Incompetent Hand-holders

Disclaimer: I, by no means, wish to convey by the bitterness and frustration of this post that I dislike my chosen profession. I love teaching. I love kids. But God never said I always had to like them.

I ask myself (and my cooperating teacher) every day: "What is wrong with people?" "Why don't my students think they have to do anything?" "Why are there no real consequences, either at home or at school, for refusing to put forth any effort?" Like that gum you stepped in last Tuesday and still can't manage to get off of your shoe, so are the questions of our lives.

My greatest frustration thus far as a teacher has been that my students simply believe that they do not have to do anything. Detention is not a motivator. F's are not motivators. Calling their parents or sending them to the office is a joke because everyone knows neither of these options are going to make any difference anyhow. There are no consequences. Refuse to turn in your work for weeks on end and find yourself failing the class during the last week of the semester? No worries. The principal will force your teachers to allow you to turn in late work for full credit, so you'll pass regardless. Actually show up for school fewer than 50% of the school days required by State Law? No worries. You'll be able to make up all your work when you finally return, and your teachers will catch all the heat when you do poorly on the Benchmark.

I've spent a considerable amount of time pondering this situation in my last 8 weeks or so of student teaching. I'm convinced that it is a generational issue. OK, before you get all "people everywhere and for all time are lazy and stupid" on me, let me clarify. My theory of generational laziness comes from the fact that it isn't just a handful of students I struggle with daily to get them to turn in work. It's a handful of students who I don't have to fight. The overwhelming majority of my students have this attitude, and I would like to take this space to point the finger at the parents. If you spend your entire lives coddling your children and never allowing them to do anything for themselves, they are going to assume that their teachers (and God forbid! their employers) will do the same. This Just IN: They won't. Holding your child's hand through everything, laying out his clothes every morning (until he's 35) and calling/emailing his teachers every time his homework is too hard for you to do for him is not doing him a favor.
So, this is to you parents: Whether your child is an adult, a toddler, or an glimmer of hope in the future, please let go of his bicycle once in a while and give him the chance to fall. He'll thank you for it in the long run, when he learns to get back up on his own. And so will his educators. And his employers. And his future wife.