This mini-rant brought to you by the fact that I'm slowly losing faith in our nation's future.
Here are some examples of things that have happened in the last couple of weeks that have made me say...hmmmm time for a change.
1- I'm playing Jeopardy in my class room. The Current Events category gets picked and:
Me: "What is the name of the Oil Company that spilled in the gulf?"
Students: "I don't know...Chevron?"
Me: "Does ANYONE know this? Biggest story of the year? Biggest environmental tragedy ever?"
Students: "no not really."
2- Same Jeopardy Game:
Me: "Who is the Vice President of the United States"
Class: Cricket Noises........absolutely nothing
Me: "You guys are serious?"
Student: "Oh I know it's Dick Cheney!"
Me: "Ummm that was the last administration with Bush."
Student: "They switch?"
3- Sitting in writing lab-
Student: "I heard Obama wasn't born in the United States"
Me: "He was born in Hawaii"
Student: "Don't you have to be born in America?"
Me: "You DO know that Hawaii is a state right?"
Student: "No...." (16 year old student at that)
4- Same student as number 3
He had turned nothing in and was going to fail my class. Summer school is so easy! I made it deliberately easy for these kids to pass. They just had to show up, do the work, complete the assignments, and they would get a good grade.
He approached me and said, "Mr. Reeves I need to talk to you, I was wondering if there was any work I could do..."
Now at this point I thought to myself, "ALL RIGHT! HE WANTS TO WORK! GRADUATE! SUCCEED ! But then he continued to talk...
Student: "If there was any work I could do around your house like mowing the lawn or something. I need $35 by Friday.
Me: "For What?"
Student: "For Something"
Me: "For WHAT?"
Student: "This Rave I want to go to and...."
I had kids in my class who showed up to every day of Summer School but almost failed because they wouldn't do anything. They have this new excuse all set up now. When I asked them to write a 3 page double spaced paper (and gave them 3 hours to do it) I had a few students turn in almost one page. These are the students that I sat and watched as they played online games and searched the web for other things. When I asked why I only got 1/3 of the assignment they said, "well I couldn't think of anything to write." And then they would pause and wait for me to accept this excuse. It's as if, "I couldn't think of anything" would make me say, "oh really? That's too bad, full credit for all and for all a good grade! Hooray for you!"
I was part of Generation x.
This is either Generation X-box or Generation X-cuse
It's going to be a sad reality for this generation when they assume that by showing up to work they'll deserve a pay check. When the boss asks for a report, "I couldn't think of anything" isn't going to cut it... in fact it'll just plain get you cut.
I'm tired of the Laziness
I'm tired of the lack of intelligence
I'm tired of the "I deserve this..." attitude
I'm tired of the students who worship family guy and think that the sexual humor is HILARIOUS
I'm tired of people ignoring common sense
I'm tired of people who sit around waiting for life to be served to them on a golden platter.
IF YOU WANT IT- QUALIFY YOURSELF FOR IT
IF YOU DON'T WANT TO QUALIFY YOURSELF-DON'T DEPEND ON ME TO BAIL YOUR BUTT OUT BECAUSE THAT'S NOT HOW THIS COUNTRY IS SUPPOSED TO WORK!
I'm against the redistribution of wealth because it'd be wrong for me to redistribute grades right? X amount of kids work hard and got B's and A's. Y amount of kids didn't even try and got D's and F's. So should I just even it out and give everyone C's?
Of course not...
So why is it that when my A and B students have good jobs, the D and F students who are working low income jobs deserve anything from up top?
Life starts in 9th grade folks.
If you mess around throughout your high school career, you are basically screwed for the next 60 years.
Parents...this is all on you. Step your game up.
END RANT- Go see Inception, it's marvelous.
