What is bending too far backward on discipline?  I think the New York schools have done this – when it is okay for a  student to curse a teacher in front of her class with only a slap on the wrist.  The school administrators have decided in order to keep the children in school that if a teacher is cursed the student will remain in the class which will teach him a lesson.  What,  even no demerits?    I do not believe this is teaching that child or the rest of the class respect for that teacher or anyone else.  This must fall under aggressive etiquette – which has to be the most frustrating dictate of etiquette that you must be polite to everyone, even those who do not deserve it.  Turning the other cheek may have worked for Jesus and Gandhi; but, they did not deal with some of our young people.  It is possible to be too polite or lenient if doing so contributes to a breakdown of our social structure.

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