"Hey! Teacher! Leave Them Kids Alone" ..Unless they hit you first

When I was going through school it would never ever occur to me to stand up to a teacher. I was taught to respect teachers, adults, and other people of authority. After all I was just a kid and had to do what I was told. When did our society take such a huge leap off the humanity bridge?? I say this because I firmly believe that kids these days have no respect. Ok, so I know I sound like our grandparents and every other generation of adult. But seriously, kids these days really lack a certain respect we were taught. I make this conclusion from my own observations and from stories from my friends who are teachers or day care workers. So, no, not all children and teens are bad. I know this. But for some reason the ones I encounter I want to slap in the face and say "Didn't your parents teach you any manners?" But I digress....

There was an incident in Florida where a high school teacher slaps her student a couple of times. Terrible right? Well, as it turns out she was acting in self defense. The teacher has been teaching for 23 years and has never been disciplined for anything. The student was much taller and cornered her in the classroom. While hovering over this 63yr old woman he calls her vulgar names and allegedly pushes her into the wall. This is where Muhammad Ali's mom throws down. Now I watched the cell phone video and it is hard to tell if he hit her first or what happened. What is clear is he was trying to intimidate her and was clearly making her feel threatened. She is heard telling him to back away. He does not.

If this was my child he would have a first class ticket to that show scared straight and I would need some parenting classes. First of all, this kid should know better. There is nothing this teacher could have done to him that excuses backing her into a corner and threatening her. Secondly, why does this kid think he can do this?? Have his parents not taught him to not beat up old ladies (ok, 63 is not old but you get what I mean)? Yes, this kid deserves to be punished, and by the way things are going these days I'm sure his parents will be on the Today show with their lawyer saying they will be pressing charges. What message will that send? It's ok to beat up your teachers and if they retaliate you can sue them. Sickening. I think people are becoming way to soft handed when it comes to disciplining their children. Yes, I do think that this case is matter of this kid not being disciplined at home. Now will never learn his lesson and probably end up in jail where we will pay for his continued education.

Don't take this the wrong way. I am not implying you should beat your children. However, a spank now and again is sometimes needed. However, I do think that there should be consequences to bad behavior. I recently read that "timeouts" are humiliating so we shouldn't do them. This is what I am talking about! If a kid is made aware that his actions where hurtful and feels bad about it then just maybe he won't do it again. I know if I even talked back to a teacher and my dad was called that would be the end of my already limited social life. I spent a lot of my tween and teen years reading and rereading my R.L.Stine collection in my room. Parents used to believe teachers, now it seems it's the kids who call the shots.

What do you think friends especially those who are teachers? Did this teacher go to far or not far enough? What if this was your kid or student?

In light of the teacher discussion here's a recipe for my Apple Crisp

 4-5-large gala apples
1/2 C of flour
1/2 C of brown sugar
1/2 tbl of cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 regular oatmeal
1/2 C of butter softened

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Peel, core, and cut the apples in wedges
-lightly grease an 8x8 square pan
-place the apple in the pan
-mix the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl
-fold in the butter
-Apply the mixture the apples and gather together with hands
-Add a few pads of butter to the top to help with browning
-Bake for about 15-20min or until the apples are soft and golden
Serve with vanilla ice cream