Unfortunatly, the minority of these kids is growing. With the recent introduction of cell phones and Ipods, kids are becoming less and less interested in school and now just want to go sit around with friends at home. My neighbor is teaching for the first time in 10 years this year, and after a week all see could say was that she is amazed by the lack of effort that almost every student has. There is very little parent control with kids now. After one of the school dances, some kids went out to restraunts well past 3a.m. After 3, they simply call their parents to pick them up. There are no cerfews anymore, or pretty much any sense of control. Luckly for the school there have only been 2 outbursts like this from the same pot smoking kid.
BTW- The only way to control what kids can and can't do is to not give them a cell phone, once they get the cell phone it's like a car, go anywhere do anything.