Tug of War with Children in Society

I loved Kari's school bullying blog because she touched on the issue of self acceptance and attention seeking behaviors of students committing violent acts. I definitely feel that some students bully other children as a way of "acting out" and to deal with their own personal issues. People who torment other kids are typically experiencing a lack of control in their lives. Stressful home living and lack of attention can place a tremendous amount of stress on a child.
Are children overlooked as being apart of society? I think children contribute to society in their own way, representing a population that is often misunderstood and easily misguided by uncontrollable factors. It can be easy to forget that children are apart of our society. Schools today are sometimes the primary home for kids. At times, this may be a child's only sense of stability placing his or her teacher in the parental driver seat. In one of our earlier presentations, we discussed the issue of character education, debating the school's role in creating active members of society and the responsibility parents have in the matter. David Gribble's quote, "The truth that traditional educators have overlooked is that children are actually members of society already", holds a strong opinion toward teachers in society.
Today, educators are expected to fulfill a much larger role than the one they were hired to do...parent the children they teach. In the article "PTA Parent:Guiding Your Family's Video Game Play" they offer a list of skills to parents that can help children succeed in all aspects of life. Some of the skills include follow up consequences for misbehavior, ask children how they feel, ask questions that help children solve problems on their own and encourage sharing and helping. These are basic skills that should certainly be taught in the home and reinforced in school. I think non-educators forget how difficult a teacher's job is from day to day. Parents have a choice on how many children they want to have, where teachers are told how many they are too teach. Naturally, a good teacher will fulfill the parent role because of the time spent with children in the classroom. It becomes unfair to the teacher when children are brought to school without the basic concepts of "home training".
Again we always fall back to the question of who's responsibility is it? Schools today are taking on larger roles educating both the parent and child in some areas. The age old quote "It takes a village to raise a child" has fallen by the way side. Now, it seems like some parents have the"It's the school's job to raise the child, give the parent a break" frame of mind. The truth is children learn from their environment (home life, media types, friends, school, etc). As adults, we are responsible to foster growth and teach kids right from wrong. Today, however, the shoes are larger to fill in society because the issues are more complex than before. As an educator, are you ready to play the role?