Education: The Difference Between Now and Then

Oh no, you're completely correct. I don't have children of my own, and I'm one of this particular day and age, but I see and am appalled by the behavior and speech of children today. No one takes the time, I suppose they are content to believe that they 'don't have the time' to appropriately teach or discipline their children. It's depressing. I've never seen 'Meet Me in St. Louis' so I can't remark specifically on how things are different or my opinions, I wasn't alive 50 years ago, so I can't remark on how things have declined. I just see how things are now, and think it's sad. [Only because I can hope, and apparently am correct in believing that we were not always this way.]

I don't want you to take offense to this but it is the parents from your generation that are partially responsible for this. Because they raised the parents of these wild uneducated children. Parents are responsible for their children's education. There are a lot of people on welfare where I live. Most of them speak with very poor grammar. Welfare is partially at fault. If they didn't reward people for having more children there would be less. I don't need anyone attacking me about welfare. When someone gets $800 in food stamps, $475 living expenses, free rent, free electric, free water and free natural gas there isn't a lot of incentive to get a job for $7 an hour like everyone else in this area. So I am speaking about "my area" where welfare keeps people for generations. They don't have any ambition to get off of it. Personally I believe if the government gives to someone it should be available to all. Many people say it is the governments job to provide education. That is only half true. Education starts at home. A child learns to speak from what it hears. So if the parents talk like morons then the children will probably be the same. Another problem is parents use the television and video games to baby sit their children. 50 years ago you were probably lucky if you got 3 channels. So I doubt it was as popular of a babysitter as today. Children today have no respect for anything. I FEAR the world in 30 years because their kids will be having kids.

Children these days are not getting the education that they should be getting. When I was a child, we learned how to write. Now, most children cannot write a proper sentence. They get to college and instuctors are baffled by what they see. They have a writing and reading center at my college because students at my college had very little writing and reading skills. Our country is becoming a nation of idiots.

As in Margaret O'Briens case, most children in that era were better educated than most. They spent alot of their time with adults, who in that era, strove to be sophisticated. Sadly in this era, both parents work and all they have time for at home is brain sucking TV shows. So the kids do without the extra emphasis from their parents on getting a good education. They hardly get any motivation from the teachers, they are overworked and fearful of their students doing them harm. And of course our Government wants us all dumb, and poor. See, I too can rant!

I was reading some of the other responses you made and especially the point that children and their parents on benefits especially welfare may be part to blame for inadequate language whether written or spoken...yes and no, not really. First, consider the basic schooling system nowadays...classes are crammed, overflowing...children hardly get the attention to learn well the way say you or I did when we were kids and certainly not so many years ago in Margaret O'Brien's time..also don't forget, since she was an underage actress had private tutoring which is still the norm for child actors that are popular. Also you have to consider environmental factors such as children glued to TV a lot..picking up slang, foul language, etc. Then of course is the invention of cell phones..where people are used to short cut text messaging so people are actually forgetting how to write properly. Do you have any idea how many times I come across people even here that use mainly text messaging type words in their discussions?...even computers have created it's own way of messaging..like LOL, BTW, etc..

i know what you're talking about but education is lacking a lot more than just teaching kids how to speak correctly. basic skills like learning the multiplication tables, doing math without calculators, knowing how to play an instrument or reading music, or knowing i before e except after c are somethings that are missing. i think for the most part it can be blamed on parents for really not caring about their kids and letting them run around like wild animals saying only "no, dont do that, time out." honestly, when has a time out done much good? i know that parents are busy nowadays with jobs and activities for their kids and everything and that the amount of time that parents are spending with kids is steadily decreasing, but is it really too much to ask to take your kids to the library and get some books instead of plopping down in front of the tv so they can watch family guy? what ever happened to the idea of reading for fun? yeah getting your kid to watch clifford and between the lions is a start to getting them to want to read and learn how to write, but you have to take that extra step and show your kid you care by at least spending 15 minutes with them at the end of the day reading. i know that the education system has failed simply because i've watched it year after year after year with my brother. tomorrow he begins his first year of high school and the poor sap doesnt know his multiplication tables, he can barely even do basic math and spells horribly, and why? because he went to summer school for three weeks and they said that if he fulfilled that requirement, he would pass onto the next grade. what happened to failing? no, kids we arent all winners and sometimes we need to work hard to get where we want to be. what ever happened to "yes ma'am, no ma'am, yes sir, no sir" and showing respect for your elders? no one in our society is expecting these kids to do anything other than feel good and do whatever they want as long as they're happy. our country is filled with ignorance and disrespect for cultures, traditions, education, and humanity. i hate that so many of these parents are running around letting their kids act however they want, but even then, if i ever become a parent, i wont be able to discipline my child as i see fit because theres always the chance that they might call child protection services on me for spanking my kid. theres another side of the problem too. kids dont respect something they can take down. what have we become? sorry for ranting but i completely agreed with you on this.

Hi whimsy, how are you today? You certainly won't get an argument from me. I will be 60 years old in December, and the decline in education has had me concerned for a long time. I graduated from high school in 1967, and I was unable to attend college because there was no money for it. I went to work immediately, and worked until 1999, when I had to quit and go on disability. During those 32 years, I saw some amazing things! I went to work in 1975 at the school that I had graduated from. Just in those eight years, I could not believe the decline. Students pretty much ran the school. Teachers and administrators were basically there to supervise the kids. They were always so busy keeping the kids in line that there wasn't a whole lot of time for teaching them the way they should be taught. Then, when my daughter was in school, in the 1980s and '90s, it was so bad that we had to pull her out of public school and home school her. Thank God, her father and I were able and cared enough to teach her the way the schools couldn't. She is no genius, and still has problems with math, but she is able to speak quite eloquently and can spell and read and write. Her best friend graduated from public high school, and went to college, but she is unable to obtain her degree. Her speech is horrible, she can hardly spell, and is unable to graduate because of math. My daughter is now 25 years old, and she graduated from college last year with a B.A. She is still a virgin, doesn't smoke, curse, or drink. We are very proud of her. When I see kids today, hanging out at the malls or on street corners, I feel so bad for them. It is so obvious that they don't have the supervision and structure in their lives that they need so badly. Yes, a lot of the parents today are the product of my generation. It just makes me thankful that, while we were not the perfect parents, far from it, we at least were able to raise our child to be a nice, respectful, respectable adult.