Should respect be earned or given?

My thoughts exactly. I'm even dubious about teaching children to automatically respect authority figures; yes, they should absolutely be polite and co-operative unless given a good reason not to be. But they shouldn't be told that someone warrants their respect just on the basis of a uniform or title. We've certainly seen how drilling kids to have unquestioning respect for that alone has led to some nasty abuse situations, among other things.