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sladkaya

the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'awww!'

Wednesday, March 30

some people's kids

i am just AMAZED at how lenient most of the parents of the kids i teach are. how is it that these kids are not being taught responsibility and that actions have consequences? it is so frustrating, and it keeps my hands tied. i can give kids detention, but they may or may not show up. then what? i write them up, but chances are still slight that any action will be taken. so, thinking it may do some good, i call the students' parents. i then have the joy of listening to a tirade of how frustrated the parents are, how they've tried everything, how their child just will not listen. but then the kids show up the next day, in their car, and they get to leave campus for lunch, and i see them cruising around town on my way home, and in class they talk of what they did last weekend and what they will do the next weekend--all because they face no consequences at home. and the parents wonder WHY they are messing up so bad, WHY they are not going to graduate, WHY they feel they can talk to me like a dog.

no, mrs. so-and-so, your son is not going to pass this semester.

yes, mrs. so-and-so, that means your son is not going to graduate.

yes, mr. so-and-so, i have given your daughter plenty of chances and have reminded her plenty of times to get on the ball.

no, mr. so-and-so i will not give extra-credit for a student who has not even done the minimum of what is expected.

but it's frustrating for me, because i want to see these kids succeed. i want to see them break out of their social barriers and not have kids of their own when they're 16, not drop out of school their senior year, not be doomed to flipping burgers at sonic for the rest of their life.

i can remember being so angry at my parents, feeling like they were so strict. now i want to kiss their feet for teaching me respect, stick-to-it-tiveness, and that consequences DO (surprise!) have actions.

on a lighter note, here is a quote i like by oscar wilde:
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

posted by sladkaya @ 13:12  

5 Comments:

  • At 30 March, 2005 16:41, Blogger ceci n'est pas said…

    my old friend dr. tom phillips used to say.."you can't ever reach the bottom 10% of your students, if you spend your time trying to reach them, you will disengage the other 90%, and the 10% in question will never get it anyway."

    I say, cut your losses, and try to teach the ones that care something they will never forget.

    Someone has to flip burgers.

    I don't want to sound insensitive, and these opinions are probably why you make a great teacher, and I would be a shitty one. I guess you should forget all that advice I said before and keep doing what you are doing, knowing all the time that you have the love and support of your friends, and our respect for caring about those kids that the rest of us would just ignore.

     

  • At 30 March, 2005 18:16, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Keep in mind that the lack of consequences is what a huge section of our society is pushing for- moral relativism rears its ugly head- do what ever you want, it doesn't matter. Makes me sick! I know now my parents were way too lenient when I was rebelling...

     

  • At 31 March, 2005 10:10, Blogger sladkaya said…

    the problem, ceci n'est pas, with the "forgetting the bottom 10%" theory is that, really, only the top 10% of my students are the ones who care. the others don't realize how invaluable their education is/will be, because they're only concerned with the now. the other problem is this 'no child left behind' crap that our wonderful president is instating. see http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml?src=pb for more info. it's quantity, not quality, and it's suffocating creativity out of learning, which, in my opinion, is an essential element.
    you're right, though, someone DOES have to flip burgers.

     

  • At 31 March, 2005 20:39, Blogger LuccyM33 said…

    I had no structure in my life from the time I was 13 until I was 17 and learned responsiblilty by trial and error not by strict rules. Some of the best lessons in my life came from failure.

     

  • At 01 April, 2005 17:00, Blogger ceci n'est pas said…

    yeah, regret is a bitch for that middle 80%
    it's hard for me to identify, my high school was full of the 10%'ers if that makes sense.

    just don't overreact to their "only concerned with the now" by being too concerned with the then.

    luccy got a lot smarter after high school. She used to screw up the chemistry lab experiments every time we did them, now she's on her way to being an alternative physician. You never know when 'giving a shit' will strike.

    don't be mad at me luccy, i say that with the utmost respect, and the knowledge that I've progressively gotten dumber.

     

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