Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Life of a Teacher Day 7

WARNING: This blog will contain curse words, so provide discretion when it comes to youngsters.

You may ask yourself, why does this blog contains curse words? The answer is simple, teenagers curse EVERY SINGLE DAY of their lives and when I or other teachers are walking through the hallways we have the distinct pleasure of hearing such profanity as "Fuck", "Shit", "Bitch"....etc. I am sure you can figure out the other words and/or combinations of words, but these are the three main words that spew out of the teenage mouth every day!

Whenever I hear such profanity I immediately turn to the student and say, "Watch your language!" and usually they respond with, "I'm sorry, my bad." However, it may be surprising to know (sarcastically) that not all teenagers respond in this sweet and forgiving fashion. For example, on Friday I was walking down the hall and behind me were two female students talking about meaningless things such as a description of a person they probably don't even know very well (because teenagers, especially females, like to gossip even if they really don't know whether the story is correct or not). I heard, "Shit" come out one girl's mouth and I turned to say my usual, "Watch your language" and as I was talking to the girl she looked at me, but continued to talk with her friend as I was speaking to her. Naturally, I repeated myself and she gave me eye contact, but still continued to talk with her friend. She completely disregarded me as if I were an infinitesimal bug flying around her unnoticed. Then, I turned back around and walked forward knowing that my statement registered in her mind. Seconds later, the other girl blurted out the same exact profanity that I just finished telling her friend not to say. Again, I turned around and repeated my same phrase that I had just repeated to her friend TWICE! At this point I was fuming! That is just pure disrespect and disregard for authority!!

Not only did I deal with the cursing females on this day, but I also had to deal with a student in my classroom who believed that he received a bad grade on his last two homework assignments because I did not like him. So, he spoke loudly in the classroom, "It's because she hates me!!", "My teacher hates me, and that is why I only got half-credit on my homework assignments!" Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that this student did not follow directions for those two homework assignments, that would be too easy to figure out. So, I asked to see him after class to straighten out his thought process and it seemed to have worked. I informed him that his grade was a reflection of his effort.

To top it off, on that same day I had a student look me in the eye and plow into me with her elbow as she walked past me in the hallway and never said 'Excuse me' or 'Sorry'! Three strikes and you are out!!! Teenagers, please wake up and smell the coffee!!! The world does not revolve around you, it revolves around the sun! This combination of incidences really made me pretty angry by the end of the day! Then, my anger simply vanished because I thought about what horrible characters these young students demonstrated and I became sad.

It is disheartening to know that we live in the type of world where young people show no respect or appreciation for the people that provide them with opportunities to build their character and knowledge while exercising their minds. I believe an education is the single most important factor to providing all types of people with an overall better life. An education awakens you and strips you of the ignorance you had in the past; it brings people to a higher level! It is sad to know that some of these students will grow up to have children of their own and teach them the same mannerless disrespect that they have used throughout their lives!

EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!