SmackDown: Would You Publicly Punish Your Child?

Do me a favor and come teach were I am. Not only are the parents here wanting to be the best friend but so are the teachers. We have kids failing because they don't care and then the parents are upset because they should push the kids so hard. The school feels bad for the kids so now they don't allow AP and higher ed classes because its not fair to the students who aren't doing well. Now parents and teachers are proud of the 13 year olds who are pregnant.

It looks as though your English skills have also suffered. I hope you are a shop teacher. WTF?!?

To MLS
Why are you yelling? If you are an educator, why is your grammar so bad?

I do not support publicly humiliating this child but...something needs to be done. I am a Substitute Teacher in a VERY good public school district in PA. What I have witnessed, first hand, with students and learning is not only appalling, but also frightening. Middle Schoolers who have the reading, wirting and math proficiency of 3rd graders and DON'T CARE. Teachers who all but spoon feed information to students and students who can't write/spell so don't know how to take notes. Students who can't get a quiz or a test completed in the allotted time for a classroom period, are allowed to finish it during one of their "free" periods...and then, the teacher almost GIVES them the answers...this is the future??? It is beyond scary. Kids today are coddled beyond anything I have seen and, to your pont, are too preoccupied with all the gadgetry to LEARN! God help us!

wow...by your comment, you seem to be part of the problem...can't spell, caps lock on...yikes.

@Dana If you are lazy and slack off at work I'm sure you would be fired rather than be standing on some corner with a sign. I don't know where some of you people are from but, being that I work in a Public School I see this type of behavior everyday. Most of the kids are rude, disrespectful, lazy & flat out refuse to do any work. Who is to blame for all of this? The parent(s) have a responsibility to their child/children to make sure they get the education they need to make it in the real world & if that child is not doing what they are suppose to then we have to intervene any way possible & if that means humiliation then so be it. The government & other outsiders have tried to tell parents how to raise their child for too long now. We can't even discipline them witout any backlash. In my day a good asswhippin would do the trick. Nowadays these kids get away with too much. Where does it end? They are being set up to fail. Let us parent our kids not the government or the idiots like Mary Beth that are like "oh your so mean for having your child stand on a corner with a sign" Oh please, whatever works.

The first thing that is learned in communication is this type of punishment is ineffective and has been proven many times. Instead, the mother should sit down with her son and help him get into a studying mind set. She should try to have a set time and maybe help her son out positively.. An mom from CO maybe your child is doing bad in school because you are that kid's PARENT.. Everyone talks about how this generation is horrible and how we screw up. I have news for you parents. It is all of you who really screw things up. I have a great relationship with my parents by the way. Who do we see in the papers. Everyday i see a corrupt politician or a corrupt business person. Guess what that is YOUR generation of people not ours. These comments are why this world is the way it is. It's because of YOU. So please don't comment back unless you have something intelligent to say.

The kids these days were born at a different time then we were. They
grew up with computers, video games and cell phones. Why would we try
and educate them with factory schools that were designed to 'dumb down
people' so they would go to work in the factories?
Do we still ride horses to work or wash our clothes on rocks. How many
of us even know phone #s any more? Our phones have speed dial or
contact lists with names, why not let our kids use calculators in math
class. Even engineers these days use computers to design everything.
Some kids do great in school, some don't. Usually it's the ones who
don't that are the genius' . Einstein only got to the 3rd grade!! The
kids these days are crushed and have bad self esteem by the time they
leave 5th grade. Little Johnny gets an 'A' in music and a 'D' in
english, heck make him come to the front of the class and embarrass
him over the D. Why not let him learn music and do spelling with
spell check??? We all use it!
Kids need to have dreams and passions, not get kicked down in our old,
outdated school system. Chant learners are all they produce. The one
spin, I say it, you repeat it... if you don't do it my way I'll send
you to the principles office..

We are now living in "The Age of Imagination" lets start using it
again. We have all been dumbed down to the point where we don't even
ask, What If......
Just my thoughts.... www.dontolmanusa.com

What a dumbass mom. That mother has some serious internal issues and should be evaluated. I have a teenage son who didn't want to study or do his work in high school. He floundered. I encouraged. I pushed but, avoided humiliating him. When it came time to get a driver's license I said give me the grades. After some struggle he embraced the concept that if he wants something good for himself he will have to put in the work.
He is, currently, an honor student in college.
Of course, I established with him when he was 5 that I am not his friend. I am his parent. Makes saying 'no', much easier; and fun, sometimes.

A little well deserved humiliation never hurt anyone! A person that has wronged someone or has no motivation in his ONLY job (school!) can USE a small, healthy dose of humiliation! Trusting that this mother has in fact done all she could do for her son to help him achieve, I believe this was an appropriate step. One of our major problems now is that people NEVER want to accept blame for anything. Negative actions deserve negative consequences!!!!

The punctuation and grammar in this is horrifying.

Amen! Friendship with your child is the reward you get for having been a good parent! Don't expect delivery of said reward during the teenage years, though! Those are the high climax of parenting duty!

If you can't Make him read, how about taking him to a library where they offer tutoring ? Find books that are about sports, or comics that appeal to him!!Let him find his way into the wonderful world of reading!! It's one of the greatest gifts you can give him

I disagree. I have a computer. I have a Droid (the first one, mind you. I'm not rich). I have an Xbox 360 and Wii. I watch TV all the time. I also have a life and a lot of over-read books. I'm a freshman in HS with a 4.0, and I'm taking 3 AP and 2 Honors classes next year. It really isn't the technology and material that's ruining people, it's the people that choose how to use them.

SJ you are full of it. You will not have time to take the advanced classes along with everything else and still have time to watch TV all the time. next time you try and brag to impress try toning it down a bit.

I seriously doubt you're a teacher. You're use of grammar is jumbled, and a teacher wouldn't type in all caps. Coming from a high school student (hey I spelled it out, I'm not as lazy as you), it's not the internet or phones, for the most part. It's stress, homework, and mainstream music. Stress makes us not want to do stuff because we don't want to deal with those stressful situations, like big tests for example. Homework drains us and cuts our time to relax at home. SCHOOL is where we are supposed to work, not home. We're supposed to relax, play and eat at home.
And mainstream music, it sucks the will of kids right out. They think it's cooler to shoot up a stranger and rob a Johnny Quick or 7/11 than to pass their math test. Electronics is only a small part of what distracts us. But do you want a better way to teach your students? Videos. For most students, an educational video is more entertaining and easier to learn from than a monotone teacher lecturing us for a hour. For the kids that need notes and assignments to learn, assign that crap to them. I've learned more from 2 years of Discovery and History Channels than I have in my 2 1/2 years of high school (that means I'm a junior). Peace misguided, ignorant soul. I think you need to update your teaching degree though, 43 years is a long time.

But I will say, if you are a teacher, you are extremely underpaid.

reply to 'toughlove' Capitalization is NOT yelling! WTF, yelling is composed of sound. The capitalization is for emphasis only, when a person feels other people reading are not listening.

I for one DON'T see anything wrong with your grammar. People just don't understand how getting in a hurry influences your typing

IRONY
it's in the air.