Pam B - I am in my 34th year of teaching - most of those have been in elementary music. For the last 25 years I have been teaching 4th and 5th graders. I teach in Texas and we still expect our children to pledge to the flags (US and Texas), observe a moment of silence, and use "Yes, Ma'am" and "No, Ma'am" when appropriate. We EXPECT it, but seems like we get it less and less. There are still many joys in my job, but retirement is beginning to look mighty good! Since I have been in the same small town for so long I now have the children of children I've taught. I have a guitar class and now have guitars in the group that were used by parents many years ago. There can be so much satisfaction, but today when a child answered with, "OK, whatever" when asked to stop talking it seemed just a bit much. Sigh.......