Do you think people are lacking 'class'?

Probably not class, but lacking respect. Especially today's kids who don't respect anyone, including theirselves, and are very self-centered.

I've noticed a lot more lately--say within the past few years that people are more hostile, angrier, and feel incredibly entitled. Not saying everyone, for when I see great stories such as the plane landing on the Hudson a few years back, it gives me hope that people still have humanity.
Now-a-days you look at someone next to you in the other lane while driving and you get the bird. Even to watch a hockey game (my son plays hockey) one can hear others in the stands throwing the F-bomb around. and yes, there are children present..
When I was growing up I can remember being in the lobby at the rink during the hockey period and there were some young men saying F this, F that while chatting in our midst. My Dad went up to them and said 'Do not talk like that in the presence of women"....I'll never forget that moment. He grew up in an era where a man's handshake was as good as signing your name on the dotted line, where people had character and integrity, where people took care of their own business and didn't get into someone else's uninvited.


So in a nutshell, do you think class is diminshing in our time, and do you think technology plays a big part in it?

parents are the enablers. Kids don't appreciate money because they don't have to do anything but wait for their parents next pay day or a holiday/birthday.. OH and I know because I was one of those parents until my kids behaved like they were ungrateful...now ask them what they get for nothing... HUGS AND KISSES!!!!!!!!!!

Yes. I do. But we will raise our boys to be men. Yes mam and No Sir. Thank you and can I help you with that. They know to give up there seat for an adult. Woman are not called names but cherished and respected. There Dad has the last say and money doesn't grow on trees. They know that a day may come where they have to fight for family and or country. And If it does, they won't do it with pants sagging half way down their behinds. A's and b's are expected. As one day hard work will be. Strict? Old fashioned? Yes.

i notice it in certain places.

especially the entitlement attitude. i live in a very poor very rural area..and the people here just dont care. they honesty purposely will try to swerve to hit an animal on the road. they dont use turn signals. they dont say excuse me when they need past you, they just push.

but just a few mins down the road there is a town full of the bohemian hippy types.. worldly and they are kind and actually thoughtful and polite.

Wow, I'd love to know where that first place is so I can avoid it. Perhaps you should move to the hippy place!

It's because these days children are all taught in school that they're entitled to get what they want. They're not allowed to fail, they're not allowed to excel, they aren't taught manners, and they aren't punished when they're obnoxious or disrespectful to others.

The above paragraph is a result of using schools as the scapegoat for problems that originate AT HOME

Discipline?

This paragraph is a result of the lack of options for discipline we have as teachers. I remember being paddled by my first grade teacher. Now, we can't even touch a kid. If I pull a kid away from a fight, I can loose my job or get sued. Discipline now is just silent lunch, in-school suspension, and out-of-school suspension. The problem is, the students that are constant discipline problems that act the way the OP describes have no consequence AT HOME when they get in trouble at school. The parents behave a certain way, the child feels that is acceptable behavior.

Manners?

Well, we try, but if the child is allowed to use foul language or be disrespectful at home, it won't matter what we teach them at school. We do punish them, get a ear full full from the parents because we're picking on their kid, and the behavior continues. Once again, if it's allowed AT HOME, it doesn't matter that they got ISS or whatever because they are going home to no consequences.

Failing?

They are allowed to fail, I hand out plenty of F grades, BUT students are often still passed on to the next grade when they clearly don't have the knowledge. I can't tell you how many times I get a call from a parent, screaming at me because there's no way their kid could fail, and that I must "have it in" for them since I sent home an F on a report card. What happens on the next report card? The student fails again because it's not addressed AT HOME

Hear! Hear Ebbtime! I work in middle school!!!

JM