North Korea and its Propaganda.

[Madison]

What a shame.

I must say, I agree all of those cases are ridiculous, but they're also the rare exception which is why they made the news in the first place.

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate;

There are probably 12 million children kissing 12 million other children every single day and we don't hear anything about it. This case is extremely rare and I feel using it to make assumptions about society in general... wait for it... isn't exactly showing common sense.

teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Depending on how they reprimand the student makes all the difference. If a teach hit my kid, you're darn right I'd want them fired. Mouthwash has a lot of alcohol in it, and if a school has a problem with students getting drunk off of mouthwash, than I could understand a rule against it. I'd have to see more specifics before making a judgement, but I certainly don't hear about these stories very often, which is kind of an indication that they're rare examples and not the norm.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about, but there isn't any doubt there are a lot of horrible parents out there. There are also a lot of good ones.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Again another extremely rare example. Thousands of people burn themselves with coffee every single day and they don't win lawsuits. What made this lawsuit come about is that McDonalds had long been warned that their coffee makers produced coffee that was hotter than the industry standard, which was responsible for many emergency room visits throughout the years. Instead of replacing their coffee makers, the bean counters at McDonalds thought it was cheaper to pay for the emergency room visits. This lawsuit was a direct reflection of that.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Considering students can be allergic to medicines or develop rashes from certain lotions, I really don't think this is unreasonable. In fact, this is actually a pretty good example of common sense. I've also not heard that it was illegal for a teacher to inform a parent that a student is pregnant. Is this a nationwide law or is this simply the policy of a single school/district?

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

I actually agree with the church part. The tax exempt status that churches have is a giant magnet to attracting the wrong element. Unfortuantely, this element is what makes the news so often. If churches lost their tax exempt status, it would weed out the bad and would no doubt help reduce the number of church scandals.

I'm not really sure of the "criminals receiving better treatment than their victims" part because it's so vague. Our country still has an innocent until proven guilty policy, doesn't it? Of course there are some cases that are ridiculous, but again, these are the exceptions. Most criminals that are apprehended get what's coming to them. THe overpopulation problem we have in the prison system is evidence of that.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

You can sue anyone for anything. That's how litigious our country has become, which I also think sucks. I have two questions, though...1) How rare is this? 2) How often do they actually win? My guess is that cases like these are the extreme exception and not the general rule. If it was, we'd hear about it more often.

Are there wacked out examples of common sense being thrown out the window? Of course there are. THere are 300 million people in our country, so of course crazy stuff is going to happen. The thing is, the news media LOVES to find little tidbits like these examples you gave and turn them into National stories, where in reality, they in NO way represent the norm.

Maybe I'm just an optimist, who knows.

Common sense is long gone from our society. That isn't news, most of us are well aware of that sad fact. This email got the point across, giving real examples, while providing a touch of humor.

[josebach]

Common sense is long gone from our society. That isn't news, most of us are well aware of that sad fact. This email got the point across, giving real examples, while providing a touch of humor.

I don't disagree that political correctness sometimes goes to extremes, but making generalizations about the entire country based on bizarre, isolated news stories reported by the media isn't exactly fair. I live in America, and in my day to day life, common sense prevails 99% of the time. Of course I don't live where you do, so I'm speaking only from my own point of view... not yours. Maybe you do see examples like you posted on a daily basis in your community, and if you do, I can certainly understand your point of view.

[Polar Bear]

Common sense is long gone from our society. That isn't news, most of us are well aware of that sad fact. This email got the point across, giving real examples, while providing a touch of humor.

I don't disagree that political correctness sometimes goes to extremes, but making generalizations about the entire country based on bizarre, isolated news stories reported by the media isn't exactly fair. I live in America, and in my day to day life, common sense prevails 99% of the time. Of course I don't live where you do, so I'm speaking only from my own point of view... not yours. Maybe you do see examples like you posted on a daily basis in your community, and if you do, I can certainly understand your point of view.

Well you must live in a great place. When I taught Jr. High I would say at least 2 out of the 10 parents I dealt with on a regular basis were naive and lacked common sense. The good certainly outweighh the bad, but the bad is enough to make things a drag.

[Inukchuk]

Well you must live in a great place. When I taught Jr. High I would say at least 2 out of the 10 parents I dealt with on a regular basis were naive and lacked common sense. The good certainly outweighh the bad, but the bad is enough to make things a drag.

I would say 2 out of 10 is even a little low. I teach high school in a rural town, and I swear the chances of a parent having no clue is pushing 40%.

