Hi Nick.
This is a tough one. The prayer in school issue I agree with. Living in a multicultural nation like Canada, I have seen first-hand how uncomfortable Muslim and Hindu children were (when I was a kid) with having to sit through Bible verses and the Lord's prayer. We have separate Catholic and Christian school boards, which are publicly funded (taxpayers are given the choice of where their taxes should go), offering parents a choice.
However, the lack of discipline I also see on a daily basis. It's ridiculous. A grade seven teacher I know once said, with kids in that age bracket being the hardest to deal with: "Kids today know all of their rights, and none of their responsibilities." When a child gets in trouble at school, the parents duke it out with the school (remember when a call home from the principal was tantamount to calling the cops? what was waiting at home was certainly worse than anything the school could do). When a child acts out in class, the parents as why the teacher isn't doing a better job keeping control.
No yelling. No scolding. No spanking. Even from parents.
I run a junior choir, and there are kids that sometimes get out of control. What bothers me is that when I lose my temper -- and they are in trouble -- they don't even feel as if they've done something bad. We as adults are in a sticky situation then. If children don't know they're behaving badly, how will they ever know right from wrong? And if we can't at least scold them, how will they know they're behaving badly?
I'm not advocating beating the snot out of a kid. But I did get spanked when I did something horrible (and it had to be horrible to get to that point), and I don't believe I have any psychological damage as a result.
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