Bill O'Reilly: The lack of respect epidemic in America

If you want more background and have broadband access, immediately below is a news blurb accompanied by a YouTube video of the incident in question:

From the msn.com website...

Judge throws teen in jail for 30 days for giving him the finger

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

As for ranting and raving...

...sorry, I am not moved to personal outrage.

Bill O'Reilly has long denigrated public education, has long championed its dismantling.

Hell, call him a pioneer of the modern education reform movement.

Does the public education system of today have a "disrespect problem"? Well, Bill got that right.

But...

It's one of those "chicken and egg" things! Public school teachers did NOT create this problem. Public school teachers were the first victims, convenient targets for children run amok...little monsters inspired by modern "entertainment" media, encouraged by their "I-want-to-be-your-friend" parents ascribing to the philosophy and/or psychology of Dr. Spock and his successors.

When children were placed in charge of the family unit, the parents stormed through the schoolhouse doors and demanded that their precious little darlings not be punished for their abusive behavior. The "parents" raised hell with principals, superintendents, and school board members and demanded that their children not be held accountable. Since administrators did not have tenure and since school board members are elected, they cowered in the face of the parental onslaught.

Therefore, when the teacher (trying to maintain order in the classroom so that s/he could teach) sent the disrespectful "student" to the office, instead of receiving support, the teacher was seen as "creating a problem" for the administrator and/or the school board.

Teachers quickly "got the memo": If you send students to the office, you may suffer dire consequences...like losing your J-O-B! Principals were quick to tell teachers: "It is your job to handle discipline." Teachers were told that if they sent a student to the office for misbehavior (including the aforementioned cursing) that it was a sign of weakness on the part of the teacher!

Talk about being caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place...

...because, trust me on this, students got "their memo" in a hurry: "You can misbehave all you want, the teacher does not dare send you to the office."

And, on those rare occasions when the student was sent to the office...

Two real-life personal experiences from back in the day:

• I sent a student to the office early one morning for misbehavior. (Don't remember exactly what, but it wasn't some petty offense. I did actually take care of those myself.) The violation was of some rule mandated by the office...one of theirs. Anyway...less than five minutes later, the door to my classroom opens and in saunters the offending student with a sh*t-eating grin on his face. Standing in the doorway was the assistant principal who announced in a disapproving tone that she needed to see me. When I walked through the door for a "private conversation" in the hallway outside my door, the assistant principal announced in a voice loud enough for my eavesdropping students: "The Principal told me to tell you that 'We don't have time for your problems today'." She then walked off in the direction of the office.

  Boy, was my face red...

  ...and I'm sure that steam was coming out of my ears.

  I tried counting to ten, making it to maybe five. I pushed the button on the intercom. When the secretary answered, I told her in a very calm voice that I needed someone to come to my classroom and relieve me...that my blood pressure was high and that I needed to go home.

  And, that's exactly what I did.

  Hell, I figured if they didn't want to rock the boat and send the student home, then I would make life easy for them and send me home! (I came back the next day and never heard another word about it. Also, I never had that problem with the office again. I will admit to trying desperately not to send any students to the office. Needless to say, I did let a lot of petty sh*t slide after that...which is my point. Not backing teachers in disciplinary matters is a slippery slope, indeed. It's one of those "Reaping what you sow" things!

• This second experience was not witnessed by me, but by many others. Back in the day, we had more than one principal who would "entertain" students who were sent to the office for discipline problems. While commiserating with the offending student, telling her/him "Well, you know how Mr. So-and-So is..." and if the teacher was female..."Well, you know, it's probably that time of the month!" The student would then be allowed to sit in the office for a "time out" period...all the while being wined and dined. (Okay, I exaggerated there, there was no wine, it was only a free soda from the Principal's refrigerator...and the "dining" was a candy bar or hard candy. If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'.)

My point, if you've lost track...

...are teachers taking more abuse, allowing more disrespect in public schools today?

Hell, yes, hey have no choice?

One last pet peeve...

My two examples above were extreme, "over-the-top" situations, although I truly suspect they are not rare, nor exclusive to "the good old days" in Cairo High School.

But, there is another less dramatic but more insidious undermining tactic used by administrators against the teacher's effort to maintain daily order...

I cannot count the number of times that I and colleagues would send a student to the office for disrespect and out-right cursing. Later, when the teacher met with the administrator, the first statement out of her/his mouths was: "Are you sure s/he said that? S/he says s/he didn't say that."

Well, effing "Duh!"

More often than not - after confirming that we were not making this stuff up, that we were not lying on the poor, pitiful student - the result was a slap on the offending student's wrist. (Just kidding, of course, that would be corporal punishment and that was banned years ago...thereupon confirming the admonition of the Holy Bible that if you "Spare the rod, spoil the child!" So, the "slap on the wrist" was a "stern" verbal warning by the administrator: "Don't do that again." (Wow, see them shiver, see them shake!) The student was then sent back to class, demonstrating her/his best strut and aforementioned sh*t-eating grin

As for Bill O'Reilly and his slamming of public school teachers and elevation of Catholic schools...

Bill: Therein lies the rub!

At Catholic schools (and other private schools and the touted charter schools), the teachers don't have to put up with such sh*t. The kid misbehaves, sh/e gets sent home, repents, and actually changes behavior or never returns...

...goes directly to "jail" (public school).

Public schools do not have that "nuclear option"...

...due to compulsory attendance laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Public schools are not the problem, did not create this problem...

...society created this problem, and, unfortunately, public schools have to deal with it as best they can, while suffering the slings and arrows of an outraged Bill O'Reilly and other self-serving bystanders.

In closing:

Okay, as usual, I have been long and rambling...

...and I am reminded that one picture is worth a thousand words.

So...

...just in case Bill O'Reilly stumbles across this post, I don't want him to lose sight of my message.

So...

Mr. O'Reilly:

POSTSCRIPT:

At the beginning of my intro, I indicated that:

As for ranting and raving...

...sorry, I am not moved to personal outrage.

Well, there is one thing...

...namely the picture that closed this post.

And...

...the many pictures used in my live epic documenting the departure of He Who Shall Remain Nameless.

I do take offense to the perpetrators of the mischaracterization of cats as beings who cannot use proper English, capitalization, or punctuation!

But...