The title of this blog is a completely made up fact and is almost certainly not true.
But in another sign of me getting old, fasten your safety belts and glue in your dentures because it's a "Damn Kids Today" blog.
First, here's what's got me upset.
Suspended teacher defends critical blog
This Natalie Munroe isn't the smartest teacher ever because she didn't think through how this could backfire on her. Yes she didn't use her full name (Natalie M) and no she didn't name any kids or her school directly but the internet is no longer an anonymous playgroud. Also, Central Bucks East High School appears to be a somewhat upscale public school that serves a bunch of fancy ultrawhite neighborhoods. Can't imagine what her blog would say if she went through Cincinnati Public.
But here's the thing, Munroe is suspended and may get fired because of bad parents. Maybe some of you went to school in utopia, but I doubt it. And if that's the case you know she's right.
Most high school kids now are "disengaged, lazy whiners." In fact it wasn't a whole lot better when I was in high school or even college for that matter.
So let's take a look at some of the fun things Natalie said and why she's right. These are things she wanted to put on student evaluations.
* "I hear the trash company is hiring." -- We need solid santiation engineers, some people are cut our for that kind of work.
* "I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son." -- This may be the only blog point where they could have grounds to terminate as she admits to lying when calling off, but I know plenty of teachers, good ones, that just need a break. We've all called in for a bullshit reason before.
* "Rude, beligerent [sic], argumentative f**k." -- That's just funny. I knew about 100 kids at West High that fit that description.
* "Just as bad as his sibling. Don't you know how to raise kids?" -- No Natalie they don't. If they had any freakin idea how to raise kids we wouldn't be having this fun discussion.
* "Asked too many questions and took too long to ask them. The bell means it's time to leave!" -- Alright Natalie needs to bite the bullet on this one. We ALL know that kid (Dungy wasn't his name Peter?) who asks a crap ton of questions and while at the college level maybe a kid can be told to stuff it, at the high school level teachers should take that as a good sign.
* "Shy isn't cute in 11th grade; it's annoying. Must learn to advocate for himself instead of having Mommy do it." -- Again I can think of tons of people who fit that bill.
* "Too smart for her own good and refuses to play the school 'game' such that she'll never live up to her true potential here." -- Not sure what she means here but I think it shows a concern for a student and not just complaining.
* "Am concerned that your kid is going to come in one day and open fire on the school. (Wish I was kidding.)"-- Natalie you probably should tell a cop or something.
Munroe concluded with my favorite part of what I've read of her stuff: "These comments, I think, would serve me well when filling out the cards. Only, I don't think parents want to hear these truths. Thus, the old addage [sic] ... if you don't have anything nice to say ... say 'cooperative in class.' "
This all comes back to the "your kid sucks" situation. See while most parents love their children, the good ones don't completely coddle them and worship their sweat socks.
Good parents know their kids have strengths and weaknesses and don't get offended when a weakness is addressed. I sucked at math as a child, my teachers would tell my parents this (in nicer terms). My parents did not berate the teacher and call them a failure, they realized that yes, I did suck at math. So they got me a tutor.
My parents know I suck at math, they know my sister's weaknesses too. While they love us, they recognized that some failures need to be owned by the kid.
I didn't get a lot of playing time on the basketball team...but guess what I was short, uncoordinated and generally helped the other team when I was out there....so my parents didn't punch the coach. Coach puts attack in perspective
The coach in the above link told a kid who wouldn't run to to go run or quit....which is within the right of any coach.
81-5 girls hoops playoff blowout raises questions in Texas
This article says "Something tells us the players on those losing teams would have retained more self belief and pride by missing out on the playoffs than by being on the receiving end of historic blowouts."
And there it is. The root of it all. We're so concerned with the kids self belief and pride and crap that we forget to prepare them for reality.
A kid needs self esteem and constant beatings to it are detrimental of course. But losing one basketball game even by a million points is just one game. It's a teaching opportunity.
Coach of that team needs to say "We got it handed to us today. We're not as good as they are. Sometimes someone else wins and sometimes you lose pretty hard. Let's get back to practice and try again."
That's life people. We all say no one is perfect but parents today can't seem to see that's true about their kids too.
There's no denying that 100% of school children are nothing more than less adequate versions of adults. Anyone who denies it is a filthy liar. So part of me sympathizes with the teacher who needed to vent.
ReplyDeleteBut on the other hand, this is the profession she chose. No one forced her into it. Everyone should be painfully aware at this point of how thankless a teaching career is (both in terms of salary and life fulfillment). She chose that career path of her own free will. I submit she did this she was either:
A) Woefully unrealistic
Or
B) Craving a position of permenent authority and superiority
If A), then well, sorry. Guess you learned something about life. If B), then this is exactly what you asked for. You got an undergraduate degree so that you could be smarter and more enlightened than generation after generation of students, and now you're shocked (SHOCKED!) that you have to babysit these little ignorant, unwashed masses? Too... Bad?
If it's not worth the hassle then quit. Cops shouldn't be surprised that they get shot at, Firemen shouldn't be surprised that they have to run into burning buildings and you shouldn't be surprised that you have to deal with screwups. If that sticks going down, you can always try out for walmart and bag my groceries.
90 percent of people born during any era are stupid.
ReplyDeleteIs there any evidence, besides anecdotal, which proves that modern generations are dumber and lazier than past generations? Is there any evidence capable of demonstrating that modern parents coddle their children more than past generations?
Where's the cutoff point, anyway? When did the good-ole days come to an end only to be replaced by a horrific gilded age devoid of reason and morality? Do you suppose it was before or after the fascists senselessly slaughtered millions of people? Maybe it was sometime during the Cold War?
Detestation for youth is as old as writing itself (probably a lot older). Munroe can complain about her students if she wants, but she should do so knowing full well that her teachers complained about her generation too.
Look, the myth of a Golden Age is pretty much nothing more than just that - a myth.
I dunno Matt. I don't have the stats but I don't know how often you ran into 14 year olds with five page rap sheets. I'm sure it happened, but just reading the news in Cincinnati makes me think it's happening a lot more.
ReplyDeleteAlso there are stats to show kids are multi tasking more than ever with the internet and texting and such and that that has an affect on learning.
School violence is up each decade over the last, classroom discipline is weak according to long time teachers (I did some googling on this).
Maybe it's just worldwide media making us think there are more occurrences of this, but it really seems that way.
I dunno if there was a golden age, but it seems we are getting further from ever having another one.
How often do YOU, personally run into 14 year olds with five page rap sheets? I've seen some statistics that show the crime rate steadily going down for the last 20 years.
ReplyDeleteI think what Matt's challenging is the assumption that things are trending down. Which I agree with. It's never really been seriously evaluated because everyone assumes from the start, like you, that things must be getting worse.
Every generation seems to think that they're living in the "end times". Instead of relying on our gut feeling, we should go by numbers alone.
ReplyDeleteOne need look no further than the FBI's website to see that both violent crime and property crime have been generally declining over the last couple of years.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr
Dungy is right. We need to go by the numbers, not by our gut feelings. The 20th century saw two world wars, the systematic slaughter of millions of innocents, the development of nuclear weapons, a global struggle between two opposing ideologies, and the near deployment of nuclear weapons by the two global superpowers. But forget about all that, we are in the end times RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND!