No the school teachers are. Students are not allwod in the lab without supervision.

Yes, now I fully agree full supervision is of the utmost, but when they are 13, 14 and 15, they aren't going with you to the grocery store.

You're not understanding me, I am speaking about when they are in their teen years, don't twist this around, my neices and nephews all below the age of 7, have no desire for myspace, they don't even know what it is.

Again I will state, it is a childs job to push the boundries and a parents job to enforce them, however if you want smart, taxpaying adult children, you have to let the birds fly from the nest, and fall doing it.

That's the funniest joke I have heard in the last month, is this the teachers who are underpaid and overworked? Or are these the teachers and administrators that prey on young kids? Or are these the teachers just waiting for their State pension to kick in.

Please don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for teachers, but the good ones are burnt out, and the bad ones, well they are pretty bad.

Yes you are right that beginning sometime around the teen years (different for each child) you need to start giving more liberties, trusts AND RESPONSIBILITIES. HOWEVER you do so little by little. you give one liberty/trust and add one responsibility (as a suggestion). If they blow this chance yuo dont automatically allow them to keep that liberty/trust and give them a new one. Yuo take it away and start from where you were prior to when the blew it. Eventually they will stop blowing it with that trust and responsibility, thus are ready for more. And you repeat this process all the way down the road until they are fully mature adults capable of being on their own.

You dot just allow them everything and expect them to grow up responsibly.

I never EVER once said, to give kids everything they want when they want it, my point was this, kids are gonna do stuff behind your back, whether you choose to believe it or not.

Daniel, I wish you much luck in raising your kids, and believe me they are in my prayers.

I agree with you about teachers being burnt out, and/or bad. However, the nice thing about the district my sons are in, even though they are underpaid, they are some of the best in the state (even over private schools).

You can trust that when they say your child will be supervised in the computer lab, they are supervised. No, they do not hover over each student, however they DO walk around and scan the screens randomly and regularly. AND they ask to pull up windows that are minimized if they think you just minimized it for their benefit. No this is not perfect. Yes They could close the screen completely, but each individual computer also keeps a log of websites visited and when, so if an unauthorized site shows up (or the teacher wants to see what the student closed out right before they got there), it will show which computer and what time frame it happened. all students are required to sign a roster prior to use, as to which computer they are on and what time it is, so they can track the usage.

Again this is not perfect, but it is better than no supervision at all. Give the teachers some credit. Even though they are severely underpaid, and even though so many are turning out to be rotten (the molestors and such), the good ones are still good. Even if a bit tired. You say you have respect for them, then show it, by not categorizing them into either good but burnt out, or bad, just bad.

you act like your kids go to high school, your kids are in elementary, wait til they get into high school and then talk to me about it.

Again good luck you will most definatly need it.

What I just described IS how the highschool operates.

O.K. Good luck.

You know what? We all raise our children either differently or alike. Time was and still is; that it takes a village to raise a child.

I raised several kids. All boys. All good boys..WITH BOUNDERIES..

My rules were their guides. Not my actions as a teenager. By the way; being the reason I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKIING ABOUT! I soooo remember how it was then. I remember me...my friends and boys. I am familiar with how it is now. Much more dangerous. Especially with the net.

My niece and I have talked and communicated. I am back in and and she is willing to keep it that way. I do not enter in there all the time. It was with this setup she was allowed to have pc privaledges in the first place. She has deleted all the concerned writings she had there. She knows I will not come in and take advantage of her on a daily basis.

What I did do was show her what she did not know. I took her into places and showed her what her newfound male friends as well as gf's were having as pics in private. She was shocked. She had no idea. One was in her real boyfriends list.

This is a young impressionable girl that has just been given rope. I am trying to keep her that rope to grow and learn with. If it has to be an inch at a time then a foot; then so be it.

I was with her yesterday. We sat close and hugeed many times and spoke with love and family. She says I am family and she is grateful for me.

Soooo...those of you that fear your kids or nieces and nephews hating you or not trustin you.....carry on. It is all part of growing up. Hating rules. Thinking that we are smarter and wiser than our adult peers. Showing great love, concern and family ties will not bring about such consequences.

She is not abused, nor is she broken. She is allowed growth where she shines. When she shines there she will be a wiser and more confident young lady that we will not have fear of.

She calls me her awesome Aunt. She knows I talked with her parents. She knows I tried to communicate with her before doing so. No trust was broken. If anything; she now knows that what we said was real. We will expect her to be open and honest and not take her time replying when there are concerns. A lesson was learned..and SHE learned. As I also learned one.

My niece is in good hands. I love her with all my heart as if she were my own.

AGAIN I WILL SAY THIS: her parents are not pc savvy. Therefore I am the one carefully watching her back.

Thanks for all the replys.

Kat

She gets her privaledges as she earns them. Same with dates. She was just allowed to date as long as there is a parent along somewhere. He is allowed over to the house for dinner. But, not in her bedroom, nor outside in hidden places. She is allowed at his parents house as long as thay adhere to their rules. No alone time out of site.

At the movies an adult is along. Away from the date within site. But not stared at.

Same as when she wanted to go to a concert she was dying to go to. I took her to it because no one else wanted any part of that kind of music. Neither did I; but I took her and stayed well back and gave her, her space to crowd surf and dance and be herself. She had a blast. I was not so thrilled lol, but was very happy to have taken her to her first concert..

I beg to differ on teachers knowing anything about what the kids are doing on the computers,I get emails and IM's all the time from my children and their friends while they are at school. When I ask why are they not doing school work I get well the teacher thinks Im doing it.

My children also have accounts with myspace.....but I do also(that way I can check)
I trust my children,no reason not to,because I have gone over the rules in order for them to be able to use the computer.

I am sorry to hear that your school district is so lax and unconcerned. However, if you will go back and reread my post, you will notice that I specifically stated that my district monitors the way I described. I did not name any other district, althogh I am sure there are more than just mine that do this.

If you are as concerned about it as you appeared (by mentioning that you asked why they are not doing their work, etc.) then maybe you should step forward as a concerned parent and make the suggestion that they try something, either along the same lines as my district, or that you think will work better for your district.