clouds, I too had a teacher that swore and told us we were stupid sophmores, coach Pederson. I hated him. In grade school we were "graded" on citizenship, etc. and got awards at the end of the week if we were voted most helpful etc.. Kids need that reinforcement because there are a lot of people out there that don't have a lick of manners anymore. My biggest pet peeve, when I'm in front of a man and hold the door open for him and I get no response!! Happens evry day!

I agree, this type of behavior should have been taught at home, but today's parents (generally speaking) don't even have this type of respect, etc., so the kids are hopeless in learning it at home.

I agree, grading a kid could be subjective, but a kid has to learn somewhere that the real world is not run by punks who misbehave and disrespect.

I also have numerous teachers and other educators that I call by their formal names as if I were still their students. I have flat out, jokingly of course, told them that I could never call them by their first names because of several reasons. First of all, my parents raised me to respect them. If I were caught jokingly calling them by their first names with my friends and they heard it or heard about it... I'd catch grief from my parents about the respect.

Secondly, like a couple of people have said here, there are teachers that demand your respect just by the respect they show the students. These teachers provided leadership skills and became role models for all students.

Sure, there are the coaches that go above and beyond and everyone, even if you didn't have them as a coach, called them Coach or Coach So-and-So.

Where I went to school, we had two of the football coaches that I call Coach So-and-So because of the respect for the students. If you called them Mr./Mrs. So-and-So, people stopped and had to think or ask who you were talking about.

So, my point being, kids have to be taught somewhere how to be respectful of and kind towards others, even if there is a difference of opinions or personalities.

aprilgal: I also had Mrs. Reddy and YES she taught you manners. She was one tough cookie, but very fair. She was the best teacher a kid could have.
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Do you remember that she never let you crumple up a piece of paper..instead you had to fold it neatly before throwing it away. And always always said please and thank you and of course excuse me. You never called her by her first name. I still can't call her Dorothy yet today even though she has asked me to, it is and always will be Mrs. Reddy. (Respect of your elders was another lesson learned both at home and at school)
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we need more of this kind of thing taught in school and even graded on, manners are much needed and are lacking in todays youth.

MOOT point

My favorite and most rememorable teacher was Mrs. Ready in 4th grade. She taught at Harmony School. She reinforced in her students the manners that should be taught at home. If they weren't she taught them. I remember how she would stand at the door, and when you passed her, you would say "excuse me", it was her way of teaching respect when you cross the path of someone. Do we see this in our society? To this day, if I walk past someone in an aisle etc., I say "excuse me" I am astonished at how some of the young kids and some adults, just plow their way through and could care less. I think reinforcing manners is something our schools should do-and if they don't learn them from home-then our teachers will teach them. Thank you Mrs. Ready for leaving a great impression on me and letting me pass this on to my children. I do believe it was part of her grading system.

Since when are manners, trustworthiness and politeness out of date? Children should have these things instilled in them well before they reach school. It shouldn't be a problem to be graded on it.

Uh, when I was a child we had report cards with items such as "works well with others". That was, gosh, decades ago.
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And the moralism found in textbooks of the 19th century is laughable (some "readers" even warned against reading fiction).

Clouds555: Do you really think school is the place to attack other students' efforts? Mocking, ridicule, bullying, etc., are not fun and games to victims of such misbehaviors. No learning takes place in that type of environment. I agree that grading character is probably subjective, but I would like more information on the idea before passing judgment.

Oh, so the educators have appointed themselves to the role of God. How interesting. I suppose next the students be graded on their loyalty to government, all of which gets recorded in our trusty government databases.