Bad Teacher

So if you didn't know this past weekend, I drove with my friend to Houston where she and her husband are moving.  I am super sad that I lost one of my besties in Tucson, but happy for them in their pursuit of better job opportunities.  I am happy that they moved to a big city that is easy to get to by plane so now I have a bestie in TX.

After driving around their new city for two days it was time to say goodbye, but before they took me to the airport we went to see a movie.  Bad Teacher.  Okay so not the most award winning of all films, and most of the themes of this movie remind of what is wrong with America, but still funny in the incredibly sad really this is what our culture has come too kind of way.  The one thing this movie did rekindle in me, the love of teaching.  If America's youth are subjected to what this movie portrayed in any way, maybe it is time for a career change.

I sometimes feel that America's teens are only interested in smart phones, texting, and whatever new thing the media says is cool and up-incoming.  But I don't necessarily think that is different from what I grew up with, I just think the media has new ways of getting to these youth.  Lets face it, when I was in high school, you were cool if you had a pager and spent hours downloading and ciphering the messages, you know the first texts.

I think school has become some thing that teens must get through in order to have a life they feel promised by the media, like as soon as you turn 18 you are magically handed a million dollars, fast car, and a cool significant other.  Then college hits and the rude awakening happens, that you should have learned to study in high school, grades matter, and just because you are cute doesn't mean you don't get to ask "Do you want fries with that?"

From the limited exposure to teens that I have, I know of some that can't tell time unless it is a digital watch, some don't know all the months in a calendar year, let alone how to spell them correctly, and they have no concept of what a literary work is.  I find that this is wrong, I find that many of our youth's education systems are failing them. Lets put on hold the whole obesity issue and the lack of gym and extra cirriculars, what happened to learning grammar, reading novels, and learning math?  How many students can actually do percentages without a calculator?  I know many adults my own age that can't seem to grasp this so how can we except our youth to do this?  Now, I sometimes transpose numbers, especially if I am doing big sums or multiplication in my head...there is no shame in writing it down to prove it to yourself, but when you can't tell me that 10% of 20 is 2, something is wrong.

Note I have never taught in the public school system. My limited exposure to teaching was at the collegiate level while I was making my way as a lowly graduate student, but what I saw there gave me a glimpse at the high school's these newly adults haled.  I found that many of them couldn't write a complete sentence, had no idea what a comma splice or a comma was, and couldn't come up with synonyms to save their lives.  I am not the best writer, and unless I use a dictionary or spell check, my words may not be spelled correctly, but I do proof read and ask others to as well, because I don't want to churn out garbage that will reflect poorly on me.  This, however, was not taught to the students that I had, because frankly they didn't think anything was wrong with their writing.  I had a student write in their discussion section of the first lab report "This was a really neat experiment that I have never done before."  This was after I explained the purpose of this section.  This was not the worst one.

I find it odd that people aren't saying it is cool to be smart.  Let us think of the wealthiest people in the world, sure many of them were drop outs, but guess what, they worked hard,which is the smart way to go.  That is the kicker, kids these days don't want to to work hard. They think that just because they breathe and made it through a couple hurdles that they deserve these nice salaries, and don't have to put in the time and energy into it.  I know some people in my own generation that have these delusions of grandeur.  You can't expect to start out at the highest paying job, you have to put in your dues just like everyone else.  Because guess what?  You are not special, yes to God and your family and friends you are, in the working world you are just another bee.  You are replaceable; your attitude, how you conduct yourself, and reputation can all get you fired.  And you know what? No one will give you anything for free, and if they say they will, watch out because you don't want that kind of free.

Manners is another thing that went.  I look at people I work with and how they talk to one another and think when did we stop being polite?  When did rudeness become the new norm?  Just because you don't like some one or think they are wrong, doesn't give you the right to forget to say please and thank you.  Don't bark orders and become instantly rude to people because that just makes you look less intelligent and less approachable.  Lets face it intelligence and approachability are retention factors that can help you keep a job.  So by all means let us be rude and lose those qualities.  I remember when I was in school it was always Ms (Mrs.) or Mr. never hey, or just calling them by their last name.  Yeah is never okay when Yes would work better. 

If I were to run a school this is what kids would learn:
Manners, reading, writing, math, science, history, and technology.  Manners to get to you to where you need to be, reading to understand what is excepted, writing to allow you to communicate, math and science so you can evaluate and problem solve, history so you know where you came from and what not to repeat, and technology because that is what our world boils down to. Then we would do gym...because you can't sit all day!  Once you mastered those subjects, then you can add other outlets, because art appreciation and music are wonderful and should be apart of a well rounded individual.

I always questioned why in every science class I took in college we had to write a paper.  Now, I want to thank those professors that assigned that task, because if I hadn't I wouldn't know how to write a technical paper nor would I know how to construct a memo for the office.

And now I will get off my soap box! (At least for today)!