I say hello with a big smile every morning as you shuffle in the
door, but I secretly seethe with hatred for almost each and every one
of you. Your stupidity and willful ignorance know no bounds. I have
seen a lot of morons in my 10 years of teaching high school, but you
guys take the cake. Your intellectual curiosity is nonexistent, your
critical thinking skills are on par with that of a head trauma victim,
and for a group of people who have never accomplished anything in their
lives, you sure have a magnified sense of entitlement. I often wonder
if your parents still wipe your asses for you, because you certainly
don’t seem to be able to do anything on your own.
A handful of you are nice, sweet kids. That small group will go on
and live a joyful and intellectual life filled with love, adventure,
and discovery. The vast majority of you useless fuckwits will waste
your life and follow in the footsteps of your equally pathetic parents.
Enjoy your future of wage slavery and lower-middle-class banality.
Amazing how teachers are blamed for the state of education in this
country. Look what you give us to work with. I am done trying to teach
the unteachable.
wow this sounds like one of my old high school teachers. she made her feelings clear during classes though, and i highly respected that.
don’t smile and cater to them. don’t pass them simply because you think you need to.
help them. don’t let their bullshit fly. clearly parents aren’t doing their jobs – don’t bail on yours as well. we need good teachers who aren’t afraid to teach something other than history or math.
those nice sweet kids you’re talking about have to grow up in this world too and if you give up on the shitty kids, you’re doing just as much to contribute to the fucked-uppedness of it as any of the parents are.
Never accomplished anything? How old are these kids? Sounds like some is projecting a bit.
Oh shit. I wonder if that’s me: lower middle-class banality.
Now this is why I read this column!! Let it all out baby!!!!
Let’s see: perfect punctuation, use of the phrase “lower-middle-class banality,” – with hyphens! – careful syntax…yep, definitely an English teacher.
I used to drink heavily while correcting my students’ papers and then rage at them the next day. Anon, I feel your pain.
It would seem to me that inspiring intellectual curiosity and teaching critical thinking skills is part of the job requirement of teacher. If you can’t do your job, maybe you should quit and let someone more capable take over.
“wage slavery and lower-middle-class banality.”
That’s being a teacher.
@2 Teaching should be considered one of the most important professions in our culture because it is. Someone that dedicates their lives to teaching younger generation has accomplished something for which we should all be thankful.
All students? Or one particular group?
Think about a different job if this is how you really feel. If you had a bad week and are just venting that is one thing, but otherwise I’m thinking you need to find a new line of work.
Also, try going to a shit office job for a few months and then tell me that you can’t deal with your state-paid benefits, 401K, job security and 3 months off every god damned year. If you think those kids are bad, try dealing with adults. At least you have some measure of authority, even if it’s not much. You can give detention, send those fuckers to the office or threaten to call their parents.
You know what happens in the real world when people get unruly at your job? Nothing. That’s right. You don’t get to call anyone’s parents or have a meeting about it. You just have to deal with it. You have to watch your back, because the economy is so bad that people will literally sabotage you so that when the layoffs come, they will hopefully still have a job. Both customers and coworkers can make your life hell and there is not a damned thing you can do about it except get creative in how you work with these bloodsuckers.
You have no idea what a shit job is until you have had to fight for work that isn’t even in your field and doesn’t even pay the bills. So, basically, um, you are a whiner and you can shut the fuck up until you have been through 2 reorganizations and had to work at least 6K-10K less than you are worth simply because the economy is so bad that you have to take what you can get.
That handful of good, sweet students may still grow up to be complete fuck-ups and the ones that you think will slave away for the rest of their lives may end up being some of the most brilliant minds out there. Like #1 said, don’t give up on the shitty kids just because you think they’re stupid. Sit down and have a conversation with them. If they’re teenagers, remember what being a teenager was like and find some way to drag those opinions out of them. Some of my best teachers were complete assholes in class until they got to know their students and were able to bring out their students’ potential intellectual sides in class. One of my teachers in particular created an open forum every day based on something he read in the newspaper while we took 20 minutes writing in our journals. When he would ask for opinions on the subject and no one would say anything, he would pick someone. If he didn’t agree with them, but thought they made good points, he would say so in a polite way. If they said something that was sarcastic or just made them look like a complete fucktard in front of the whole class, he would outwardly tell them that they were being stupid and needed to rethink their answers. Then they’d have to write a 5 page essay about the topic they were discussing and turn it in by the end of the 2-hour class period. If he agreed with someone, he would make an example of them. Sometimes, even if he did agree with them, he would say he didn’t just to find out the reason why they believed their opinion, or if they really believed it. He ended up getting good results from his students in the long run and didn’t have to fail anyone. By the end of the year, he had our respect and he was able to make us think about bigger things than what to wear to the dance next week. I also went to a school that was terribly overcrowded and that particular class-size was roughly 35-40 students. Teachers are not necessarily to blame for the problems with education today. It’s the fact that there aren’t enough of them and there are even fewer good ones among the ones that are out there. Learn to care about your students and you may find it a little easier to teach them. No one is unteachable…you just have to know how to connect with them.
