I agree 100% but also believe the lack of unadulterated discipline is also the problem today.
We were “latch key” children as were basically everyone we knew and never even heard that term till much later in life,so we thought we were the norm.
There were many things to do immediately after coming in from school,homework,laundramat etc and even to start cooking.
and you better believe they were done.
Everyone pulled their weight and our parents worked hard to get ahead as in simply moving on to better area and home ownership .
Exactly.
Oh, and don’t forget: adults were all on the same team with regard to discipline. You screwed up out of your parents reach and there was always an adult around to reprimand you. Now it doesn’t happen and kids get away with stuff.
Our “discipline” during the mid to late 70s was pretty lax, by the standards of either before or since. My girlfriend’s sister graduated HS in 2006 and she was shocked when I told her things like multiple entrances and exits were always unlocked, lockers were locked and it was easy to grab an unused one simply by locking it, there were no metal detectors and little to no police presence, dress codes were limited to showing excessive skin or actual bad words, and kids who played sports and/or had decent grades could get away with damned near anything they didn’t make obvious.
On the other hand, contrary to what some would imply we didn’t have any sort of organized prayer in the schools.
The key difference between then and now: we were individually held responsible for our own actions, including our grades. In particular, bullying was less of a problem because their was no “zero tolerance”. While unwarranted aggression could be seriously punished, fighting back received little or sometimes no penalty.