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I agree with you. Now I am a bit biased here being a middle school teacher but you really can see and immediately tell which students have good, involved parents and sadly those that do not. It more often than not comes down to the parents. People should not lump all teachers together-just like people should not lump all "whatevers" (pick a profession) together.

I not only feel I teach history but I also try to impart "life-skills" and try to get my students to see the world around them. I admit it, my perspective is conservative-I never pound it into them politically-its implied...an example was yesterday-We had a discussion on the upcoming MLK day off. we discussed what MLK would think of modern culture-rap music, videos, athletes, excerta...it was a great discussion and a I believe I continued to open a few eyes-we'll see if it sticks.

My point also is that some students have no or sub standard parental influence at home-and I teach in a well off community. Over indulgent, computer, cable TV and whatever else unsupervised in their bedrooms, credit cards at 12 years old,....Parents need to step up as well. Most do...but a lot DON'T! Its really easy to blame teachers for the woes of the country (many are to blame to some degree) but many should listen to the old CCR/clapton song-"Before you accuse me-take a look at yourself!"

We all have tough and challenging careers-imagine your coworkers and their personalities..then imagine them in their teens and stick 25-30 in a classroom....and stick popular culture and other influences in their faces..I love my job, but it does get...interesting at times!

SORRY FOR THE LENGTH-FLAME ON!

It more often than not comes down to the parents.

You are forgetting that the parents are products of the schools. The children are in the school FAR longer than they are with their parents during waking hours. Toss in homework and that disparity increases. Thus, if the parents were the problem and the schools the remedy, we would be seeing generational improvement.

We are obviously seeing the converse at an accelerating rate of decay.