I used to think idiots were on the fringes of society until one became President for 8 years.
And I fear it never gets any better. I’m a college professor at a middle-tier school, and I still have about 30% of the class that is dull-eyed and slack-jawed. Ignore those that say this is somehow your problem as an educator. You can do your best, be a great teacher, and you will still encounter people out there who think reading is tantamount to a root canal and have all the intellectual curiosity of a mole rat. Ignore those who say that your job is cushy because they have some shitty desk job. The reason why teaching is so demoralizing is because you go into it with such enthusiasm and passion. In the beginning, you are going to SAVE THOSE KIDS. You are going to enlighten them, fill them up with the bright light of knowledge. Which, of course, is why it hits you so hard when, year after year, they wear you down…
@#1 “don’t pass them simply because you think you need to”… The problem is not that you think you need to. It’s because high school administrations cave in to parental pressure. The little darlings whine to mommy and daddy, and everyone fixes everything for them.
Ugh. Fuck teaching high school. That’s why I teach at community college – no parents to deal with and if you don’t show up for class, that’s YOUR problem.
6 nails it. If you can’t motivate your students, you’re a shitty teacher. This I Anon is a big part of why I hated high school. What makes students give a shit is a teacher who gives a shit.
The kids described here sound like examples out of “The Narcissism Epidemic”, a fascinating, yet horrifying read about modern Americans’ inflated sense of entitlement. How frustrating for this teacher. The baby boomers meant well, I’m sure, but I fear they did raise the most self-centered, entitled, arrogant generation ever. I am a child of baby boomers and I hope to learn from the patterns and mistakes of generations past and raise my child to be a much better person than the lazy, arrogant, vain types of people who seem to be becoming far too common.
Dear anonymous, most teens are insufferable brats who don’t live in the real world yet – because they are still teens. It’s why we don’t call them adults.
As an educator, I’m not really sure why this is coming as a surprise to you. It’s *expected*. Were you that unaware of your fellow teens when you were in high school yourself?
Perhaps you should consider a change of employment?
Dear Stressed Teacher,
Quit teaching. You can make far more money in the private sector and you don’t have to put up with anybody under the age of 18. Nobody who hates kids that bitterly should spend time with them.
Did I write this?
I remember this teacher. Fuck you, you cynical twat. Maybe when you decided to quit and become a cynical POS, and had really quit, letting someone with some positive energy have a go, it might have made things easier. Get over yourself.
Ten years teaching high school even though you hate it and therefore can not possibly be a decent teacher and these kids hormone addled kids are the useless fuckwits? At least they’ve still got a chance to outgrow their useless fuckwittage, things aren’t looking so great for you.
Y’all can’t blame someone who teaches high school for doing some venting. Be glad she or he isn’t literally putting vents in people with a pistol.
All I can say is, if parents really knew what goes on in school, at almost any age, homeschooling and internet schools would be the only schools! If you do not believe it, stop by your kids’ schools to visit, make sure it is a surprise visit! After that, make sure you visit and volunteer (or get a family member who is available) asap and as often as possible! It makes a world of difference. Students do not even know how to sit in class and be physically as well as mentally ready and willing to learn.
You sound bitter and hateful. Just because you drive a beat up old Datsun while the children of wealthy, successful people roll a BMW 135i. Newsflash: kids grow up, go to college, and become successful in spite of the worn down old hippies in the high school teacher’s lounge. Oh, and if you think that as a high school teacher you’re in some great service to academia, wake the fuck up. You want to be an academic? Go to the university. Now shut the fuck up and teach or quit stealing my tax dollars and go dig ditches.
Why do so many of these types become teachers?
Suck it up, I, Anon. This is what you signed up for.
And that said, don’t blame the kids. Blame the parents. I know it’s cliche to say that but goddamn if it isn’t the truth when it comes to kids’ attitudes and behaviors in public school. Shitty parenting makes for shitty kids.
Also… thanks for trying. I understand your frustration. It’s an uphill battle that never ends, teaching. Don’t let it get to you or you will permanently, miserably be the part of yourself that wrote this rant, and no one wants that, least of all you.
Dear Anonymous:
I was a teacher for 15 years. I learned early on that from September to Xmas, you try to teach EVERYONE. Then send them home with a sincere “Merry Christmas”. When they come back in January, you invest your energy ONLY in those who repay you with effort and interest (even if they achieve very little, it’s the effort and interest that “make” a student).
When I went to work, I did it for that minority of wonderful, miraculous kids who are going to make great adults. The rest are just placeholders. Don’t waste your time on them. Good luck.
@ 16, i agree completely. what i’m saying though is let the school board be the ones who fuck things up – don’t just give in yourself and cater to them. if they’re not passing the class, fail them. if they want to take it up from there, at least you did what you could.
there is so much about the school systems in this country that is beyond fucked up that i won’t even bother going into it. imho teachers should be paid as much or more than doctors because their job is just as important, if not more. but they don’t, which means the reason they are teaching to begin with is to try and improve the minds of young adults. don’t let the dumbass school boards and the dumbass parents of the kids be an excuse to give up on that.
