What is it with people today who think that kids, especially teens, need to be sheltered from the real world? There are times when I think I can lose my job because I’m blunt with the truth and cold-hearted and uncompromising when it comes to education.
I had a conference with three students today. I know I sounded like a bitch. Conferencing with students or even parents is still a tricky thing with me. Part of me sounds like a complaining nag, and the other part me of is a concerned teacher at her wits’ end trying to get through to a student’s head about the poor decisions he/she is making.
I have two problem-students in my class this second term of summer school. The first student was in my class for the first term and he failed it because he wasn’t doing the homework and he was doing poorly on all the tests and quizzes. I call him Hormonal Loser. All he cares about is sex, girls, his car, and money (not that he’s rich). His vocabulary is limited to the two main cuss words (fuck and shit) and their variations. He never disrespects me, and so I give him credit for that. He uses the swear words as the universal words to everything he says in a sentence. Example: That was fuckin’ cool. He’s shittin’ me. Hell no, mothafuckah.
After hearing his expansive vocabulary for the past four weeks, his shit got old real quick.
My second problem-student, I call him Fuckin’ Leech of Society. He was in my class the first term, but he gave up and dropped. He did absolutely nothing then, and he’s doing absolutely nothing now. He has a poor attitude in class, he’s lazy, completely self-involved, and not one iota in his brain about accountability or responsibility.
Of these two problem students, I hate the Leech the most. He still hasn’t gotten any of the required books for the class and it’s been four days already with homework assignments—none of which he turned in because he doesn’t have his books. It’s a catch-22. Today, he starts complaining to me:
“I don’t have any of my books,” he says.
“Then go get them,” I reply.
“But the librarian won’t check them out to me because I have to pay a fine.”
“Then pay the fine.”
“I don’t wanna pay—“
“Then find your books, so you don’t have to pay.”
“I lost my books.”
“That was your responsibility.”
“She’s not going to check them out because I lost them.”
“That was your responsibility.”
“I don’t wanna pay.”
“That is your responsibility. Why are you even complaining to me? I can’t help you. Those books were your responsibility—not mine. Fix your own problem.”
What part of the equation does he not understand?
Sometimes I blame the parents. I hate the parents who think that I should shelter their child by not telling them the truth about the real world and their child’s responsibilities as a growing adult. I hate the parents who shirked off their own responsibilities and thought that the schools would teach their child everything from morals, values, and manners, and maturity. I hate the parent advocates of education who think that a teacher’s responsibility, first and foremost, is to be nice to their child. I hate those parents who educate their kids and misinform them about their rights, telling them that teachers shouldn’t be demeaning.
My realism and cynicism can be misconstrued as demeaning to some students because they don’t get it. Thank goodness there are a lot more students who do get it. They smile and snicker when I tell the truth, especially to Loser and Leech. Those other students see that I don’t “baby” or shelter anyone in the class. I don’t give out A’s; they better work for it. I don’t give out answers; they better find it themselves. I don’t tell them how to think; they should think for themselves. I’m a teacher—not a surrogate mother or a maid. I’m not going to hold anyone’s hand and lie that everything will be okay because it’s not. If they don’t do their homework, it’s a zero—simple as that; none of that “It’s-okay-by-me.-I-still-care-about-you” nonsense.
Hormonal Loser, some time during class, asked me, ”Why you bein’ so mean?”
“I’m not being mean. I’m being realistic.”
Welcome to the world I live in, losers.