I've only been teaching for 3 weeks, and I've observed something about the kids today--they have no manners and they somehow feel entitled to everything. Really? What have you done in your life to deserve anything? I blame it on TV and the feminist movement.
I guess being disrespectful comes with the territory. Or teenagers aren't being shown respect at home, and so they don't know how to give it? Maybe? Well newsflash, "Teens, your brains are underdeveloped and you haven't matured beyond a teaspoon." It's like The Hungry Caterpillar. Adolescents are in the eating phase (literally and figuratively), not even in the cocoon yet. I think the cocoon comes during college, and then sometime between their 2nd and 3rd year of college they emerge as a butterfly. Even then, they still don't have things figured out, I know I don't, and I've been graduated for almost 4 years now. But, being a teacher in-and-of-itself deserves respect. Being an adult deserves respect. Being human deserves respect. But teenagers need to check themselves before they get any, they deserve it for being human, not because they actually accomplished anything. To me, just being kind and not obnoxious deserves respect because that's hard to do as a teenager, appearance means a lot to these kids and being a suck-up takes away their street-cred.
So here's what's been on my mind this weekend: an episode of Eureka and Bones, and some random kid banging on the piano.
In season 2 episode 4 Jack Carter's daughter Zoe is supposed to go live with her mom, but she doesn't want to and she exclaims "Don't I get a say in this?" Well, I've never been married and I don't have kids, but I don't think this is a decision that the parents made before the divorce, that Jack would get her for a year and his wife would get her for a year. Kids really don't know what is best for them, and adults don't really know either, but they do have more life experience. Being divorced obviously makes things more difficult, but they are trying to be amicable--that should count for something. I just don't think teens can think straight, they're too emotional, hormonal, and dramatic--ok so that was redundant, but it's clear, "it's a barbarity that clarity is a rarity." Why are teens portrayed as being smarter than adults, because it's just not true. I think it's because teens don't actually portray teens on TV or in the movies. They're usually 20something, only on the Disney Channel and Bella on Twilight (but that was cutting it close).
In an episode of Bones there was a little girl in a beauty pageant. Now those things are just messed up. The parents, kids, and judges. Yeah I want my future daughter be confident, to have good posture, speaking skills, and all the things that is expected of pageants, but I don't want my daughter to be mean, and a brat. Bones was a little disturbed by pageants, parents, and little girls dressing older than they should. Shouldn't that be a sign to anyone? Kids need to be kids.
The other day, I was playing beautiful music on the piano and some obnoxious kid banged on the bass keys really loud. It scared the bageegees out of me. I just looked at him, and had to pretend to not care, but I was boiling up inside. That is just rude. Didn't your mother teach you not to bang on the piano while someone else is playing it. Bang all you want when no one else is creating pleasant sounds. I wanted to tell him off, but he's not my kid, and if the mom was there she probably would have yelled at me. Why didn't she yell at him for doing something so ugly and bratty. You should have seen the look on his face when I stopped to see who he was. It was mischievous. Really? You think that's cute? Well right now you look like. . . . like some bad kid from the scriptures. . . . Laman! (Ok so that was the meanest thing I could say about someone else's child.)
So, I guess you're wondering what the feminist movement has to do with this. Well it's simple. There isn't a parent at home to teach kids the value of being a child. To be kind. To respect adults. And to tell them to turn the TV off, and read a book instead, like The Hungry Caterpillar.
Hopefully, I will have my students whipped into submission by Christmas, and then I get to start over again after Christmas break! The joys of being a teacher!
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