@25 i’m pretty sure you have it backwards. “these types” don’t become teachers…. teachers become these types.
as balderdash said, it’s an uphill battle. its easy to see how 10 years of it would turn someone into a cynic.
As an educator I sympathize with the author. I am proud of what I do and know I do it well. I have had those moments with students asthe author has. If you have never been a teacher, you might think about you ability to judge this position accurately.
You might feel you can relate as all of us have been students. As students were were not mature enough (well, most of us), to realize the amount of responsibility and stress teachers face; but we all seem to think we have a valid opinion since we’ve all be in a student’s desk. I believe it’s not sound to judge a teacher until you have taught. Sure there are poor quality teachers that are not effective, but this post is a sentiment even the brightest and most motivated teachers share on certain days. I don’t know how a plumber feels to be a plumber, so I would not pretend to have an opinion on their trials and tribulations, since I am not a plumber.
As a (hopefully) former moron in high school with very little motivation, I humbly apologize. When I think about how much I made your life hell, when all you were trying to do is help me learn, I feel like crap. All I can say is that I eventually got to college, miraculously found motivation, and turned out all right.
Hang in there.
Some of those fuckwit teenagers might become asshole teachers like yourself.
And the endless cycle continues….
@ 10 you nailed that fucker right on the head.
at #10, this isn’t a contest. Do you reply to everyone’s grievances with the story of your pathetic, meaningless job?
PS. dealing with parents is no picnic. (see #24; his perspective on teachers and “sucess” as warranting apathy and ignorance is part of the problem. One day he’ll hire thugs to prevent his sons’ rape victim from squealing.)
at #16, right on. This is my theory: at some point in the past 30 years, after discovering the importance of the teen market in the mid-XX century, vendors everywhere decided that was the market to cater to. Now, because SO many shows and singers and restaurants and movies and etc. are marketed for kids, they place them at the center of the universe, constantly outdoing and correcting the mistakes of their unfair, obtuse elder. The baby boomer’s motto of “question authority” has now been watered down to “fuck you” to everything, including human empathy.
To all those assholes who talk meanly about teachers, TRY BEING ONE. I bet you this teacher isn’t nearly as mean as she sounds to those bratty little ingrates, she’s merely letting it out, as we all wish we could. There is always that ONE classroom that makes you want to shake hands with the souls of the Columbine killers.
at #27: that sounds healthy.
I work at a private school and you’d think it’d be better with upper middle class kids. But not always. And before assholes start posting ignorance about me, I’ve gotten a pay raise every single year and the students every year hold a birthday party for me and beg me not to leave (which I probalby will next year to go to grad school). Why? I tell them like it is and am always respectful and try to inspire, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel like this Anon on occasion.
NEWSFLASH ANGRY POSTERS: NOT ALL THOSE CALM-DEMEANORED TEACHERS LOVED YOU; THEY OFTEN WENT TO SMOKE PACKS OF CIGARETTES AFTER CLASS BECAUSE OF YOUR LAZY, TURGID-BRAINED TEENAGE SELF AND/OR PEERS.
Anon, I feel ya.
I suspect the sympathy comments are from people over 25, and the fuck you, quit already comments are from those under 25.
Assuming that a teacher must be crappy to be so depressed is crazy; in many school districts/ schools, you’d have to be super human to succeed.
27 has it right.
Those who think it must be the teacher’s fault if kids aren’t motivated are wrong. I had a pretty wide range of good and bad teachers through high school (and college, for that matter). Even in the classes with the best teachers, there were plenty of kids who just didn’t give a fuck. You can’t tell me that’s the teacher’s fault.
I am a teacher. It is a job where you could work 24 hours a day and there would always be that one thing left undone. Many teachers have issues with burnout, because it’s hard to just turn your back on helping people. I really strive to set clear boundaries for myself now though, because I have found if I don’t I quickly become deeply resentful…it’s almost like a weird martyr complex, but it’s my spirit and energy that die in the name of perfectionistic teaching. Things go much more smoothly when I have a fulfilling personal life, even if that means every scrap of prep isn’t done.
I teach students with severe behavior problems. At one time or another, a student has tried to hit, kick, spit on, or bite me. I’ve had a student look me in the face and tell me to fuck off more than once. I absolutely love my job. Does every strategy I try work? No. That’s the challenge. Yes, it’s hard not to take it personally when students fail. I’ve thought the phrase “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink” more times than I can count. I don’t give up though, because you never know when a student will make a breakthrough. You never know who you are making all the difference for. I agree with the posters who suggest this author consider getting out of teaching though. You are not doing yourself, your students or the profession a favor right now. Think seriously about that.
I’ll close with a few quotes that I hold dear:
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry Adams
Get over yourself bitch. Who the fuck wants to go to a “class” they’re forced to go to at one of the most confusing/exciting times in a person’s life?
fuck. yes.
you must teach in bellevue. im sorry.
Oh yeah… and you are lower-middle-class… sadly.
lol I ASPIRE to lower-middle-class banality–it would about TRIPLE my income!
Those who are angry with the poster need to get over themselves! Expressing ones opinion does not mean that this teacher doesn’t care.
