> imagine how dumb kids out of HS who talk like this will look and tell me how it's no big deal.
Imagine how dumb someone would look if every four words out of five were "pillow." That doesn't make "pillow" a bad word; it just means the speaker seems to have an impediment.
"it just means the speaker seems to have an impediment."
That's exactly the point I am trying to make. If every other word out of your child's mouth was "pillow" you would do something to correct that behavior. It would make him look less than intelligent in front of others and it would certainly be a detriment to him when he becomes an adult. The same applies to swearing. If every other word out of someone's mouth is a swear word, it is an indication that that person does not know how to communicate effectively. That person will not be taken very seriously and will appear dumb, even though he may be very intelligent. The point is that schools are supposed to prepare students for success (at least that's what we give them tax money for) and if they ignore basic communication and conversational deficiencies then they are not serving their purpose.