What's The Matter With Parents These Days?

I recently stumbled upon a blog posting that compared school in 1957 to our present day schools. It gave a scenario and then how that situation would be responded to in 1957 and 2009. For example, Johnny won't sit still and disrupts class. In 1957, Johnny is sent to the principal's office, gets paddled, goes back to class and sits still. In 2009, Johnny is given large doses of Ritalin, becomes a zombie and is labeled as ADHD. The school gets a large sum of money for having a student with a disability.

While I have strong feelings against corporal punishment, these are things that I see going on in schools all of the time. Instead of taking care of issues we try to hide them. We are always worried about hurting people's feelings. This starts with the parents. Parents these days often either do not care or are so overprotective of their children that teachers have to tiptoe around these kids because their afraid of parent backlash.

Let's take a look at some new scenarios.

1. Buddy does not stand or acknowledge the Pledge of Allegiance. 
    1957 - The teacher tells Buddy to stand and gives patriotic reasons to stand. Buddy stands for the Pledge.
    2010 - The teacher tells Buddy to stand and gives patriotic reasons to stand. Buddy tells parents. Parents call ACLU. ACLU contacts school, teacher has to apologize to Buddy and parents.

2. Timmy tries out for the football team despite being terrible at football.
    1957 - Timmy gets cut from football team, is sad but excels in other extracurricular activities. Timmy receives scholarship for being well rounded.
    2010 - Timmy gets cut from football team. Timmy's parents call school to complain. Timmy is allowed back on the football team. Timmy gets hurt -OR- Ex-high school football star father beats Timmy up for not being good at football. Timmy develops psychological issues.

3. Joey strikes out in the last inning of a baseball game in the last game of the season.
    1957 - Dad pats Joey on the back and tells him that there's always next year. Joey asks dad to help him work on baseball skills during the off season. Joey is a much better hitter in 1958.
    2010 - Dad yells at umpire and gets ejected. On the way out, Dad punches the father of the opposing team's pitcher and gets arrested. Joey never plays baseball again and ends up in therapy with Timmy.

4.  Teacher gives a writing assignment that Mary has trouble completing.
    1957 - Mary struggles but completes assignment. Mary learns from assignment and does better on future assignments. Mary goes to college and is successful in life.
    2010 - Mary struggles and complains about assignment to mom. Mom completes assignment for Mary. Mary gets an A but learns nothing. Mom continues to complete Mary's writing assignments. Mary goes to college and fails out because she cannot write.

I'm not saying that all parents are bad and that they need to stay out of their kids' lives. They are a lot of great, involved parents out there. What I am saying is that people need to stop being so sensitive about things. Teachers and coaches are not out there to make kids' lives miserable. As a teacher, I can assure you of that. At some point, these kids are going to have to grow up and fend for themselves. How can we expect kids to be successful members of society when they have parents that enable or demonstrate such horrible behavior?