I went to school back in the day as well, in a catholic school. I agree with what you are saying. I also finished High School in a public school. The education system has drastically changed for the worse. We now have "Special Education" We now have "The No Child Left Behind Law" We now have children that hate school more than ever. We now have teacher strikes. We now have a ton of disablity labels for our special needs kids. ALL children have special needs!!! Back in the day children were treated with respect in school and teachers got more respect as a result. Our society in education today is highly punitive to our children and their families. Special education teachers are given a tremedous job to do. And it shows. All these teachers do is cry and whine and cry some more. Schools need to go back to being schools instead of another political problem. There truly is little solution. Maybe if we had teachers making $70,000.00 a year, they would stop crying about everything. Teachers chose their career, not me not you, but they did. This discussion that has been going is not an argument, it is an ongoing nightmare for everyone. It never stops. I have a child in special education, I can't believe what I see with teachers. I have many evaluations with distinct diagnosis, and I get: Why is your child doing this or why is this. It is awful. IEP's are not even being followed by these teachers, but if you dare mention that you are a horrible person. For those of you that don't know what an IEP is: it is Individualized Education Plan. But you certainly wouldn't know it to see these teachers in action. It is like they are clueless. My family has been severely brow beatin over this. You never saw that along time ago. Children did what work they could do and that was that. And Behavior was handled by the teacher. Today, even with "NEW Technology and an IEP, teachers write home with "Oh your child is frustrated what's the problem" Meanwhile, my child is coming home telling me about being made to do work that isn't even on her IEP. There is SOOOOOOOOO much to be said. It won't stop. Teachers will cry and get their own way and make our lives as horrible as possible. Do these teacher realize children are people not robots? It could go on and on. If I complained on my job like the teachers of today do on theirs I would be in the Unemployment line so fast my head would spin. If I went on strike the police would be called and I would be removed. If I bent over catering anymore to teachers, I'd break in half!!!!!