It all starts at home!

I'm about to get on a soapbox here so bear with me.  As a former teacher who has worked in two school districts, student taught in 2 different school districts, and worked in 2 daycares during college/high school; I know a lot of teachers.  Teachers are some  of the most hardworking/dedicated people I know.  It takes a special person to work for hardly any money, not always get a ton of respect, be expected to do a million things while teaching a million kids, and then be the one to get blamed for everything that goes wrong with a child.  I have worked with a lot of teachers and have only come across a few "bad teachers" and none that didn't care about kids.  That being said I am sooooo tired of all the news shows/talk shows/celebrities talk about bullying.  I totally agree that bullying has become a huge problem and something needs to be done but I am sick and tired of people always blaming the teachers and administrators.  As a teacher I came upon bullying quite a few times (sad because I taught 2nd graders) and I can tell you I ALWAYS confronted it right when it happened.  I did everything I could to prevent and take care of bullying right away.  And that is what all the teachers I know have done.  I had 2 bullies in  my class last year and I made countless phone calls to parents, set up conferences, got peer mentors, had the counselor talk to them, had the principal scare the crap out of them; and you know what on the last day of school they had to leave my classroom early because they continued to relentlessly pick on kids in my class.  What I don't understand is why aren't these kids parents taking more heat?  Why aren't the kids themselves taking more responsiblity for this problem?  I mean, bullying that is occuring in high school and college??? These kids are practically adults; they know right from wrong.  And it has been proven that the biggest influence on a child's life is THEIR PARENTS!!!!  Start teaching your kids about kindness and respect for other people.  And don't just tell....show them!  As sad as it is to see young students taking their lives because they are being harrassed by others; the blame really needs to shift!  It all starts at home people!!  Take some responsibility for your kid's actions!!!Okay I am done!!!  I promise I will post a blog that is about Noah and with some updated pictures VERY SOON!  We just haven't been very interesting lately!