This from the School Law Blog:
A prominent federal appeals court judge said in a recent speech that courts should defer more to school administrators, and that students today are "spoiled and coddled" and should "learn to roll with the punches" and not be hypersensitive about political or religious messages in schools they might find offensive.
"Modern American kids, it seems to me, have excessive self-esteem," said Judge Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, in Chicago. "They're spoiled and coddled. Many of them have very aggressive parents."
The judge, a conservative nominee of President Ronald Reagan who is considered one of the leading intellectuals of the federal appeals courts, spoke Nov. 11 in Chicago before the national conference of the Education Law Association. That group is made up of professors who teach education law, as well as practicing lawyers and school administrators.
Judges have all been through school, of course, but "we don't have any systematic knowledge of the educational process," Posner said. "We certainly have no experience running schools. The experts are the school administrators. They know a lot more about it than judges. It seems to me judges ought to be very cautious before they try to displace the authority of the school administrators." ...
