I can't identify as an educator and then write a sentence using effect incorrectly.

Last paragraph of Kid Worship letter:

"affect my self esteem", not effect.

Sorry.

I'm an educator and I can tell you that kid worship in the United States is resulting in an increasingly challenging classroom. My students have been gold-starred for the most mediorce accomplishment throughout their formative years. Their toilet training must have been one orgasmic success after another, party hats and balloons for defecating. Postive reinforcement is one thing, but let's face it. We've raised a generation of kids who fully believe and accept they are the center of the universe. Kids who want an A for minimal effort. Kids who view adults as an audience who will be delighted with everything they do. Imagine their shock when I am not charmed at their astoundingly vapid efforts.

If someone can write an article like Bad News Dad and then be deluged by the insults and incriminations that Salon writers are heaping upon him, it's just further proof that kid worship is not abating any time soon.

Our parents were not adored like this. I was certainly not. Loved, yes, but I was always aware that I was a part of the family, not the essence of life itself, not the reason my parents lived and breathed and got up in the morning. Did that effect my self-esteem? I don't think so. I think it prepared me for a secondary classroom, for adulthood, for life.

I wish Mr. Gabler could meet my mother, a born again Christian from the midwest. She tears up when speaking of the Jews. "I love the Jews," she said on the phone the other day. "They are the apple of God's eye. As long as American supports the Jews, God will support us." She speaks for millions. Her church and countless other evangelicals believe the Old Testament makes it clear that the Jews are God's chosen people. Mel Gibson is not embraced by people like my mother. She would not recognize him as anything but a lost and befuddled man who needs her prayers. Gabler's thesis of a juxtaposition between GWB and Mel Gibson's ranting is not acceptable or supported. Some people are assholes, but that is not a result of the head of state being a dogmatist. GWB is unreflective, dangerous, and tunnel-visioned, but he espouses his world view in a twisted sincerity that is not fueled by hate. Mel Gibson, on the other hand, is clever and manipulative man who found a way to captitalize on GWB and other evangelicals' innocence. In his film, he gave them a suffering Christ and they could not get enough. I thought then and still do that The Passion of the Christ was not anti-Semitic. The account, with some Catholic and mystical digressions, stuck to the New Testament text which makes it clear that God intended to sacrifice His Son to pay for the sins of the world. The human beings who were the agents of Christ's death are not the focus of the gospel. It was God who made the call: Jesus will die. Mel Gibson is no martyr. He is no saint. There will be no reputable defenders of his behavior or his remarks. (In vino, veritas, indeed.) He's blown it big time.