More Frustration

So my new (well, not new, just finally bugged me enough to blog about it) frustration is not just with the future of our country politically speaking (see last post), but along similar lines. As many of you know, teaching school is not my favorite thing to do...by far. And teaching in a low income area has made me like it even less. You see, I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the reality of the values taught to kids these days by their parents. Values that will be ingrained in them as they grow up. And its not that parents aren't teaching their kids values anymore. The values that they pick up from their parents are just not the values I agree with. Here are some examples of the "values" some of my students have demonstrated in school:

1. Everyone owes you everything.

One of the more disruptive kids in my class believes that every time he gets in trouble it is because the teachers are out to get him and pick on him. It has never dawned on him that he is getting in trouble because he is obnoxiously singing at the top of his lungs in the middle of a math lesson (I'm not even joking abou this). And when cofronted with the question of what can we do to solve this problem he answers "You should give me more compliments when I'm being good." Now I know that kids thrive on praise and I have seen first hand how it can change behavior in the classroom (only in the short-term, however). But why should I praise him specifically for doing what everyone else in the class has been doing every day since August? Now he blames me for his bad behavior because I don't compliment him enough when he does the bare minimum of what is expected of him in class. He is completely capable (no ADHD or anything) of sitting through a lesson without bursting into song, but for some reason, I owe him a compliment when he does. You can ask anyone at my school, I am a very positive teacher with my students, so what makes him think he is so extra special that he deserves extra attention for doing what was expected of him in the first place. He has learned in his short 10 years of life that you can blame other people for your lack of discipline/motivation/effort and when given the chance to take part in the solution, you should expect someone else's efforts to solve your problem.

2. "Taxes are good because you always get it back when the tax return comes."

Yes, that is an exact quote from one of my fourth graders last year. This student later went on to tell me about how her mom gave her and her brother each $100 from the tax return to buy whatever they wanted. As I mentioned earlier, I teach in a very low income area. So what lesson is being taught here? When the government gives you money to help you get along (pay the rent, bills, gas, etc), give it to a ten-year-old to buy a video game or two and about $20 worth of junk from the Dollar Store.

3. Teenage pregnancy has great benefits.

Yes, you read that right. One of the parents of one of my students came in for a parent/teacher conference one day. She saw the wedding picture that I have of me and Rob on my desk and asked me how old I was when I got married. Since I got married so young (just a month short of being 21) I am used to the comments about getting married young. I answered her only to be shocked by her response. She went into a whole speech about how glad she is that she got married so young. (She is already on marriage #2, and according to her son, this guy threatens to walk out every other weekend...very sad for the kids). Her exact words were something like this: "I am so glad I had my kids when I was 17 because now, by the time they are old enough to move out, I'll still be young enough to go out and party. I wouldn't change a thing!" After that meeting, I was no longer worried about the mature and expereinced teacher image I try so hard to make the parents see. When I think about it, she's really only a couple years older than me.

One good thing about my job: I always have stories to tell.