R-E-S-P-E-C-T-- Let Me Tell You What It Means To Me

Lately, I have been thinking how any child from this generation has made it to a walking, talking being.

Earlier this week, I was walking to my car after having made sure my kids were safely on their vans and on their way to their parents care. I heard the roar of the big yellow school buses leaving and over the roar as they began to drive out of sight, there was a voice yelling out the window "Matthew hates you fat woman!"

What a blow to the ego. Actually it was the icing on the cake. First of all, I am trying to figure out why that particular child or any child for that matter, was allowed to be yelling out the window. My Gram drove a bus for nearly 30 years and she would have NEVER ALLOWED a child to hang out the window, much less scream obscenities to school staff. Then it occurred to me. Children are not taught to respect adults.

Where was the respect lost? When was it lost? Even better WHY was it lost?

To make my case even stronger, let me tell you about what happened with 2 of my boys in my class. This was the first ego blow.

Now these two boys come from Hispanic families who speak only Spanish in the home. Teaching them about sentence structure and grammar is challenging.

They giggle. ALL THE TIME!!! When we turn our back to write on the board, when we talk to one another.

So on this day, they had already been trouble. As they were packing their things to go home, they were laughing at a paper. The classroom teacher, went over and gave them a death glare and told them hand it over. They first told her it was a punching bag.

Punching bag my a..foot!! It was a picture. It was a picture they drew. It was a picture they drew of boobies, butts and poop. Not skinny girl boobies and butts, but BIG girl boobies and butts.

Soooooooo, they had to write sentences, have a letter sent home and go see the principal.

When they were asked what it means to be respectful and dis-respectful, they had NO idea. I could blame this on only Spanish speaking home, but the English speaking kids do not know what they mean either. The main stream 6th grade class are devils with a capital D.

I suspect the window caller is one of those evil devils.