Inspirational Words and a soap box rant

So, I was reading blogs yesterday on my lunch break and came across Mrs K's blog and she had an amazing inspirational quote today.

How amazing is that?? I mean really, when you think about it, it is so simple. Children learn from who they are around and as parents we should be the best role models we can be for our children.

Being a teacher, I wish I could paste this to the forehead of every student. I get so frustrated having parent conferences in which the parents make excuses for their student (example: "he isn't being disrespectful, he just has a loud voice"), or telling us what we want to hear. It really is amazing because once I meet the parent, I can generally tell why a student acts the way they do. Parents are so afraid to parent their children anymore that it scares me for our future. The students I see lately are lazy and entitled. They feel I should GIVE them the answers. They don't want to work for anything and some just flat out refuse to work. The sad thing is as a county I have to accept late work and "not give the student the choice to fail" Those are the words that are in my teacher handbook. I am not allowed to let a student make the choice to fail!!! Really?!?!?! How is that preparing them for high school or the real world? Their boss isn't going to care that they forgot to get something done, or spent 45 minutes trying to find a place they have been going to for 3 weeks straight. They aren't. These kids just don't care and it's scary because that means the parents don't care.
I do work in a lower income area. Most people don't like working in this city. We have I think at least 70% of our students on free and reduced lunch, but I am sorry your economic status should have nothing to do with your motivation and with parents caring about their child's education. Unfortunately it does. Now don't get me wrong, I have some parents that I know if I call them, they will take care of what ever situation is going on at school and the behavior will change. But more often than not I either cannot get a hold of the parent or they just make excuses. If you are just going to make excuses, please just don't answer your phone.

I know that I strive every day to be the best parent I can be. I am not afraid to disipline my child. It is not against the law to spank your child if that is how you want to discipline, but my god.....we HAVE to stop being afraid of our kids and letting them walk all over us!!!! We are not helping them at all by letting them think this is ok behavior.

Sorry for my rant. I tore my students heads off yesterday and today for their disrespectful and lazy attitudes and I am just tired of it. These students are our future and I am scared. But I am helpless to change it because I am mandated to follow the policies put in place by our school board. I can only try and change their way of thinking in the 55 minutes I see them each day.