Children are our future. Really?

You know, I try to believe that children are our future. I know they are. Truly. It is disheartening to look at the students I have, at their lack of caring about their education, about their poor attitudes and lack of desire to learn. It’s sad.

I think to myself, I will do all I can to teach these kids. Am I losing the battle? With some students I am...but the ones who want to learn, who come every day inspite of the obstacles they face in their neighborhoods where they live...I hope I am reaching them.

I can only hope.

But when I look at the clowns, the ones who disrupt class every day and stop others from learning, I think....these children are my future? Really?????

Idiot Squad

It is a shame when there are students who just don’t seem to care about failing. I’ll call them...the Idiot Squad. These are students who come to school but don’t do any work. They sit in class and don’t listen. They talk all the time, even after repeated warnings. Consequences have no meaning for them. When called on their behavior, they act like idiots-denying what I had seen with my own eyes.

As a teacher, there is only so much I can do with students like these, those who simply don’t care. It makes me angry that these kids will not have the skills they need to succeed in the world of tomorrow. Some of them, like a teenaged girl I have, won’t do a thing. She watches as her mom and dad, both school drop outs, leech off of her grandmother who works hard to provide a roof over the heads of 2 grown individuals and their 11 kids. This young lady figures her parents were drop outs, so she will be as well.

I want to not care what happens to these students. But I find myself caring too much. Their lack of interest in education makes me angry.

And then...the parents of the students who have the worst behavior call for a conference. They then sit there and ask me what they should do about their kids horrible behavior. This behavior didn’t crop up all of a sudden, so they should have nipped it in the bud years ago when it started.

So I look at the idiot squad and mentally shake my head. These particular kids have no future if they don’t change their behavior.

So sad....little idiots. I can’t call them stupid. But I want to.

What the Hell???

I teach 8th graders. I have to wonder, what the hell are these kids learning at home? I mean, really.

On a daily basis here is a standard conversation:

Me: Where is your homework?
Student: I forgot it.
Me: You must want to flunk my class. You must not want to culminate.
Student: No, I wanna pass your class and I want to culminate.
Me: There is no way you can pass my class if you don’t do your work.

And yet the same students still refuse to do any work. Go figure.

Here is an example of how they write:

i am an eighth grader.i go to middle school i have lots of friends.lol.

No capitalization, no commas, no spaces. It’s bad. It’s like everything they learn goes in one ear and out the other.

No wonder I’m so tired every day when I leave school.

Calgon....take me away.

I like you...

One of my students, a teenage girl, told me today...

“Miss.... I like you, but in a strange way. You’re strict, but in a good way because you, like order and you push us to do our best.”

That made me feel good. It’s not like I particularly care whether or not the students like me. I care more about whether or not they are learning what I am trying to teach. It is nice to hear that my efforts aren’t wasted. I keep telling my students that there is a method to my madness...