Just like most of you there were teachers who were good and bad, those who provided what you needed to get moving for yourself and those that tried to tear you down.
Guess what? That is about the same thing that happens in real life. The sooner kids realize that life is what you make it, then the sooner they will stop being apathetic and get a clue.
Amen stormblade. Projecting into the future, what does the entitled student expect? After highschool/college/professional school, I’ve never heard of any boss “inspiring” their employees to excel at any job. Such inspiration has to come from within. Unfortunately few people realize this and choose to blame others be it their parents, teachers, bosses, which is truly sad and counterproductive. Thus, it’s easy for exceptional people set themselves apart from the rest of the pack.
I’d also add, what then is the student’s job? It’s been proven that leaning is an active process which requires concentration and hard, time consuming work. Sitting in the presence of greatness confers nothing to the passive student.
That said, I respect those who make the choice to focus on other aspects of life, but I expect that those people will take responsibility for that choice and not complain.
One can forget that kids between 12 and 18 are clinically poisioned to insanity with hormones. You can’t expect to get crap out of some of them for that reason. Wait 5-10 years and the worst ones will have wafted out of their stupor and have become relatively productive citizens. Some of the nice ones will have knocked up or have been knocked up several times and will owe their continued existence to a steady supply of fill-in-the-drug addictions. You just never know. In the meantime, and for a nice refreshing lift, get a job with the police as a booking officer. Hahaha.
My spouse had a traumatic brain injury and her critical thinking skills are excellent. It’s the short-term memory that’s the problem.
#37. Excellent points, I’ve been spit on, kicked and bitten by children too- but you know what, when those kids come around, it’s so so worth the effort.
Thanks, 47. I agree. Working with my type of student has caused me to reconsider my definition of a successful person. I had one student who had things so incredibly stacked against him…tough diagnosis, crazy family life, etc…that I remember thinking if he could just manage to get a job when he grew up – any job, flipping burgers, scrubbing the floor, whatever – and go every day and get through it, he would be the most successful person that I have ever known. Fingers are still crossed for that one, he’s got a few years to go.
I think some teachers expect to turn everything around for a kid in a year. I just do what I can.
Last quote:
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived…that is to have succeeded.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Teachers need to be paid far more to put up with what they do. I’m 24, and I hated teenagers when I was one. Even my friends get on my fucking nerves with their vapidity and lack of intellectual curiosity, and the generation under me is ten times worse. You want my advice, quit teaching and run. Our youth is a lost cause.
49, you might have a point about the pay. I was thinking about that after I posted – one thing I never communicated to everyone is I’m Canadian. I don’t know exactly what teachers in Seattle make, but I’ve heard some amounts from other places in the States and was shocked. I work for the public school board in a city of about a million. Teachers for my board earn forty five thousand their first year of teaching, and get a raise of approximately two thousand dollars a year until they are capped in their eleventh year at seventy thousand. The benefit plan is pretty good – better than most of my friends in other fields.
Although I meant what I said – I do love my job – I can guarantee you if I was earning much less than what I do now, I would find it much harder to stay motivated and upbeat.
I feel for I, Anon. I taught high school for two years, then got hired as a college teacher. Like night and day. Nothing could drag me back into a high school again. Those two years of hell have made me all the more grateful for the five years which followed.
just an fyi. i teach 6th grade English/History in a middle school. this week, just as a “brush up,” we review nouns. not anything special, a review of common, compound, and proper nouns. almost half of the students in both my classes failed the quiz on nouns at the end of the week. all they had to do was look for nouns in sentences.
…6th grade. (i do work in a very low-income, at-risk youth driven school, but still…)
this is what we teachers are dealing with nowadays. just so you who don’t teach have an idea.
wow I thought I Anon was a place where someone could blow off steam about stuff on their mind. Some comments are less than positive toward this person. I feel sad for them…I mean they went into teaching to make a difference and encourage/mentor young minds, have any of you been around a kid lately? Or for that matter remember BEING a sullen teen–gawd! oh and I’m sure you ALL have perfect jobs and lives with no complaints…shit no! Let them vent for crissakes.
Welcome to America, Kiddo.
Oh, and, hey! I was one of those really interested kids who had a couple of really, REALLY great teachers one of which convinced me to go on to college when I was ready to give up on our crappy system of Ed. So keep on trying, Teach. You never know whom you’ll inspire.
I always suspected some teachers felt this way. I definitely would and for that reason I know I’m not cut out to be a teacher!!
If you really hate your job, just find another one.
A couple things.
1. Teachers aren’t really lower-middle-class wage slaves anymore (although kudos to those willing to do the job for even less). I’m a first year teacher, and with a Masters degree my starting salary is around 50K. That’s a lot more than the starting salary of some of you corporate whores out there.
2. I love my job, but with that said some days it can be so demoralizing! Your entire job is about helping students have opportunities in life, and it is incredibly frustrating when some of them refuse to respond no matter how many fucking strategies you try! Similarly, it is also frustrating to see students you know are completely fucked just because of their fucked up parents. Sure some of those kids will surprise you and turn things around, but most of them won’t so don’t kid yourself.