Believing your kid's word over a teacher's FTL...

[bigh0rt]

Well you must live in a great place. When I taught Jr. High I would say at least 2 out of the 10 parents I dealt with on a regular basis were naive and lacked common sense. The good certainly outweigh the bad, but the bad is enough to make things a drag.

I would say 2 out of 10 is even a little low. I teach high school in a rural town, and I swear the chances of a parent having no clue is pushing 40%.

Believing your kid's word over a teacher's FTL...

Eh, it's a special situation, though. Not to make excuses for them by any means, but parents seem to check all sense at the door when dealing with their children. People who are otherwise completely competent, sensible, etc. - when you start dealing with their children the blinders come up, and the defensive nature. It's a bizarre transformation, but I've seen it first hand. I think they desperately want to believe their children, who lie straight to their faces convincingly. They've raised their kids (presumably) and believe them to be good, while you as the teacher are a stranger, and potentially accusing the kid of doing something that may be completely foreign behavior in the class. The metamorphosis that some of these kids pull from home to school is astonishing. But yeah, parents of students are pretty lame, typically, but using that as an argument that 'common sense' is gone, or even presenting that it's no longer used in the first place is just silly.

[CadensDad]

I tend to agree common sense is "gone" in many adults today. I see examples of this daily when it comes to basic things such as driving. (Like the lady texting on her cell while changing radio stations and screaming at her kids in the back.) Or the man at the gas station who goes crazy mad when he is forced to prepay like it says on the sign at the pump. Or the people who claim that their cousin is innocent of shooting that other man even though dozens of witnesses, cameras, and all evidence lines up perfectly. It happens everyday more and more. I'd honestly say that 45-55% of adults have gone "senseless"

[bleach168]

bleach, i don't know how well you researched this, but your misconception #3 is totally wrong.

they have just about every damn bomb/missile/rocket etc aimed and ready to go at a moment's notice (and their stockpile is significant). you are overestimating the s korean army if you think they can handle NK without US. look, this isn't gulf war. this is a stale mate from 50 yrs ago. both sides know where everyone is and where to strike. unless s. korea has capabilities to intercept gazillions of missiles and rockets in mid-air, they aren't capable of handling this. and no, US doesn't share their "most advanced technology" with the koreans. why would they? otherwise, you would see s koreans flying stealth bombers or something. there's a good reason why US has been there for this long.

in the end, US has to be there. s. korea is one of the countries that have signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty because they have US's back. because they cannot develop nukes them selves, they need US around.

but yes, it's hard to see them making any military moves first.

Well I respectfully disagree. I think the damage N. Korea can cause will be surprisingly light. Too bad I will never get a chance to say I told you so.

I now return you to the thread derailment.

[Yoda]

Well it's July 4th and Cali is still floating so everything is ok!

[Inukchuk]

Well you must live in a great place. When I taught Jr. High I would say at least 2 out of the 10 parents I dealt with on a regular basis were naive and lacked common sense. The good certainly outweigh the bad, but the bad is enough to make things a drag.

I would say 2 out of 10 is even a little low. I teach high school in a rural town, and I swear the chances of a parent having no clue is pushing 40%.

Believing your kid's word over a teacher's FTL...

Eh, it's a special situation, though. Not to make excuses for them by any means, but parents seem to check all sense at the door when dealing with their children. People who are otherwise completely competent, sensible, etc. - when you start dealing with their children the blinders come up, and the defensive nature. It's a bizarre transformation, but I've seen it first hand. I think they desperately want to believe their children, who lie straight to their faces convincingly. They've raised their kids (presumably) and believe them to be good, while you as the teacher are a stranger, and potentially accusing the kid of doing something that may be completely foreign behavior in the class. The metamorphosis that some of these kids pull from home to school is astonishing. But yeah, parents of students are pretty lame, typically, but using that as an argument that 'common sense' is gone, or even presenting that it's no longer used in the first place is just silly.

I'm not trying to present it as an argument that common sense is gone, I was simply commenting on Polar Bear's example. Yes, it is a special case, because they are parents dealing with their little cherubs, but I would have to say that believing your teenage child's word over that of a certified public servant would constitute to some extent a lack of common sense regardless of the scenario. I guess I could see the parental protection instinct overriding logic to a certain extent, but I've seen so many examples of it (due to the fact that I've been on the receiving end a few times), I know I would never let it fly with my kids (if I had any...)

Sorry to hijack, just putting in my $.02...

[urbanbreez]

Hey, why don't you guys use some common sense and start your own teachers thread to complain about the PTA ?