Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog

I'm going to break my lurker status and, as a teacher, say something.

It makes me want to throw up when someone tells me that it's my job to just deal with this pomegranate. I get cussed out, yelled at, fought with, and ignored... And I'm supposed to just be okay with it? Let's look at another job that's much simpler... Say, retail. You get paid to be there. Is it your job (and an acceptable part, nonetheless) for you to tolerate rude and unappreciating customers, especially when you go out of your way to help them? No, it isn't. We do it anyway. Do we like it? No, we don't. Do people complain about it? Yes, they do. I can't count how many blogs there are where people are crying about what a crap day they've had while working at some place like JCPenney or Sears or Kohl's... So what makes it different for a teacher?

Because we're supposed to "set an example" that you have to tolerate so much crap from kids who are unappreciative of the time you're spending every day to help them? That we should smile through all the terrible comments and abuse? That we should be HAPPY that they don't care enough to learn?

Oh, right... We should, because it's "our job." No where in my job description does it say "tolerate being treated like garbage" or "deal with getting cussed out, just keep a smile on your face while it's happening." I'm sorry, but that's the degrading and disrespectful. Teachers are humans; we have feelings, and we can only put up with so much. We have lives outside of work, which also come with the possibility of having stressful times (family issues, divorces, sickness, car accidents, legal issues, marriages, and so on). So when I see people, especially like one of the comments that was posted here from one of her ex-students, it makes me want to punch them in the face.

Here's another thing. My job description DOES NOT say "provide motivation to your students." Guess why! Because I can't. I'm not full of motivation. I can PROVIDE the environment for education, but I cannot provide that motivation to acquire it. It's your duty to yourself, not mine. If you're not motivated to try, I am not going to go out of my way when other students are showing me they are. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to TRY to help make things better for you, but it does mean that you have to give feedback and actually make an attempt. Providing motivation != to providing an educational environment.

For me, I also run a tutoring class. If you're not understanding something, it is up to you to make the effort to come to me. Guess what! If you ask me for help, I'll help. If I don't know the answer, I find somewhere and LOOK IT UP with my student; we learn together. I'm sick of students who want to be spoonfed everything.

That's MY rant about students, which I have a lot more. Ask Rick, he knows that I hate how unappreciated the brats make me feel.

But I will address one other thing. I also believe that the current school model is WELL OUT OF DATE; it has been for many, many years. There's a good video that illustrates this (see here). We continue allowing bad things to perpetuate, and they don't work; they only continue to split people up, and it makes some of us feel undervalued (example: how do you social science-minded people feel when you're being shoved into maths or "hard" sciences?).

So there are problems with poor educators, too. I had a lot of them growing up, and I still get them in college. I get people who throw a holier-than-thou attitude in my face because they studied this crap for ten years, not realising that things can change or students aren't as stupid as the educators seem to think. The whole system is broken.

But I just had to wall-of-text say... I think this teacher was, in no way, wrong. We all need our place to complain, and we need a place to actually feel like someone is listening to us. Unless I'm calling out specific students BY NAME, I don't see why it even matters if I go posting something like... "One of the boys cussed me out when I asked him to do his work. He walked out of class, told me he didn't give a damn, and punched a wall. He won't make it through flipping burgers, let alone getting a college education." It's not like I walked up and told him he was a moron; I didn't tell anyone else that he, specifically, was a moron... But maybe, for those kids, it's a guilty-conscience thing. You know, when you've done something but you don't want to admit it... And now she's having to pay for it.

ALSO, I saw this comment:


And I call bullshit, because that's what it is.

And that's exactly why I would never become a teacher. Its a job that's overworked, underappreciated and just seems like hell too me. When it gets down to it, teachers who become belligerant are simply teachers who no longer love their job, and simply can't run and get another one.

People have become so naive and lost any type of compassion towards anyone. Teachers say pineapple the kids, knowing they are probably going to fail, Parents blame the teachers because they can't put pity on said kid which gives prejudice.