Replies

"Expectations matter."

This is true.

It's why the end of corporal punishment has inevitably led to this. If you expect kids to be disciplined and behave and insist on it in ways that lead to certain punishment for unruly behavior, you dont get unruly behavior. I speak as a father of 3 who has kids others marvel at. I am told they behave extremely well. Indeed. I marvel at how parents decide to let kids run wild and ruin their own lives, rather than take a small effort and insist kids live up to certain standards. It is in the end healthiest for the kids, parents, and others. But we dont do it out of a misbegotten 'concern' that discipline will somehow kill the 'spirit' (to do evil, mischief, and nonsense).

If you miseducate kids with Disney movies and other pap that tells them "just do it" is okay and kids are smarter than adults, and that misbehavior is okay and 'expected' ... well, you get what you expect: Kids who think they can talk back to any and all authority figures without consequence.

We've raised millions of kids that way in the past 2 decades , with parents willing accomplices of this mis-education, and the article above is a natural consequence.

"unless you come down on them so hard it breaks their natural rebeliousness." Uh, there is nothing natural about rebeliousness, that's another liberal myth. All behaviors that are not based on self-interest and our innate conscience are learned. When rebelliousness is made harmful to the kid, they tend not to rebel. If you doubt this, just visit other cultures (eg Japan) where expectations are vastly different wrt conformity.

It's why the end of corporal punishment has inevitably led to this.

Whoa buddy; so you really think bringing back the paddle is the solution to the problems of modern education? I can't go there with you. Respect and consensus trumps pain and force every time.

As for rebelliousness, you're right that it's not an innate human quality in all situations, but it is a natural reaction to force. Force engenders response. My experience of public school was an environment that required you to do a lot of things that were patently unnecessary; this created a desire to assert ones self in response.

And in my experience, especially again wrt public school, I was smarter than a lot of the adults, or at least it appeared that way given the restrictions placed on how we were allowed to interact. I feel that high school is full of adults who never realized their full potential, and students can sense this.