It's just so frustrating sometimes.

[Catshrink]

I'm trying to hold students accountable. The rule is supposed to be that if students aren't "eligible," meaning passing, they aren't allowed to go on field trips, participate in sports, etc. My administration, that has always been awesome, is about to overrule me. The activity in question is "co-curricular" so the kids' grade will be affected if they don't do this activity. They are failing my class because of attendance issues and lack of effort. So, their grade in my class will also be affected by them going.

"But it means so much to them." Bull-fucking-shit. If it meant something to them, they wouldn't have been ditching my class and would have been working, not goofing off. Where is the accountability?

Please understand that I have a great deal of compassion for kids who struggle but come in for help, do the work, but for whom it just doesn't "click." But I have little compassion for kids who ditch, don't care, don't do their work, copy other kids' homework, and blank on tests because they haven't prepared. These are HS juniors who should know the consequences of lack of preparation.

And this is my fault how? I don't get it. It's enabling them to avoid responsibility for their behavior. The other teacher is all "can they do extra credit?" to which I respond that they have had the opportunity to do their work throughout the quarter and have chosen not to. I believe in the story of the tortoise and the hare.

Rant off. Thanks for letting me vent.

[Chemisse]

1. I know exactly how you feel

I teach mostly juniors too.

There really is not enough accountability for kids in high school. We want to do all we can to help them, but adults need to recognize that helping too much just teaches them that they can do as they wish and someone will always rescue them from their plights.

Unfortunately, life beyond high school doesn't offer so many 'do-overs,' colleges are willing to flunk them, and employers will laugh at their excuses while booting them out the door.

We do them no favors by letting them think otherwise.

[Catshrink]

3. And those of us who try to teach accountability are shot down.

WTF? Why do we bother?

[Chemisse]

7. I've learned to back down on these issues with the administration

It's not worth the political price. They are usually under pressure from the parents, who also voice their gripes to the school board, etc.

It's also not worth the huge amount of stress it creates. I voice my concerns when I think it will make a difference, then shut the door and just focus on doing the best I can as a teacher.

On a happier note, the senior boy who recently was voted 'teacher's nightmare' for his class, brought me a bouquet of dandelions today. The tougher it is to get through to them, the more satisfying it can be when it happens.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. My kids have nowhere to go but up

I used to teach self contained sped. The kids I had were 4th and 5th grade non readers. I used to tell them they couldn't get any worse at reading. They had no choice but to get better. And it was indeed very satisfying when they showed any progress.

[radical noodle]

2. Is it the parents who are really complaining?

Administrators often don't want to take the heat.

[Catshrink]

4. Yes, the mom is complaining

but the real problem is the other teacher. She's notorious for this kind of crap. Word will get out...my union rep isn't happy about this and will be tearing someone a new one in ways I can't.

[protest_dude]

5. They aren't supposed to learn... duh!

They aren't supposed to learn content. Their just supposed to vomit back at you what they want to hear, and learn to grow to be good employees.

Schools in the U.S. are, to quote Noam Chomsky "a system of enforced ignorance."

[Catshrink]

6. Apparently not.

I teach a core class, this field trip thing is for an elective. I so want to tell the other teacher to, well, you know. She pulls this all the time and many of us are fed up.

[Demeter]

8. Junior Year Is Way Too Late to Teach Self-Dicipline and Responsibility

The window of opportunity is closed at that point.

I really feel for you, but you are not the solution for this kid, who doesn't even see the problem.

His mom, however, is going to have her hands full for the next 10-20 years, either doing remedial responsibility training, or being a personal body servant to this kid, barring any lightning striking ala Saul of Tarsus.

If I were in your situation, I would look for a "hook", something that would rope in the militantly not-going-to-learn student and build upon whatever scrap of success or progress you can legitimately recognize.

