This is How I Grew Up

I could have written this letter myself - it was written by one of my friends. I am 77 and my friend is pushing 60. Give it a read -- I was raised in Levittown Ny I never once questioned my mother's income or my father's!! It was never a discussion. We ate homemade meals consisting of meat, potatoes, and vegetables (which were not an optional choice). No vegetables, no dessert!!! We never touched anything that did not belong to us. We never opened a refrigerator at anyone's house unless we were asked to do so. We were taught to respect other people’s property. And we were rewarded for acting properly. We grew up during a time when we mowed lawns, pulled weeds, babysat, and helped with all chores. We, by no means, were given everything we wanted. We frequently went outside to play, run with friends, play hide and seek, went hunting, or horseback riding. We rarely just sat inside. Bottled water was unheard of. If we had a Coke, it was in a glass bottle, and we did not break the bottle when finished. We saved the bottle for the return money. We had to tell our parents where we were going, who we were going with, and be home before dark. We LEARNED from your parents instead of disrespecting them and treating them as if they knew absolutely nothing. What they said was LAW; we did not question it, and we knew it! We watched what we said around our elders and neighbors because we knew if we DISRESPECTED any grown-up, we would get a real good whooping, it was not called abuse, it was called discipline! We held the doors for others and carried the shopping into the house. We gave up our seat for an older person without being asked. There were no swear words on the radio in songs or on TV. “Please” and “Thank you," were part of our daily vocabulary! The world we live in now is just so full of people who hate and disrespect others. My facebook Friends, consider re-posting if you're thankful for your childhood. I will never forget where I came from and only wish children and people nowadays had half the chance at the fun and respect for real life we grew up with! And we were never bored! ). This is exactly the way I grew up!!!

I'm 78 and this was exactly my raising, for which I'm thankful.

I would not be able to watch TV if my parents were present...too embarrassing.  The gratuitous sex.  I can't watch it to this day.

My mom and dad would, to my embarrassment, chastize me right there in front of elders if I failed to say "Yes ma'am" or "Yes sir."  Just "Yes" or "No" would not show respect of elders by a youngster.   This I also see on TV (in addition to the embarrassing nudity and hypersexual behavior), kid saying "uh huh" and "yeah" without being corrected.

Raise our voice to a parent, expect a smack down.  To a teacher?  Serious consequences ahead.

I just read an article about a school that implemented no cell phones "bell to bell".  The teachers themselves were pleasantly surprised at how the students' moods changed...interacting with each other in the cafeteria, school yards instead of total faces to phones becoming more into the learning.  Good to hear that this is catching on in a lot of cities, including mine.

Candy

And yet, David learned absolutely nothing about how to behave.

We have a no cell phone policy at my school (Middle School) and it has been fantastic.  We do have chrome books that the students use for some assignments, from time to time, but they aren't allowed to have them out, except during class lessons, and only with teacher permission.  This is also in Southern California, that most conservative on here think is the Wild Wild West and anything goes.......not at our school.   

We have a cell phone ban in schools that went statewide several months ago. The difference is amazing. The kids pay more attention now, though there are still some that will bring up some idiot game on their Chromebooks rather than do the work waiting for them on "Google Classroom" or some other such tommyrot. But what I no longer see is kids looking downward into their laps and their hands hidden. As if I couldn't tell what they were doing. I must have confiscated 500 cell phones. One kid was so egregious, and so snotty when I told him to hand over his phone, I made like I was throwing it out the window, and I palmed it and slipped it in my pocket. The little bastard, er, the student, was horrified. "Did you really throw my phone out the window?" "Yes," I responded, "You can retrieve it after class.":He went rushing outside as soon as the bell rang, but I stopped him and handed him his phone with a smile.

Initially, our students had to check their phones at the office and retrieve them after the last bell. This didn't work, as you can imagine, with two giant traffic jams a day. The alternative of living seven hours without a phone was unthinkable, so students now stash them in their backpacks and are careful to mute them. They also surreptitiously pull them out during breaks, lunch, etc.

I've told them that people used to live for decades without phones, but they don't believe me. They think that they'll wither up and blow away without their mePhones.

 Speak for yourself...

If only Ronald Reagan hadn't killed the one parent stay at home lifestyle in the 1980s, people would still be able to grow up that way. 

That was also my life growing up, except  no horses and my mom didn't work.  It was wonderful.

First of all, growing up that way, being taught/forced to be silent, subservient, and invisible unless summoned, doesn't seem so wonderful to me. But let's be real. The writer of that screed claimed that in his mythical golden era, kids were NEVER disrespectful, parents were NEVER cruel or mean, and the world was bathed in a golden light shining on picket fences and families with two kids and a dog. No racial discrimination. No sex discrimination. An American nirvana.

Of course, this is nothing but an old man looking back on his childhood and idealizing it. Not mentioned are things like if Junior got sick, he might die; if you needed a doctor, you might not have been able to afford one; and there was no help available if you simply ran out of money and couldn't afford food.

There's also that celebration of corporal punishment, which doesn't work and creates a belief in kids that violence is the solution to all problems.