Rant and Rave: Preschool teacher has message for parents

RANT to the parents of young children who aren’t teaching them basic manners such as “please” and “thank you,” and concepts like following directions even when you don’t want to and taking turns. I’m a preschool teacher and I know that being a working parent is really hard. But you are doing your children a HUGE disservice by not teaching them these basic skills. These children will one day be young adults unable to hold a job because they were never taught to respect others or that they aren’t the center of the universe. In the short term, if there’s an emergency and I need to evacuate my classroom, there are at least two children who will put their classmates and me in increased and unnecessary danger because they will refuse to follow instructions if they “aren’t in the mood.”