As a teacher I have seen some of the saddest things. I grew up in a home in which education was considered important and I had parents who actually cared about where I was and what I did. Saddly, this is not the case for MANY of today’s youth.
I teach a guitar class. Half of the students in the class are currently failing. Another third of the class had a D or C. Very few have B’s or A’s.
Now, keep in mind that this is an elective course. There is NO homework and 80% of the points come purely from coming to class and participating (trying on some level). Still, kids just don’t care, and it breaks my heart to see it.
Example 1: I ask “Stephen” to come up and play a 4 measure melody for me that we’ve been working on for 2 straight class periods (3 hours). 4 beats per measure equals about 16 notes the he had 3 hours to learn to play in order. He gets there, stares at the music and has no idea where to start. “I don’t know how to do this,” he says. “Okay, what is the name of this first note?” I ask. “Oh, that one… I can’t remember that one,” he responds. “That was the very first note we ever learned in this class at the beginning of the 1st semester and we’ve played it unceasingly every day since then,” I explain. “I’ll just take a zero,” he decided.
Sad. Just sad.
Example 2: Every day my students have to do a journal. Basically I put a few questions on the board for them to answer. What is the name of this note? How many beats are in a 4/4 measure, etc. They write down whatever they think are the right answers and then we review them. At the end of the month we turn in all the journals. Note: the student gets FULL credit for turning in the journals at ALL. All the answers could be made up and have nothing to do with the question and they will still get full credit. I have told them this many times. I’ve pleaded with them to understand that right or wrong they get ALL the points for just turning it in.
…you guessed it: only about 1/3 of the class turns them in. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!? It’s a full 10% of their grade and they CHOOSE not to turn them in.
I have so many students like this (mostly in guitar, my choir students are pretty good). They don’t care about their grades and it stems from their home life. They obviously have parents who aren’t involved in their lives, and THAT’s what saddens me the most. These poor kids don’t have parents who check their grades or explain to them what responsibility is. I wonder if their parents even know they still live in the same house with them.
Now I understand that there are students whose parents do care and they still fail. But when I’m offering a FREE passing grade just for handing me a notebook regardless of what’s in it, and they choose not to do it… it goes to show that they don’t care, and obviously nobody else does either.
3 comments:
How sad! but so true! I saw it a lot even in middle school.
I teach high school math in a place full of students who dropped out of the public school system. I understand completely how you feel. These kids tell me that they cannot add 65 + 126. "It's too hard," they said. They are in HIGH SCHOOL!! I gave them a test, allow them to use the book and they asked, "Miss, I can't find the answer to this question. This is unfair." Can you believe it?! Sometimes I wonder why I even do this. But God loves us all, and someone needs to do the dirty job. So teachers out there, I salute you. I commend you. I can feel your pain.
In addition to the lack of effort, I get a lot of disrespect. I cannot think of another profession that will give you that much disrespect. I think they cuss at me more than they do to a street person. I never say anything mean to them. I'm always firm but very polite. Somehow they believe that if they are confused, it is my fault. It is my fault that they know nothing. It is my fault that they were not listening. It is my fault that I made them feel stupid because they felt ashame of their lack of knowledge. And their reaction to all this? They act up, yell at you, tell you that you're incompetent (that a godo teacher will make them learn it without any effort on their own). Sometimes they even try to get the entire class to make fun of you.
I remember when I was growing up, disrespecting the teacher would be like spitting on the Pope. However, nowadays teachers are treated like trash. We are the evil ones, the ones who ought to be shot for doing what we do. And when they go out to the world and realize they can't do anything because they didn't put in the effort to learn, it's our fault. It is very sad indeed.
However, we must realize that we are doing a dirty job. A job not many ppl will attempt. A job that is honorable not because we get respect, but because we have self-respect. If it wasn't for ppl like us, the world would be much much worse. So yes, it is hard. Yes, it is ugly. But it is more satisfying to see one kid come around then to earn a million dollars.
Teachers of the world, stand up, be proud. You are wonderful!
This happened to me when I taught guitars in 8th grade.
Don't know what to tell you.
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