I'm speaking as the mother of an adult autistc daughter. You would not believe how far back one has to start with such a person, in order to make progress. Things that neurotypical people can pick up by observation she cannot learn without dropping at least three steps back and being guided through, hand-carried for longer than you can stand. And yet, she does progress. And we are both getting better at making progress.

The student-teacher chemistry is wrong, and that's not your fault. No teacher can be all things to all students. and "modern" education is such an unnatural way to learn, and getting moreso with every "improvement".

The field trip may be the thing that reaches and teaches the kid. See if that doesn't stimulate the juices of compassion.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. I can so relate

It's SOOO frustrating when you have a kid who just doesn't put forth any effort. It's hard with elementary kids; I can't even imagine how awful this must be with HS juniors.

[Hannah Bell]

11. if you were a good teacher, you'd be like annie sullivan, making the blind see, the deaf hear, the

mute speak and the unmotivated motivated, doncha know?

if you're not the miracle worker, it's a fail!

teachers, unlike the rest of the workforce, must all be above average.

[Catshrink]

12. No kidding.

I've shared this with a couple of my teacher-colleague-friends at school and they are outraged. I'll see what happens with this and talk to my union rep. Or I could just keep my big mouth shut and watch the kid fail. Hey, why not? If the mom doesn't care, the kid doesn't care, and the admins don't care, why should I? Oh right, I'm the one whose job will be on the line.

[mzteris]

15. Now, Now, Cat -

I know why you "should care" - because you DO!

And it 'ain't about the job neither!' is my guess. . .

[Catshrink]

13. Update:

The admins are holding the student(s) accountable. It turns out that there is more than one student ineligible and most of them are failing more than one class. The failing grades didn't happen overnight but were a result of lack of effort leading to poor performance by the students. All of them are capable of passing all of their classes but they seem to have other priorities.

That said, this tough love stuff is hard. Consequences and accountability are very hard to learn at 16 years old - kids should have a sense of that much earlier in life.

I feel badly for the other teacher, in a way. She can be very unpleasant but she works hard and does a tremendous job at coordinating many different aspects of her curriculum. The kids let her down -- of course she sees it as me letting her down but, as I said, she can be unpleasant. She needs to monitor them more closely and not expect other teachers to redesign their curricula or bend rules or make exceptions or offer students extra credit when they fall short. I get less grief from athletic coaches mainly because of their monitoring of grades and clear expectations of their kids.

It will be a hard few days ahead.

[mzteris]

14. my daughter was the only one

who didn't get to go on the "class trip" to Washington, DC.

She didn't turn in her homework that 9 weeks. She had been warned that this was what would happen if she persisted in not "turning in her work". The teacher called me in to conference with the Principal because she thought I was been "too harsh".

"It's the highlight of elementary school! YOu shouldn't punish her like that!"

She - my daughter - KNEW the consequences of her continued failure to turn in her work. I had the principal call her in to the office and had her state that yes, she knew, and yes - she was sorry, but she just had a hard time remembering to either A) do it, or B) finish it, or C) FIND it, of D) remember to bring it.* I had the Principal call my daughter's dad and conference him in on the "decision" (we were divorced and he was living in another state) - he backed me a 100%.

So she wound up being the ONLY 5th grader to sit at the school while her friends went to DC. They wanted me to just "keep her home", but I said no - that would be too much like a holiday. I wanted her accountable.



* Of course in later years after doing a lot of research about kids like her, I realized that some of it were "difference" issues that should have been being addressed, but who knew? at the time. Sometimes I feel guilty, but she understood - and understands - that the "punishment fit the crime" so-to-speak.


Though I often wonder if that had anything to do with why she went to college in DC and still lives there even now! lol


However, I will say that "extra credit" can be an effective tool to help kids who may have had a rough spot beyond their control, or to regain ground loss to a temporary set-back. But "extra credit" should mean "EXTRA WORK" as in - it's MORE work than it would have been had you done the work in the first place and the bar is gonna be higher, to boot.