Been a Long time...
Since the fwavl-o-sphere (or the peeps-o-sphere) has quieted down, and teachers like me now get to school so soon before they must actually teach that their blog-browsing time is cut off, AGW has experienced a dearth of visitors. I'd say COME BACK! but I've gotten so apathetic, even I don't visit my blog, or any others. Not even gawker. Now that's sad.
Nonetheless, faithful few, I have an observation or two to share.
*First, filed under the "aren't they precious?" category: Today, while talking about the "Rose by any other name would smell as sweet" speech in R &J, one of my students kept insisting it wasn't true. She kept saying "if my name was Bungkwana and I had huge braces that stuck out, you wouldn't still love me miss." And I kept saying, "no, your beautiful personality would be the same." And so on. It was SO CUTE. wooo.
*
Second of all, filed under the "I am an eavesdropper" category: Today on the long, long, long subway ride home I tried to eavesdrop on two older teachers chatting passionately about the profession. One of them made an amazing point which I want to highlight here: he was commenting on the way the litigious nature of our society keeps disruptive students in the classroom because of their "right to an education." But what if, he suggested, a group of average, diligent students kicked up a fuss and sued the Board of Ed, saying that by keeping said loudmouths into the classroom, it was cutting their (good kids') learning time in half and denying them THEIR right to an education. Oho! Whose rights matter now, bitches?
Okay, so my response to this is WORD. Dude, it would really bring a shitstorm flying down on the old permissive crappy BOE. I know in charter/public schools in boston and baltimore, some teachers can throw kids out of the classroom. But in New York, with its macho culture, teachers are all about the "hey, I can handle these punks" and admins are like "hey, what are YOU doing wrong that these kids are threatening and harassing each other?"
Now don't get me wrong. I love my punks. I mean, I really love them. That's my main problem; I spent too much time this year trying to coax, tease, and cajole them into being good, so that by the end of the year their behavior at its base had barely changed. But kids need to understand that their right to an education ends when they stop someone else's education. Or their right to anything (say, freedom from incarceration, freedom to work) ends when they violate other's rights. Whether I agree with our punitive society or not, this is the society into which we're sending our kids. And it's not such a terrible thing to impress upon them how important it is to respect their peers-- to understand that doing all your OWN classwork does not somehow make up for interrupting, being loud, or bothering others. For self-centered teenagers in a "me" culture, this lesson needs to be drilled in harder.
So average joes out there, my message is: SUE THOSE BASTARDS!
*Lastly, filed under the grad school sucks category: Grad school sucks. Particularly the part where you have to write 10 page papers in one night about theories of literacy. Not that this is happening to anyone I know. Or anything.
Cheers.
Fellow-ette
Nonetheless, faithful few, I have an observation or two to share.
*First, filed under the "aren't they precious?" category: Today, while talking about the "Rose by any other name would smell as sweet" speech in R &J, one of my students kept insisting it wasn't true. She kept saying "if my name was Bungkwana and I had huge braces that stuck out, you wouldn't still love me miss." And I kept saying, "no, your beautiful personality would be the same." And so on. It was SO CUTE. wooo.
*
Second of all, filed under the "I am an eavesdropper" category: Today on the long, long, long subway ride home I tried to eavesdrop on two older teachers chatting passionately about the profession. One of them made an amazing point which I want to highlight here: he was commenting on the way the litigious nature of our society keeps disruptive students in the classroom because of their "right to an education." But what if, he suggested, a group of average, diligent students kicked up a fuss and sued the Board of Ed, saying that by keeping said loudmouths into the classroom, it was cutting their (good kids') learning time in half and denying them THEIR right to an education. Oho! Whose rights matter now, bitches?
Okay, so my response to this is WORD. Dude, it would really bring a shitstorm flying down on the old permissive crappy BOE. I know in charter/public schools in boston and baltimore, some teachers can throw kids out of the classroom. But in New York, with its macho culture, teachers are all about the "hey, I can handle these punks" and admins are like "hey, what are YOU doing wrong that these kids are threatening and harassing each other?"
Now don't get me wrong. I love my punks. I mean, I really love them. That's my main problem; I spent too much time this year trying to coax, tease, and cajole them into being good, so that by the end of the year their behavior at its base had barely changed. But kids need to understand that their right to an education ends when they stop someone else's education. Or their right to anything (say, freedom from incarceration, freedom to work) ends when they violate other's rights. Whether I agree with our punitive society or not, this is the society into which we're sending our kids. And it's not such a terrible thing to impress upon them how important it is to respect their peers-- to understand that doing all your OWN classwork does not somehow make up for interrupting, being loud, or bothering others. For self-centered teenagers in a "me" culture, this lesson needs to be drilled in harder.
So average joes out there, my message is: SUE THOSE BASTARDS!
*Lastly, filed under the grad school sucks category: Grad school sucks. Particularly the part where you have to write 10 page papers in one night about theories of literacy. Not that this is happening to anyone I know. Or anything.
Cheers.
Fellow-ette
Labels: Teaching from the trenches
posted by SarahMarian at 2:05 PM
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