Do you know what manners are?

[Amazin Caucasian]

prejudice profiling is not good manners.

[Floppyman]

Originally Posted by kstatefan40 Well, I'm from the land of Oz, and we have that crap. Little pollution, but we have the "My daddy's rich, so I can do whatever I want" syndrome around. It really bugs me.

Oh of course, that's everywhere, even in my town. The problem in small towns is that when there's only a couple families with a lot of money they feel they are in control of the town/school etc. as well. It's horrible I know. The problem with such people is that even if the real world hits them smack dab in the face, Daddy and Mommy will always be there to bail them out of trouble. In my opinion, the integrity of man is not measured by his material possesions, but rather how he interacts with society.

[inflames988]

watched a movie in my health course this year that was requried by the school. blamed just about every violent incident by kids on video games/movies. Surprisingly more so video games, but in my opinion they still arent close to the graphics found in movies. Anyway my teacher showed us a site dedicated to ridding the world of video games. We looked up "halo 2" on the website, and the review totally contradicted itself...something like "this average first peson shooter is over glorified for its so-so graphics and average gameplay, though it is really violent. avoid it." later donw on the page it said "dont let the awesome graphics and gameplay make you allow your kids to play it" or soemthing like that.

This isnt the problem. People/parents are getting more and more impatient, and becoming too focused on things that arent important. I dont talk to my parents much anymore. No matter how many times i tell them something they only half-listen to what im saying at best. Of course then when they need something they end up asking questions that ive alredy explained a million times and i get real frustrated as you can imagine.

[Floppyman]

This just begs the fundamental question, what are people's priorities in life?

[kstatefan40]

Originally Posted by Floppyman This just begs the fundamental question, what are people's priorities in life?

For some people, it seems to be jack up everyone who has priorities.

A semi-quote from glc, if I may:

"It seems like there are so many idiots in life, but in fact, its just the idiots that are noticed. The mainstream are not idiots, but mainstream doesn't stick out."
Something like that - it makes sense.

[Floppyman]

Originally Posted by kstatefan40 For some people, it seems to be jack up everyone who has priorities. A semi-quote from glc, if I may: "It seems like there are so many idiots in life, but in fact, its just the idiots that are noticed. The mainstream are not idiots, but mainstream doesn't stick out." Something like that - it makes sense.

After thinking about that for a second, that's very true. Just turn on the TV -- that's proof enough.

[kstatefan40]

Think about this:

When was the last time you were out and about and pointed to a friend and said "Look, that group is normal!"

[inflames988]

Originally Posted by mountainking Like i said.. being a good parent IS NOT disciplining. Its beeing a good role model. Your children 90% of the time are going to end up just like you. If you just act the way you want them to be... thats what they will be. If your just doing absolutly nothing and being a couch potato and telling your childrem what they cant do.. thats not going to teach them... At first I started out just like my dad... but my wife and i went to counsiling and im WAY better now. I do visit my parents quite a bit now though. I just dont think they really were ready to have kids. Im the youngest too... ive got 2 older brothers... one is serving over in iraq... and the other one is in prison. I dont visit them too often and I honestly dont care a whole lot if my brother does come back from iraq. Being that he attempted to kill me at age 23 i dont have a whole lot of sympathy for him anymore. Im just very thankful to have ended up nothing like any of them.

exactly. a student from my old school was 2 years younger in 3rd grade with me. now in college (at least 3 years above me now), the student was yelling at parents to buy something in the store i work at, then just flew out the door, telling the parents to bring it to the car. they stayed and paid for it, and brought it out. great social skills there.

[Floppyman]

Originally Posted by kstatefan40 Think about this: When was the last time you were out and about and pointed to a friend and said "Look, that group is normal!"

And with that comes the added complexity that the terms, normal, crazy, weird, etc.. are all relative. What I think is weird you might think is normal and so on.

[kstatefan40]

Yep, everything is truth when looked at from a certain perspective. Think of Obi-Wan in A New Hope

[Jaggannath]

Originally Posted by Floppyman You know people always make fun of me being from the "land of corn", but there is something to said about Iowa and growing in a small town with small town values. No gangs, no traffic, no pollution and low crime. Not a great place to become the next Bill Gates perhaps, but still a great place to raise a family.

I'm the same mate, I get ragged on for being a farm boy from Sunbury (I'm not a farm boy, btw, I just have simple tastes). The worst thing, though, is seeing your small town and it's small town values go down the gurgler when more people move in and corrupt the town, which sadly has happened to my own town. We even had washing stolen from our washing line once.

kstatefan, by Oz you meant Kansas, as in 'Wizard of Oz', yeah??

[David M]

It seems to be boiling down to two elements. The culture and the parents. Sometimes they are at odds..and sometimes not.

I like the concept of parents being the guardrails of a childs development. Parents should give children enuough leeway to explore and to learn yet provide enough discipline and the ability to say "No" when it looks like they are going to do something that could do irrepairable damage to the child.

[neochivers]

i live in belfast... 20 years ago you cot searched by the police every 5 minutes and you coldnt turn a coner whith out seeing the army. do you want that in america?

[kstatefan40]

I pray it never comes to that.

[neochivers]

trust me you dont want it as it scars the hell outa ya when a petrol station blows up in ure face, its happened to me

[IronMentality]

Just a few things I'll add to this discussion:

- We aren't showing the consequences of poor decisions to our youth.

Statistics, and facts are widely known, and are not properly communicated to 'young punks' like me. Where I live, which is an upper middle class community with excellent schools, we got a D-level Consumer Education, and hardly any emphasis on Physical Education and Health.

Despite all the advancements we've made as a society, how can we continue to decline like this with all that we have done?

We can put a man on the moon but can't teach someone to balance a checkbook, save for himself, and be degraded to the point where MTV2 is a prime investment of someone's daily time?

Emphasis needs to be put on what happens if you do (choice A, e.g. doing Crystal Meth), on getting into the youth's head about proper diet and exercise, and how to treat people with decency.

I just wish we would allocate our resources correctly to combat these problems (America spends ungodly amounts more on Education then any other country in the world) yet we are the worst performers in nearly everything except our higher education.

Just my two cents...

[tomster2300]

I bring up my homepage (www.msn.com) and this makes the frontpage.

http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/hotgossip

Our "hollywood idols" are such wonderful people. The guy runs off from his pregnant wife (his child) so he can go impregnate Spears. I think our manners may come back if we could first wipe out all of Hollywood. I would gladly do away with movies if I could turn on my television and not hear the latest hollywood gossip on every channel, esp. the national news. If the media did not hype up the latest trash these scumbags have commited, then nobody would really care -- or at least I hope they wouldn't.

EDIT: I actually got through it this time, I was too disgusted before.

"Brit and Kevin, apparently exhausted from their long days of doing not much at all, relaxed with in-room spa treatments and by dropping some cash at local shops (Kev practiced his swing with a new set of golf clubs)."

This was the reason which the punk couldn't come celebrate his child's first birthday. Pure scumbag trash. These people make me sick.

I rest my case.

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by AMD_freak Another thing i don't dont understand in homeshooling and skipping kids through multiple grades. theres so much more to school than reading and writing. IMO one of the bigest parts of school is learning how to make friends, be with kids your age,learning how to follow rules, and learn to communicate. if your a genius from homeschool or your super smart and in college when your 15, all that intelligence and ideas is useless if you can't make friends, follow rules or carry a good conversation. Like that girl in crickets story.

Really? You really believe that the average Joe who can't read or write well will succeed because he learned how to make friends, and carry on a good conversation?

Honestly, you can't carry on a good conversation about anything unless you are well read. In fact you will basically fail in college and will become nothing in later life if you don't have a firm grasp on the three R's.

I was homeschooled for eleven years, spent my final year in a high school near here. After I had been through that, I realized that my parents had been correct. My parents at least treat me as a human being; in that school the feeling was obvious that the teachers all had favorites and weren't willing to help the less unfortunate. I was able (because of my superior skills) able to help those out that were struggling. I also realized that most of the kids there at the school had drug problems, weren't able to carry on a intelligent conversation with most of their classmates and would be struggling to be anything in todays society.

I am nearly eighteen years of age; I can carry on a good conversation, be taken anywhere. I am well read, my writing isn't that shoddy, and I certainly am not bad in mathematics. My parents, friends and so on know I can be trusted to keep my mouth shut and to be always be polite and friendly. Most homeschoolers that I have met are the same way. None of us were these little geeks that had no idea how to be social in the real world. I really don't appreciate your abusing of the homeschooling which obviously you know nothing about whatsoever.

[rspassey]

better manners also have to come from comunication and interaction with well mannered people, one of my best friends, who recently moved out of argentina where we lived within a block of eachother, to the US, and I had deep conversations about topics like this and other ideas on drugs drinking sex, violence, war, she was 3 years older than me and very inteligent and just threw spending time together i know my manners, especially gentlemanly skill improved, along with how i can open up and share my feelings with someone, which i had never done before we started hanging out, for being only 15 and no longer a resident of the US or canada i can also see that the youth is better behaved here in Argentina than north america

[kstatefan40]

Originally Posted by Sauron I really don't appreciate your abusing of the homeschooling which obviously you know nothing about whatsoever.

It is sad that you experienced public education in that way. Although great teachers are growing few and far between, it helps you, as a student, realize that live isn't all easy. You learn to work around the crap teachers, and grow from the great ones. I've tried to hold a good relationship with my great teachers - talking to them well after my year with them had past.

You really can't say that you are smart because you were homeschooled, and I can't say that I am smart because I went to a public school, BUT I believe that each person learns different. Average Joe's parents probalby don't know anything about homeschooling, so they send their kids to an environment where they can learn. If your parents know what they are doing, that's great, let them teach you. I don't approve of most homeschooling because often parents don't know what they are teaching. Why not let someone who specializes in a subject teach it? Now, I am not saying anything at all against you or your parents - its just for me, I do not believe it is a good idea for *most* people. It could have helped you excel in life, but it could have jacked up Average Joe's life. Public schooling could have helped me excel in life, but it could have been a bad environment for you to be in. It just depends on the person.

I'm not saying this to offend you in any way - people really can't rag on either one. I myself have taught and coached many, many kids; I've learned that you have to model your teaching style on the child. Manors are also taught this way.

[David M]

You can't assume that a home schooled child has no social life elsewhere. The fact is, there are pleanty of other places other than school for children to interact with other children. I don't think I need to make a list to prove my point. BTW, I send my son to a private school and he his grades above his peers in government school.

Home schooled children also do much better academically. The tests prove this. There almost seems to be an envious response from people who have to send their children to government schools. I say government rather than public schools, because that is what they are.