Do you think this generation of children?

Question

are becoming more aggressive and narcissistic? It seems like parents are not teaching their children how to respect authority, to help the elderly, etc. Parents are taught to negotiate with their kids instead of disciplining them. Most teachers I know are simply working toward retirement and no longer enjoy teaching because kids are so misbehaved.

What do you think needs to be done to help our society? Does it take a village? Would teaching the Bible in schools help? What do you think would work?

Answer 1

I do firmly believe that this generation is going to the dogs. I have a 22 year old female that lives over me. I'm 53 and have had it with her already and only lived here a few months. She stands outside and at the top of her voice will start calling me dirty names. She starts arguments with me, but, not too my face. She acts like she is "it" and has such a long way to go in this life time. If I EVER spoke like that to an older person when I was her age I would have been shot by my mom or dad, or both. And I would have deserved it! I'm not saying that all young people are like her. I have met a lot of wonderful young kids. Except, this type defiantly hasn't been raised right. I think a boot camp type of atmosphere would be good for kids like this one that lives over me. Make em grow up the dam hard way. I raised my 2 sons alone since they were 2 and 4 years old. They are now close to 30. I had taught them the same way my parents taught me. Be kind, helpful and most of all respect. I can say with much pride and love that I have in my heart for my sons. They are the best and would never talk or act disrespectfully to any elder person. They know better!

Answer 2

I think this is true. I think at early ages kids are seeing more than they should. That would be on TV, games, computers, and in life. I think that parents are struggling soooo much to keep them under control because most of them are not there. What people are not seeing is that kids are become more aggressive and narcissistic, but they are are also smarter and faster. Kids right now have no respect because of what is around them, they do not help the elderly because most of their grandparents are in homes and they are not learning how too respect them. Parents tend to negotiate because they really do not take the time to discipline. How are u going to tell your kid their grounded to the room.....when there is no one there to enforce that. I think people (parents) need remember that their kids are a product their society.

Parents need to be around more, not in a office or a factory, dealing drugs. (ALL DAY)
Morales and values do need to be installed in the home and that would roll over into their everyday lives. (school)
I think people need to be aware of their child's needs and goals.
I have wonder for some time now if parents really know what their child's fav color is, or what subject in school they are having a hard time with, do they know how to set a dinner table?

Answer 3

Teaching parents to parent might help, I don't think the Bible in school would help at all, all that would do is open a can of worms. It does take a village to raise a child, or at least a neighborhood. We forgot, as we moved inside our air conditioned homes and off our front porches, how effective public shame is for a kid.
Even sitting on the stoop, watching your neighbors kids play stickball, let them know they were looked after and Lord help you if that ball broke a window, it didn't do no good running away, you just gave up the money you were saving for candy right then and there, because all the ladies saw who hit it.
This is what would work, but right here and now I'll tell you no one will do it.
Give one parent a salary to stay home. Yes, I know all the negatives, but kids do need to know a parent is there, to help them, to save them if need be, just to be there if not needed.
Not just as infants, but as teens too. Those empty homes are used for some totally unsuspected parties by kids. Sometimes parties of two.
Call them professional parent, give them tax credits and a small monthly stipend. Make it worthwhile to have a parent who at least seems to care.
It would work, but it will never happen, when it comes to putting our money where our mouths are, we'd rather spend it on prisons.

Answer 4

You have to deal with more than the whether the Bible is in schools:

There are parents who don't PARENT their kids. I notice a stark difference between my kids whom I parent and teach every chance I get and people who expect the school to teach their kids. My kids know what I expect out of them in school, at home and in life and they go out and do it. The kids who are just dropped off at school just go through the motions and start looking inward for answers their parents should be giving them.

And this isn't an entire Bible vs. Non bible parent debate. I raise them with the same values my mom raised me with and we weren't a very good church going family when I was a kid. But because my mom was involved in my life and making sure I turned out ok, I turned out ok, where I can point to other people in my high school who didn't turn out well. And I will be just as involved in my kids' lives.

Also the school is there to educate your kids, not to raise them. If you're a parent and you don't know more about your kids' school than "a bus comes to pick them up at 7:27, then your lagging. Take an hour a month and find out what's going on there, or how your kid is doing. Be involved in your kid's school as well as your kids and you will see results.

Answer 5

It has nothing to do with Bible in the schools. It has to do with parents. Children are not taught respect for anyone. They call adults by their given names and when the child is called down in class for some stupid remark or hurtful act the parent blames everyone but their little darling. After school kids are latchkey, running amok on the streets, or if involved in activities are left to the adults running those activities to babysit. A kid joins Boy Scouts and instead of dad or mom participating in the kid's interests, they just drop the kid off and pick him up later. They are too absorbed in their own selfish interests to take an interest in what their children are interested in even if the parent really isn't. Do it for the kid, people. Parents complain when their kid is looked at crosswise during a game of tag (call the lawyer) on the playground but when asked to be a playground monitor they are too busy. Who helps the kid with homework? It is easier to hire a tutor at 25 dollars an hour than to sit down and work with the kid to learn.

No, it isn't because of the lack of the teaching the Bible in school it is the lack of parental participation and really caring about their kids. That's what is wrong.

Answer 6

The Bible isn't the answer. It is far from the only book with a moral bent to it. It is quite possible to be moral and atheist. What is not possible is for children to become moral while watching their parents worship the god of possessions, from a distance because the parents are working too hard to pay any attention to their kids. If I were making the laws, I'd insist that one parent be home with the kids till they reach school age and after school once they've started school.

Answer 7

I keep saying PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and CONSEQUENCES.

We must take ownership of our actions and pay the price if we make a wrong decision. Too many people file lawsuits if they spill coffee on themselves and so forth.

I am not my child's FRIEND until I no longer support them and they are done with college. THEN I can be their friend instead of always their Mom 100% of the time (I will throw in MOM things every so often...they expect nothing less of me).

It doesn't necessarily take a village to raise children as it does a society of like minded values. We need 2 parent households instead of women choosing to be single moms. Kids need a Dad in their life.

My kids go to public schools and are taught Life Skills in their classes. It is DECENCY and MANNERS. I LOVED that.
I send them to Sunday School (I have taught since 1991 and have had all my kids in my class) and we talk about God and morals all the time. I have 4 great kids. I should write a book.

Answer 8

It does NOT take a village. It takes parents - something alot of kids do not have. Family units are no longer made up of mom, dad, siblings, and grandparents. Many kids are being raised by a single parent who has to work....so for the most part, the parents aren't actually "raising" them - when do they have the time?

So our youth are being raised by TV, their peers, and at school (which doesn't leave much time for learning....).

Answer 9

It does seem to get more and more out of control. I'm only 25, and the commonality of strong language on TV gets ever more prevalent. At the same time, the age when children start using these words, surprisingly, gets younger and younger! It seems like the ages when they start drinking and using drugs gets younger and younger too.

What is this world coming to? 2 year olds getting drunk together, playing hold 'em and talking like sailors?

Answer 10

It doesn't take the village, it doesn't take the Bible, it takes smart, responsible parents. The problem is that the last few generations weren't made to responsible for anything, and they're screwing up the youths of today.

It takes responsibility and maturity in the parents, and you just can't legislate that.