3. At least by the time I get them (8th grade), students are not all little charming, innocent blank slates. Some of them (whether by environment or genetics) have began to show themselves as selfish, disinterested, shallow, and hateful individuals. It’s interesting that some of you think teachers are to blame for this. Actually, I’m almost flattered that you think we have this much power. Trust me, we don’t. The formation of a person’s psyche is much more complicated than that.
4. Part of the problem with the public education system is the antipathy and hostility it has to deal with from the general populace. Some of you need to fucking get over your angst-riddled adolescence (how old are the people commenting on here anyway?), and realize that the majority of teachers are doing the best they can in spite of shoddy funding and little community/parent support.
5.The majority of my students are totally awesome.
Anonymous is right on the money. I am a college instructor and I can tell you they don’t change when they get here. The only skill they have acquired is a much greater ability to scam the system to support their illiteracy and bloated sense of entitlement.
It is true that some of the screw-ups may shine when they get out of high school, but the problem here is that screw-ups have become the norm. There is no way to reach them because a bullshit entitlement system provides them with an excuse for every situation, nothing is their fault.
What lends more credibility to the post is that studies have demonstrated that the “Millennial” generation were just the tips of the iceberg of a generation of idiots. Each successive wave of youth entering college seems to be much dumber and less capable than the last. However, if you talk to them you would think they are Rock Stars! Some of my students cannot even read or write, yet I am not allowed to say you shouldn’t be in college, because somehow that would infringe upon their rights (read socialist “esteem”). Everytime you give a student a bad grade, you get challenged, even when it is abundantly clear that they are in the wrong. This is where you get to hear a regurgitation of a lifetime of brainwashing and bullshit manifest itself as excuses and social justice.
Good job Anon…Just know it doesn’t change in college either.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” – Socrates
All I ask of public school teachers is they identify the ones that want to be taught and that can be taught, and try to keep the others from sending cell-phone videos to YouTube of their after-school gang rapes and happy slapping parties. For the peanuts we pay them versus the actual hours they have to work (i.e. 60-ish/week, and that isn’t ‘three-months off’ they get each summer, it’s ‘three-months where you don’t get paid’), I’d be pleased if they could do even that.
@8 & @10 are SPOT ON!!!!!!!
To every disaffected teacher posting in the thread: start teaching AP classes. Seriously. We’ve still got some fuckwits but at least the concept is that you’re teaching the ‘best and brightest’ so most of the weeding is done for you.
That said, even AP kids will be pompous and entitled bastards, but that’s where you have to knock them down a few pegs. I loved my World History teacher, she excelled at doing that so much that whenever you actually got a compliment from her, it felt that you were either king of the world or walking into a trap. It was usually the first.
@62 and now that I think about it, if you’re able, encourage those bright little seeds to start taking Honors/AP courses as well. My teachers never did that for me. I got so sick of regular classwork just two years ago I had to start demanding that I get pushed up to AP about halfway through the year.
Demanding? I guess. My teachers loved me from the start. I was, obviously, there to learn, and wasn’t a routine Honours student that just got placed there automatically. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. Two more years of sitting through classes that are equal to intellectual wastelands and I’d have probably murdered myself. The last regular history class I took, we had a test. I got a C- because I didn’t study and could only remember a few basics from the book. It was the top grade in my class. That was the tipping point for me.
In AP World History, on our semester final, I got a C+. My teacher told me that, for someone in my position (missing half a year’s worth of knowledge, did not take the honors prereqs), the grade was amazing and that I should take AP classes for the rest of my high school career.
Again, I stress: SO. WORTH. IT.
@30
Right on!
STFU, all of you, unless you’ve tried to teach American teenagers. Teachers have every right to vent about their jobs and the people they deal with on a daily basis the same way you do about your pointless-ass desk job that adds NOTHING to to society, you pencil pushing fuckwits!
@20
You’re likely one of the pointless-ass piece of shits this teacher is talking about. How’s your banal 9-5 existence treating you now, fuckwad? Maybe you should have listened to and respected your once-motivated teacher before you fucking broke her soul with your fucking idiocy and obnoxiousness.
I like the logic that if you are frustrated with your students, you can’t possibly be a good teacher that so many of these negative posts imply. Are you bad at your job because you get frustrated once in awhile?
I am a student teacher right now, and I love it, but I also know that sometimes, I will feel exactly the way Anon feels. It is an inevitable part of ANY job. It doesn’t mean you aren’t good at it, or that you don’t care. It means you’re a human.
@10 If teaching is such an easy job, with great benefits, 3 months off, and no adult co-workers and customers that you don’t have to fight for, why don’t you try it? We clearly need bitter office workers that think they’re hot shit. You couldn’t hack as a teacher, not for one damn day.
There is only so much a teacher can do. If kids have not been instilled with a desire to discover and learn at an early age… the teacher can’t force them to care. They are there to guide and support learning, not cram it down kids’ throats.
Schools should just tell kids to leave if they aren’t interested in learning anything. They can go walk the streets, hang out in malls and text friends all day. See where that gets them.
@#15 WORD UP!
