Link.

And if you want a real laugh. . .

Link.



Darwinism for the win? Or is it for the loss? Either way, the depths of human stupidity appears to be boundless.

One word (meaning 3): LOL
But the second one is old =/

The first one, well, another stupid lawsuit.... parents these days don't seem to hold their own kids responsible and blame anyone they can for their mistakes.... still kind of sad though, but it was his own fault.

The second one - that's just stupid. Is it just me, or are kids getting stupider and stupider these days? Also, apparantly, fourth graders are cursing all the time. Cursing! When I was that age, I can't remember anyone cursing.... if they did, the other kids were shocked or the kid who did it corrected himself. Or we laughed at him, but we didn't cuss like sailors like these kids do. (I don't know any fourth graders, but I know a paraprofessional who worked with them last year).

Anyway, this news doesn't keep me from wishing I was a fellow human being....

From my experience with volunteering for the city's recreation departments (my wife worked in the field for 6 years), volunteering with at-risk youth in the juvenile justice system (planning activities for a mentoring program), my studies in parental education with regard to game ratings/media violence as a Sociology major in college, and being around my youngest sister's friends, I would say it is a multi-tiered situation going on.

On one hand you have an American education program that is failing. It's a sinking boat taking in water that seems to think word recognition is a better way to teach children than learning how to sound words out. There is little actual learning going on, as most of the year is spent on endless requirements or prepping for end of grade exams. There is no real emphasis on learning but merely passing the test to prove you know it. There is no real focus on grammatical rules, nor the importance of social duty, execution of acceptable moral conduct, etc, etc.

So, you have that basic failing structure in the schools mixed with an apathetic generation of children being raised by children who think it's a good idea to pawn off their responsibility onto someone else. TVs and media content such as games and the Internet are their teachers, their friends, and their parental agents while their parents either are unable to jostle them from captivity, fail to care to do so, or are financially unable to do anything else more responsible. This education of youth by media doesn't do them a ton of favors, as our media content is dumbed down tremendously.

I'm not saying media makes children sailor-mouthed asshats. Rather, the lack of structure in their lives and a increasingly degraded sense of responsibility to not behave like a fiend grow some award-winning youth. If parents do little and care little, the youth are going to often fail at that. The kids know they don't mean anything to their parents. They get that some drug or object is more vital to their parent's happiness and that carries down into their heads as they grow up.   Also, even in the best situation when parents are awesome, the school is actually pretty sweet, there are still bad ass little bastards likely to pop out.

Life isn't as simple anymore. Many kids don't even go outside anymore. They don't learn about car mechanics or gardening or whatever their parents, uncles, grandparents, neighbors do for hobbies. They bask in the glow of some new gadget in a race to keep up with the new fads and to somehow show other people how much they're worth.

This is just my opinion, one that gets tempered by the fires of some very bad examples of parenting. I've seen it in all 4 states I've lived in, and at every school I've ever attended. My mother could be like this, though every now and again she flew more actively and tried to do right by us. It seems to me, that the more STUFF that kids get as they are growing up, the less they are thankful for, the more they think they deserve, and the harder it is to socialize them with more humble traits such as manners, generosity, honesty, friendliness, and kindness.

Maybe I'm jaded and this is a bit skewed, but I can only go on how different my brother and I turned out from my sisters, and how different we are from other kids we knew. Neither of us feel entitled to anything, and are so thankful for everything, as we came from nothing.

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I think you hit it right on target with the parents. Also, the parents, as I have seen in my town, seem to want to be friends more than parents. Not that there's anything wrong with trying to be a friend to your kid, but these people acted like they were the same age as them. But of course, not all parents are like this, these are only some problems, some parents may have one or more, some may have none.

And while it's true that some people are influenced by the media and how much stuff they get, what needs to be realized is that everyone is different and everyone grows differently. Here is what needs to happen:

Parents have a child because they want a child, one that they will care for and love. Parents also need to love each other, because I know when I was growing up I never really felt like my parents truly loved each other. So, we begin with the one universal and necessary trait of a parent, and that is love and care for the child. Parents without that are immediately useless.

After that point, parenthood is about learning, the child and the adult. Parents must try to understand their children, and not pressure them to do what they want them to do, but rather to be the best person they can be. People are not made to conform. Individuality is key.

The most you can do as a parent is let your child know that you love them and you want what's best for them, and to teach them how to be a better person.

Regardless I'm not a parent nor am I even married, but I don't need that kind of experience to understand people, psychology, and sociology. And I'm not solely basing my beliefs on those either, I have my own way of doing things.

Yeah, the different "styles" of parenting used today are crazy. The "roll over and take it" style being one I look at with particular disgust. I wish I had had a better family situation and could say I gave two piles of excrement for my mother now, but overall I think I managed to turn out ok. So if I ever do have kids, they will not be like my sister's children. She ended up way different than my brother and I.

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Naruto kills.

Now I have even more propaganda against anime!!!