The discussion was pretty tame until Josi got involved. But considering her whole life revolves around snarking, offending, and generally running off potential buyers, I wouldn't worry about it.

First, a disclaimer:yes, I am Kim's mother, but I am writing from the perspective of an elementary school teacher!

A lot of attention has been given to the school's role in teaching values, and of its role in combating bullying. For the past few years I have been frustrated by the lesson provided by the many "survivor" type shows that stress winning over respect for fellow competitors, and also by student use of instant messaging and blogging to bash one another.

There is far too much bullying in our children's lives. We cannot always be there when it happens on the playground or schoolbus. Although these conversations usually occur out of a teacher's earshot, we do our best to prevent them, and provide damage control after the fact. Although we have no control over home instant messaging, use of myspace, etc. parents turn to the schools to perform damage control after the hurt feelings caused by these out-of-school "conversations".

We parents need to be there to monitor a child's use of the home computer. And we should teach by example. If our youth are to see the value of friendly, respectful disagreement we must model that in our adult interactions - online and in person. We must take our personal discussions to a personal forum. We must separate personalities from issues when in public. In pedagogic terms: we must "agree to disagree" when peers do not see isues in the same light. We adults need to remember that there is not always one correct answer once we get past those horrible classroom multiple choice tests that we remember with absolutely no fondness.

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