I love all the “you are not a teacher, so you could not find your own asshole with a map” posts on here. I am a teacher, so I can say this: that sounds like a person intent on being a victim to me, who refuses to listen to some valid points. And 64: noted your mentioning of “American” teenagers. Have to say though, I think things are probably similar up here. We definitely have douchebags like you, so how different can the students be?
@65: congratulations on your student teaching, I hope it’s going well. Your line: “I also know that sometimes, I will feel exactly the way Anon feels” gave me pause. Will you have days where you’re exhausted, angry and want to quit? Yes. Will you have days where you “seethe with hatred” for your “fuckwit” students, whose “stupidity and willful ignorance knows no bounds”? God, I hope not. I’ve never had a day like that, and I don’t know any teachers who have either.
The fact is that teaching is a constant choice between looking to the positive and looking to the negative. Another brutal truth is that it’s not for everyone.
That said…before you jump ship, Anon, watch the Dead Poet’s Society. Do you remember why you got into teaching? You might also look at moving. One fabulous thing about teaching is you can work all over the world. Ever considered an International School? How does Paris grab you? Thailand? I’m sure the children of diplomats would be fantastic students.
Seriously, STOP TAKING IT OUT ON THIS TEACHER! Trust me, I have no delusions about what high school students were like in my day. I was the nerd who watched it all like an outsider – the kid who baffled everyone in the school and school-related-psychiatry field because they were a cynical little adult who still managed to function extraordinarily well. I enjoyed the company of my teachers more than any classmates simply because I couldn’t hold an intelligent conversation with them no matter how hard I tried. I loathed them. They questioned nothing and parroted the opinions of everyone who had a stranglehold on their attention at that millisecond.
And here’s the important part: KIDS ARE WORSE TODAY. Even from my standpoint. If I, remembering the worst of my classmates, am still horrified at behavior today, DOESN’T THAT SAY SOMETHING?!
Please, all you rose-colored-lens-wearing adults and just-out-of-high-school-bitter-teacher-haters… Stop taking it out on this teacher. When I was 13, maybe a handful of my classmates (even at a large school) would even THINK about spitting on adult strangers walking by with their strollers or grocery bags. Now I witness it about once a WEEK in my neighborhood!!!
Parents are lazier and lazier. AND – recognizing the ones who AREN’T lazy – this shitty economy forces parents to spend less and less time with children… Dumping the sole responsibility of rearing them on public servants like this teacher! IT IS NOT THEIR JOB!!!
AGAIN, FOR THE CHEAP SEATS IN THE BACK – IT IS NOT THEIR JOB TO SHAPE THESE CHILDREN IN ANY WAY!!!
Children learn human interaction from mimicking parents’ reactions starting from…oh, let’s see here…BIRTH. When parents breeze by, too busy to be bothered to even have a sympathetic word to say when thousands are killed in an act of genocide or a local family is gunned down, is it any wonder these kids can’t be bothered to care about anything but their own petty, immediate concerns? They pass judgment without considering anyone but themselves.
Also, if you ask any psych professor worth their salt, he/she will tell you that adolescence is a completely fabricated phase that grows years in length with every generation. It is unnecessary and completely the creation of the society charged with the rearing of the next crop of malfunctioning creeps. It has no basis in physiological development whatsoever. Our brains are done developing by 21. Is it so much to ask that we start to learn ANYTHING before that? When we delay and delay and delay giving/teaching young adults any responsibility, is it any wonder they can’t handle any until they’re 30?! REALLY?! I mean, really?!
Just look at the mean for getting married and starting a family!!! No, not everyone DOES that route (not everyone starts a family at all and that’s fine), but it’s a good measure of the maturity of the generation! STARTING A FAMILY AT THE AGE WHEN FERTILITY STARTS TO FAIL?!?! Fine for the individual, horrific when it becomes an accepted norm. Seriously, birth defects? I was offended when people berated me for having my daughter at age 23. Should I have waited until 35? Should I have waited for a graduate degree, 10 years or more of paying down student loans, or even longer on a mortgage? At 35, every woman has at least a 1 in 270 risk of having a Downs Syndrome baby. Every woman over 35 – no exceptions. So we’re sheltering/neglecting these kids more and more until that’s the soonest they even consider having a family of their own! Doesn’t that seem a little… ODD? It’s all connected, people!
Stop blaming teachers and start f***ing parenting!!!
as the school year goes on, we want to get better and better. it’s no accident that we’ve been winning and winning. teacher gave us a little time off, but we did this on our own. you’ve got to put the vice grip on people, you can’t back down. you mentioned something earlier, it brought a lot of pressure. just getting the looks and understanding what’s happening, is what we are about.
This rant reminds me of the music teacher in Liverpool in the early 1960s who had George Harrison and Paul McCartney in the same class and never noticed that either one had any talent.
i am loving all of the crybabies whose feelings are hurt by the fact that maybe everyone didn’t love them when they were precious babies full of deep feelings!
really, if you think all responsibility is always on the teacher, if you think that a job title should require the ability to surmount the personalities of every person you work with, you are exactly the kind of lazy, naive, entitled, assclown this person knows the students will grow into.
will it be their teachers’ fault when they vandalize your lawn, your car, or whatever else? or will you blame the parents?
are you all just so immature that you think that everything wrong in your life is your mommy’s fault? if the answer is yes, you are pathetic.
the anonymous poster of this, if it is true, is pathetic. students can easily identify when their teacher hates them/hates teaching. stop bitching and quit your job…i’m sure your students would be much much better off without you in their lives.
