- Cell phones for constant blathering and text messaging where proper English is basically taboo.

- Constant social reinforcement suggesting that if at first you don’t succeed, you should either just quit, sue someone because it’s obviously their fault for your failures in life, or finally just get a gun and blast away.

- Parents that would much rather fight the system when it actually forces their kids into proper behavior, because their ‘precious little angels’ are too delicate and special to attend class, be on time, act with some degree of discipline, or God forbid…study.

- Computers that provide spell check, grammar check, and calculators, so the three “R’s” are eroded even further. (for those that forgot: Reading WRiting, and ARithmetic)

- Corporate America, throug h the constant barrage of imagery and sound (e.g. MTV, SpikeTV, E!, MGM Studios, Bruckheimer Films, etc., etc., ad infinitum) that grinds it into their melons that somehow it’s better to look good (clothing, shoes, cars, blah, blah, blah), or to act tough (e.g. UFC, SpikeTV, WWE, R rated movies they’re not supposed to even be able to see until they’ve nearly completed school anyway, but God bless those parents and movie theaters that watch out for their well being, etc.), than to actually have a lucid thought pass through one’s head.

- The irresponsibility of society to allow children to ‘act’ like grown ups before their time. The ridiculous social structuring that suggests that a child of 5 should know what he wants to be in life, instead of just wanting to play with his Legos. This, paired with the instantaneous judgement of society that if you’re not an instant success, you should be discarded as so much flotsam.

- Teachers that have been reigned in so much, and threatened with litigation so much that they have no vested interest in getting little Bobby to pass his state administered exams, even though the passing scores have been politically reduced throughout the years to adapt to Bobby’s shortcomings (even though Bobby isn’t truly the one at fault).

- Curriculums that have been dumbed down so that the children of this country can pass regardless of what chemically induced stupor they’re in.

- School Districts that have been sued into oblivion by self-indulgent parents that think a lawsuit is their free ticket through life, so much so that these districts can’t financially provide a good education anymore, and are worn down enough that they really don’t care if they do anymore anyway.

- Medical professionals that would much rather prescribe some sort of mood altering, or behavior modifying medication, than to actually sit down and figure out if the child actually HAS a medical issue, or if he’s just a screwup due to poor parenting, and most of the reasons listed above. This, paired with their need to make the payments on their new Porsche, so the ad hoc prescription of these drugs, and the complete sell out to large pharmaceutical companies in exchange for their ethics and good medical practices, can continue unabated.

- Elected officials that have more of an interest in their own pockets, their cronies, and the protection of their own class, than ANYthing having to do with children’s education, upbringing, or social formation. Bush was right, no child will be left behind….as they’re not being taught to go anywhere in the first place.

Hell, with all that going for them, I’d think they’d all be in Harvard/Yale/Stanford/etc. (pick your own overpriced example of higher education).

Don’t get me wrong…I enjoy UFC, movies, and all that crap right along with the rest of them…BUT, I’m an adult now, and I can make my own decisions on what to do, what to watch, etc. My formative years are over, and due to a strict upbringing, a schooling system that hadn’t been degraded into short bus material, and the lack of constant media exposure to socially unacceptable behavior, I figured out how to think, and to do for myself. For the most part, my mom raised me right, my schools educated me properly, and society hadn’t turned into the conglomeration of retards that it has today.

Oh, and for those of you that are offended by anything I have had to say? You can be offended and get over it…I’m not retracting anything I’ve said here. I’ve not singled any one parent out, nor any individual child, school, nor other person. So, since I’ve been fairly general, you can just feel generally offended, and move on with your cranky butt.