[eesmith]

Neither of those are true, not in any systemic sense.

Some old people love to grouse about how Things Were Better Then, and how Children Used To Respect Authority. It's been that way for millennia.

You ever read Heinlein? Back in the 1950s, his "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" complained about how schools were too touchy-feely, intent more on having students feel good than providing a good education.

[dazc]

'Some old people love to grouse about how Things Were Better Then, and how Children Used To Respect Authority...'

I don't know if things were better then but (as a kid in the 70's) we certainly respected authority because the threat of physical violence was a real one.

I am not saying that was a good thing by the way, just explaining.

[watwut]

Young people today commit less crime overall, less violent crime, get pregnant less often and take less drugs. So much for respect.

[isostatic]

As a kid in the 80s I didn't respect authority because I read Enid Blyton books (written in the 40s), who taught me that the local police were at best benign, but more likely incompetent.

[dazc]

'...the local police were at best benign, but more likely incompetent.'

True, but it didn't matter because the worst thing that could happen to you as a child would to be kidnapped by smugglers, tied up and left in a cave to die.

Thankfully though, it was OK for kids to carry knives back then so you could always escape and run away...

[jacquesm]

Heh. You just made me realize that the pocket knife I used to carry would probably land me in jail today if I was ever frisked. And back then nobody cared at all.

[eesmith]

I think you respected violence, not authority.

[saint_fiasco]

Was he right? Maybe school in the 50s was much more touchy-feely than in the 40s. After the Great Depression and a couple of World Wars, maybe there was a regression to the mean.

[eesmith]

Perhaps. But my argument concerned the cartoon, which compares 1969 schooling to now. Even if your argument were true, it would mean a flip-flop after only a decade.

Remember, the 1950s and 1960s was the era of "Spock babies", that is, children raised by parents following the advice of Benjamin Spock. Quoting the Wikipedia article about his book:

> By the late 1960s, Spock faced widespread criticism for condoning an overly permissive parenting style. Many commentators blamed Spock for helping to create the counterculture of the 1960s. Critics believed the current youth were rebellious and defiant in part because they had been brought up by Baby and Child Care.

I argue that this is another example of why that cartoon doesn't give a good representation of school in 1969.