“That small group will go on and live a joyful and intellectual life…”
Will that “small group” jointly live the same “life”?
The subject does not agree with the object, dear learned teacher of children.
What’s up with all the “maybe you should change jobs if you can’t handle it?” comments. This is I, Anonymous, and someone that actually gives a shit about their important job is doing some venting.
A-hole!
I had a high school Algebra teacher- I’ll call him Mr. Burnout- who met up with me and my Math mental block and decided I was a real waste of space. At first, I’d stand in line next to his desk, for help with the assignment. He’d help everyone else in line, then when it was my turn, he’d pick up a newspaper and ignore me. I started sitting in the front row and then going to sleep when he started talking.
Once, I was called out of class to pick up my ACT scores. Nobody takes the ACT anymore, but I think the highest possible was 36, and 16 was the required score for most colleges. I had a 24, and that was with a 2% math score averaged in. I came back to class with a print-out, slapped it down on Mr. Burnout’s desk and pointed to the score.
For a long time, he just stared at it, with a look I can’t describe on his face. Then he’d look at me, then back at the paper. He’d seem to be about to talk, then close his mouth again. Finally, he handed it back. As I walked off, I heard him mutter, kind of under his breath- “I made a 19.” Then he sat staring into his coffee cup for the rest of the class.
After class, he offered to stay and show me the lesson, but I had an FBLA meeting. So he offered to come in early the next day. He came in early every day after that for the month or two that was left. I think I made a D.
In retrospect, I sympathize with Mr. Burnout- one of my friends explained Algebra to me for a college course and it was jaw-droppingly simple. But in highschool, it was like learning to speak Martian. I acted like a zombee and was probably impervious to instruction. But still, I like to think that was a little attitude adjustment for Mr. Burnout.
I teach college, which is a totally different ballgame, not only because of the students and their level of maturity or motivation, but because the administration stays out of teachers’ way and lets us work. I like the idea of teaching high school, but will never try it, because I don’t want to end up like I, Anon, and it happens to the best of ’em.
I had a high school Algebra teacher- I’ll call him Mr. Burnout- who met up with me and my Math mental block and decided I was a real waste of space. At first, I’d stand in line next to his desk, for help with the assignment. He’d help everyone else in line, then when it was my turn, he’d pick up a newspaper and ignore me. I started sitting in the front row and then going to sleep when he started lecturing.
Once, I was called out of class to pick up my ACT scores. Nobody takes the ACT anymore, but I think the highest possible was 36, and 16 was the required score for most colleges. I had a 24, and that was with a 2% math score averaged in. I came back to class with a print-out, slapped it down on Mr. Burnout’s desk and pointed to the score.
For a long time, he just stared at it, with a look I can’t describe on his face. Then he’d look at me, then back at the paper. He’d seem to be about to talk, then close his mouth again. Finally, he handed it back. As I walked off, I heard him mutter, kind of under his breath- “I made a 19.” Then he sat staring into his coffee cup for the rest of the class.
After class, he offered to stay and show me the lesson, but I had an FBLA meeting. So he offered to come in early the next day. He came in early every day after that for the month or two that was left. I think I made a D.
In retrospect, I sympathize with Mr. Burnout- one of my friends explained Algebra to me for a college course and it was jaw-droppingly simple. But in highschool, it was like learning to speak Martian. I acted like a zombee and was probably impervious to instruction. But still, I like to think that was a little attitude adjustment for Mr. Burnout.
I teach college, which is a totally different ballgame, not only because of the students and their level of maturity or motivation, but because the administration stays out of teachers’ way and lets us work. I like the idea of teaching high school, but will never try it, because I don’t want to end up like I, Anon, and it happens to the best of ’em.
I used to teach high school. Those of you who used this feedback to belittle teaching and “scold” Anon would not last ten minutes in a high school classroom. Anon, do your best and reach the few you can reach. Maybe a few of the entitled jerks will come around if they see other more motivated students having fun and learning at the same time. I wouldn’t hold my breath, but it could happen.
I had a student once who was in one of the worst classes I ever taught, but she was always bright and motivated. She was pretty bored because she was more focused than the rest of the class, so she always finished before the other kids. I encouraged her to write poems and draw in her journal after she finished her assignments. In addition I suggested a few poets that I thought she would enjoy reading. Because of some strange circumstances in the district I only taught that class for 8 weeks. I recently ran into that student at a restaurant. She started crying when she saw me. She said that my teaching helped inspire her to be the first person in her family to go to college. All I did was encourage her, and it changed her life.
So do what you can for those you can, and hope that next year the fuckwit / potential ratio is a little better.
Slack jawed self entitled teens and bitter, jaded, angry, go-nowhere teachers. Sounds like public high school.
One group could still grow up and better itself.
