What is with parents these days?

[wendybeth]

I was fortunate to have a few teachers like the one in the article, and I'm non the worse for it. (I think). Then again, I was a bit different even as a kid. I remember falling in love with Poe in second grade, and being a little confused by his "Silence- A Sonnet". I showed it to a penguin (I went to parochial school) and her reaction was a bit extreme. She scolded me for reading such dark material, and if memory serves she tried to interest me in one of those stupid Mittens books, or some such thing. It had the opposite effect, of course, and I think that may have been the beginning of my Gothyishness. When I did go to public school, it was during the Seventies, when there was a lot of educational freedom and experimentation going on, so I was really lucky to have some really great, innovative instructors. I pity kids nowadays.