer 4

Children are NOT taught manners any more simply because the parents have no control over their offspring. If a child does wrong several times and the parent dares to raise a hand to them in an effort to show they mean business when words alone seemingly have no meaning, the bloody do-gooders jump in and scream so much that in the end, the parent gives up, the child treats the parents with contempt, and with that, any semblance of respect is straight out the windows.
Bring back the clout round the ear I say, and the do-gooders should crawl even further up their own cavities leaving the parents to do their job - BRINGING UP CHILDREN PROPERLY!!!

Answer 5

Were you perfect in behaviour when you were a kid? When I was a kid I was taught manners, told not to fight, respect elders and so on.

But I was not perfect! We did not have TV then, which today teaches all kind of misbehaviour, fighting and swearing that was a no-no for us. Though we were allowed to play with toy guns!

While manners and respect are still being taught today kids are exposed to too many violations as "normal" behaviour on TV.

Also todays people are more selfish due to advertising bombardment for the "want" generation.

Understanding and compassion is giving way to finger pointing criticizing the "other".

Answer 6

I was a part-time teacher before. I think now a day, parents are to protecting their children. Maybe some has taught their children how to behave and yet it is too lenient, how can a child learn? I also was told by my manager that I should not tell the parents, their children are naughty. I have to put in a nice way that your child is very active. What is going on?

Answer 7

I totally agree! I try and teach my child to respect her elders and I would hope that if i wasn't around she would remember what I taught her! I believe that society today has the attitude that everything is about them! I work in a medical office and people are all the time coming in and wanting to be the first to see the Dr. when they can see that there is a waiting room full of people. I think that parents today aren't teaching their kids respect because they aren't spending enough time with them. Alot of my childs friends don't spend 1 hour a night just sitting and talking about life and daily events and that is rolled over into our children not talking the time for others!
It's sad when we live in a world where everyone has the attitude "What can you do for me" or "What can I get out of it".

Answer 8

I Agree. Parents have gotten to be lazy that what ever a kid wants gets handed over due to the amount of time they spend with them that is the major factor of everything being handed on a silver platter all they have to do is whine complain.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T is not being taught the way it used to be when it should. Look at the ads "Sex Sells" skin everywhere. Cursing in all the music especially rap and how they portray women, downgrading them.
The standards of toady's parent is very relaxed with an exception of a few that still believe in M-A-N-N-E-R-S and R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I too bring my kids up to behave correctly that doesn't mean the rules get broken when I do not see them.

Answer 9

Where I live, I see more and more parents teaching their children about manners. I agree that they arent' being taught enough about them, and that there are still a lot of people out there that don't teach their children anything. But, I think parents are beginning to see that it is important and although they may not know how to teach manners, most are trying to make an effort.

It's kinda like helping your child with their trig homework, when the highest you learned was general math.

Answer 10

The children of today scare me........ I am a mother of two teenage boys and we have brought them up with the same values as we were brought up with. But a lot of these children come from homes with no real structure, no rules, and absent parents. Even our government plays a roll in this, with their laws. Oh I believe there has to be laws to protect children from abuse, but they have over done it. Time out doesn't always work!! Crime amongst the youth is rising and the crimes are becoming more violent. We need to bring back some of the old values in the schools and the homes. They are our future and right now it's not looking too good.