The other is forever the dregs of society, over educated but under achieved, beholden to and dependent on Unionism in order to remain employed.
Check with the kids in 10 years, once they’ve paid a few bills and lost a few jobs, see how they’re doing. Most will be fine, a few won’t.
The public school teachers? Same bunch of embittered, angry, seething cynical losers that couldn’t hold a job anywhere else.
The only rung lower than they — the school administrators.
I’m grading insipid student papers with vodka in hand. Thank you, Anon, for reminding me I’m not alone! (I’m a college teacher, btw.)
I think everyone should lay off this teacher. I work in a college dining hall, and I can tell you that about 50% of the kids are the most self-absorbed, rude little assholes you’d ever want to meet. I could tell you some horror stories about the way they treat us lowly dining-hall workers. All I can say is if I’d have pulled crap like that in front of my parents, they’d STILL be kicking my ass. This teacher is venting, leave him/her alone.
Going to public school in the ’60s and 70’s was hell. I was paddled, tied in my chair, not allowed to use to restroom untill I peed myself, bullied by teachers and other students and ignored by those who were supposed to help me. For 11 years I was forced to endure this treatment in school after school from New York to Washington State. The abuse didn’t stop untill I went to a private school where the teachers and fellow students were decent human beings. To this day I have an irrational distrust of educators. This just confirms my worst fears. No way will I ever vote yes for the public schools. I resent every penny the state charges me for this bullcrap, knowing as I do that it funds apathy and abuse
I was one of those apathetic losers in high school in the late 70s. The only things I cared about was getting stoned, going to rock concerts and scoring with the chicks. My girlfriend’s dad said I would never amount to anything and forbid me from seeing her. I spent my sophomore year in three different high schools before dropping out.
A few years later, however, I got my GED and had a successful career in the entertainment industry for 15 years, attending community college off and on. In my late twenties I went to night school full time while working full-time during the day, learning a new career in IT which I’ve been doing ever since. I’ve never really quit going to school, or learning new things. I read one or two books every month. It is one of my favorite things in life. I have also run into several old friends from school who are just like me, late bloomers.
I don’t really blame the teachers in the Edmonds School District of the late 70s for failing to reach me back then. I was pretty unreachable. I DO place some blame on the idiot parents of Snohomish County who failed the school levies year after year, reducing the high school experience to a miserable, soul-sucking, bare-bones existence. I was not allowed to leave school campus early to go to a job. Instead I was forced to sit through three study halls in the cafeteria, since my electives were all filled up, other than band.
Thank god for band. It was the one thing I was good at back then. And my band teacher, Margaret Dezell, is probably one of the greatest teachers of her time. She didn’t take any crap from her students at all and ruled the band room with an iron fist. And yet, she inspired so much respect from her students, because we knew that she was the real deal. She actually cared. We did not want to fail her, and as a result, she instilled in us a desire to be better, to try harder, and to never stop developing as a person. It just took me a while, that’s all. The seed was planted. That is exactly what a teacher’s job is, to plant seeds. And unfortunately, they rarely see the end results. I believe that’s where the cynicism comes from. So, take some time and visit your old teachers now and then. They need to see that their efforts weren’t wasted after all.
@25 You sound bitter and hateful. Just because you drive a beat up old Datsun while the children of wealthy, successful people roll a BMW 135i. Newsflash: kids grow up, go to college, and become successful in spite of the worn down old hippies in the high school teacher’s lounge. Oh, and if you think that as a high school teacher you’re in some great service to academia, wake the fuck up. You want to be an academic? Go to the university. Now shut the fuck up and teach or quit stealing my tax dollars and go dig ditches.”
I thought this teacher was unduly bitter and cynical, then I read your post and thought, “Oh”.
@ 17
What. The. F*ck.
“teenagers are ignorant brats”? Really? God, I’m glad YOU aren’t a teacher. It’s called ageism people. Please, don’t be such a hypocrite. Because of a few *ssholes in the generation, you blame all of us? I agree that we’re not saints, in fact, a lot of us are annoying gits. But when you generalize us, it only helps to make us feel bitter. It’s discrimination, just you think it’s justified because you’re a few years older, which of course, means you MUST be superior.
Forgetting the abundance of ignorant brats that exist in all generations? A great example off the pot calling the kettle black.
At the writer of this I, Anonymous:
The exact same, adding on that maybe the reason some of the teenagers in that class despise you is because you treat them like crap.
But, I admit that probably, there are some real f*ckwits there.
Well thank fuck this bitter twat is finished “teaching.” The taxpayers don’t want to continue to fund the salary, GREAT dental, vision, medical and retirement plans (plus a 180 day/year work schedule!) of a teacher who’d make the comment, “the vast majority of you useless fuckwits will waste your life and follow in the footsteps of your equally pathetic parents” Seriously, I’ve met less bitter jail janitors. I’ve encountered lazy, stupid teachers like this, unfortunately. My son, who aced the SAT and got in to his top college choice, had a math teacher who was on IM through each class, giving the kids packets and telling them to teach each other. She should have been jailed for theft taking a salary for the crap she produced. If this ass thinks her students are dumb, I have a novel idea: teach! Idiot.