a small rant

You shoulda been more “pacific!”
Really? How Pacific do you want me to be, cause I prefer to be Atlantic…”

*instead of saying specific…they didn’t understand the sarcasm…

Today I am kinda worried and pissed off at some of my middle school students. Their ignorance and rudeness can really cut through the heart some days. For some of these children their really is no hope and or others they will get more than they can imagine, but they have to make it through their preteen and teen years…

A lesson in “old school”

Topic of discussion: Courtious. Who, what, when, etc…

Me to class: “Can you name some people who are courteous?”
Class: “Eminem”
Me: “really eminem is courteous? What has he done to make you say that—you have to explain it to me…
Class: “well he can be sometimes…”
Me: “Who would you say is not courteous then?”
Class: “Rhianna”
Me: “So, Rhinanna is not courteous, but Eminem is?”
Class: “maybe…”
Me: “What about Martin Luther King Jr.?”
Class: YEAH! Defiantly”
Me: “How about Gandhi or Mother Teresa?”
Class: “who’s they?” “Oh ya, Gandhi..but who’s Mother Teresa? …She old school or something?

Lesson 2 “Who Cares”

Topic of Discussion: Personal Responsibility

Me to class: “Anne Frank…who can tell me about her?”
Boy 1: “isn’t she that girl…lived in a house?”
Rest of Class: *look of puzzlement… familiar name-ish, but really no clue”

So I talk about Anne Frank…the following day…the same conversation…

Final Lesson: “AIDS”

As was WORLD AIDS DAY and I support the idea that with more resources by 2015 the spread of AIDS could be completely controlled and possibly eliminated. According to the International organization for the awareness and prevention of AIDS over 33 million people have HIV/AIDS and almost 3 million of those are children under the age of 15.

At the mention of /reading of the word “AIDS” the kids FREAK OUT!!!

“I don’t wanna be talkin’ bout no AIDS”
“Can’t you get that by touchin people”
“Your supposed to be my math teacher today…what’s AIDS gotta do with math?”
“AIDS is nasty…you nasty talking bout it!”
“Ha! What a flame: (“new” slang term I learned basically to put a person down) I can tell people “you got AIDS” GREAT idea”

Which leads me to the final part of my rant today (outside of the grammar rant I will add later) That I am so tired of hearing the “FLAME FEST” that goes one between students (supposedly playful banter that is derogatory)

“Your chin; your face; your lips; you fat; that’s gay/you gay; your daddy; your momma; and my favorite: you ugly (simple and to the point)

What really gets my goat is that they get angry when someone says something about them, but it is always “just a joke” when they say something about another person. I have broken up fights for a person beating another at hangman and one for saying that they are too stupid to put together a certain puzzle. I have also consoled three people today who ended up bawling over the superficial comments made by a peer and written up three who solved the problem of “verbal banter” with fists.

I am so worried and frustrated that you can only do so much for and with the kids to try to combat these issues. They are living by negative examples with a mentality of “everyone is against me and I am what the universe meant by amazing”…