Teaching Tolerance in Schools . . . . .

[Diane Amberg]

Right....sure is easy when you aren't in the school setting, Steve. Suppose you had killed that kid with your bat?  The fact that he wasn't behaving wouldn't have meant much then, would it?   Did your father beat him up for you...or his father?
   Remember the story I told about the kid who almost strangled a smaller kid to death right in front of me? The younger child was unconscious and blue by the time I could drag the other kid off him, by his hair.
  Remember, I got called on the carpet by the attacker's parents for pulling the big kid's hair?  This was many years ago. They didn't care a twit that the little guy could have died. The older boy was trying his best to choke the little one to death.
  I'm glad life is so simple for you and I'm amazed the whole pack of you didn't wind up in court, or worse. Why, I'm surprised you weren't carrying a gun to school by then. Then you could have really showed 'em!  Didn't you demand that your own kids could be armed at school?   
   I'm not sure where you get the idea that today's kids are "wimps". Every spring when the kids' sap rises there are horrible fights in many high schools of any size. When they whip out the knives and guns they will be happy to show you that they aren't wimps. They see red rage and don't care about the consequences of their actions. Then the brothers, sisters and cousins show up on the buses and at each others' houses to finish it . Often with irate screaming parents in the lead.  Wimps? I wish they were, or at least more civilized.
  By the way, I hear the bee subsidy is going to come back very soon, as with some other animal subsidies because of the dry summer.Ya might want to check on it.

[srkruzich]

No diane, we didn't kill each other, and we didn't have it in us to kill each other.  chances are the 17 year old would have had a lump on his head not be dead as i never had that great a swing.  Secondly it was self defense which still applies. 

Also we were taught right from wrong, back then.  Instead of tolerance we understood right from wrong and were never to tolerate unacceptable things.  WHy should we compromise on that?

Like i said before we took care of bullies and it worked. Stopped them in their tracks, no one got killed just beat up a little bit. Didn't hurt them nor did it hurt us. Once you kicked the bullies ass, they quit being bullies.  SImple. 

As for my dad beating up other fathers, no he never did.  He would however make them regret ever producing their spawn and knew how to do it very effectively.  I've only seen one time where my dad started carrying a handgun in his neighborhood area and that was around 1996 when the local kids got violent.  He like i would have dropped them where they stood if they had attacked him or any of our family and were talking minors here.

I've almost had to drop a 11 year old before, and would have done it.  A 8 year old with a handgun is just as dangerous as a 20 year old with a handgun.  I don't put up with bullshit and don't expect any parents kid to put up with that.  As long as you are right, and do right, then thats all society can ask.  This bullshit of patting johnnies head saying awwe johnny don't do taht thtats not nice crap doesn't work. and kids got their teachers and parents all buffaloed and wrapped around their dang fingers.   

This liberal bullshit of punishing the kid that defends him/herself from attacks has got to stop. The best solution i ever saw for bullying, and the general fist fights in school was the coach taking the ones involved sticking them in the boxing ring and let them duke it out.  they duked it out til they got tired of getting hit. Never hurt a single one of them. AND they didn't have grudges afterwards cause they got to release all that bs the shrinks try to tell ya you got to bottle up and find some pansy assed sissy way of getting out.     

All one has to do to see the state of our school system is take one look at those losers that occupied wallstreet.  What a real bunch of jobless losers.   Thats the product that our government schools produce. Nothing but a bunch of pansy assed trouble making mooches.

[srkruzich]

Bottom line is my generation didn't have the crap going on that this generation does.  And why is that? We didn't tolerate it!

[Diane Amberg]

Steve, you are hugely generalizing again. Sure there are places with problems,I said that long before you did, but you make it sound like every school is not producing any decent product and I totally disagree.
Most parents do teach their kids right from wrong, their own version of it that is, but the kids often lie about their confrontations and who are the parents going to believe first? Their own child of course! Every kid will be happy to tell you that the other kid started it, whatever it was...then it's self defense on both sides!   "Bad" kids aren't always bad or wrong and "good" kids aren't always good or right either. They are undeveloped organisms and they will make mistakes....all of them!  Most sensible parents will agree to that.
  I always believed in the boxing ring idea and some of the schools here did do that years ago. But when the trend started away from solving violence with violence, the boxing idea was finished.
It's not the way the teachers want it either. It's the law!  When it's the attacking child's parents who show up to continue the problem, the victim's family sometimes has a hard time being heard.  Squeaking wheels and all that. I think the pendulum will soon swing back to something reasonable soon though.
  Of course the problems in many tough big inner city schools are something else and might as well be on another planet. Some of those kids have such huge problems and are just wired differently. I just can't imagine trying to teach the small, but really bad element much of anything beyond basic 3Rs. They are not interested in learning. It just isn't in their world. But, we've talked this to death. 
   One of the things that bothers me in general...it's no longer considered wrong to lie about things. By all ages.
    Kids hear their parents lie. It's just accepted! Sorting out the truth about something is almost impossible.The stories keep changing and then the lawyers get involved and every small thing gets blown all out of proportion from what really happened.  A flea bite becomes a poisonous snake bite and then the media gets hold of it and way it goes. We need to stop letting the media have such a strong presence in our lives, especially when they pare the truth of a situation down to a sound bite.

Oh, I just read an article by a teacher who spent some time in Japanese schools doing research on the differences between their teaching system and ours. I won't go into detail except to say I found it interesting that the kids eat lunch in their rooms, served on trays served by other kids, dressed it clean coverups. When all are done ,the servers take it away and all the students go trooping out to brush their  teeth after lunch...every day. Now why aren't we doing that?

[Patriot]

..Now why aren't we doing that?

Not sure if serving lunches is the answer, but perhaps a review of the left tilted agendas of the NEA would provide some insight.  And, perhaps if teachers weren't so busy dragging children to political rallies in support of their union (as in Wisconsin), there could be more focus teaching discipline and manners.  After all, the NEA is a powerful political force representing over 3 million teachers and exercising influence over curricula all over the country.

Here's one perspective on union agendas:  http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2006/july06/06-07-26.html