Sense and Sensibility
Today I was in Scotts Valley, CA (10 min from Santa Cruz) for two shows. The first was at the local high school. All went great until the show. The kids were the most unruly and disrepectful ones I have ever put on a show for. The topic of our high school show this year is on pressure. We talk about three topics of pressure that teens are faced with today. Pressure from the media, friends and yourself. It contains scenes with drugs and alcohol and sex, so the material is PG-13.
Even before the show the principal could not get the kids to stop talking. He said he would not continue until they had stopped, but they did not, so he tried to talk over them. Then the show began...
The kids would not only not stop the constant noise amongst themselves, they laughed and clapped loudly when any scenes with the aforementioned items of topic were on screen. I was very frustrated and near upset. After the show the principal asked me what kind of response I usually get from students. I told him honestly that this was the worst group I had ever seen. Then a teacher came up and advised the content was not appropriate because they had all "had a beer" and many have had sex. He said we needed to have some heavier content. I did not know that drug use and sex was a "light" subject, but maybe I am more out of touch than I thought. They were even making light of a story where a teenage girl dies from an overdose of cocaine. I know that the teen and college years have historically been all about "sex, drugs and rock-n-roll", but that is usually reserved for the lunch table/locker room talk, and the parties on the weekend. Most teens I have come in contact with at least has the decency to act civilized for a 40 minute program. What was more frustrating was the teachers did NOTHING to keep the noise down!
Teaching is a noble profession that requires you to be able to juggle several titles, but the most important is to be an example. While they cannot make the students make good choices, they should be able to facilitate a place where they can discern between good choices and bad choices. Of course, even more important is the things they are taught at home. When parents or guardians are not responsible enough to help their teens make good decisions, they are doomed to not only make wrong ones, but will be unable to learn something positive from those choices.
posted by lance @ 7:38 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Man Lance, I sympathize. I've been there. I hate assemblies because of that kind of disprespect. Sounds like several things were at play there.
1.) Weak administrators who didn't provide any true sense of consequence.
2.) Students who haven't learned from their parents what respect is all about.
As a teacher it's hard for me to blame other teachers because teachers usually won't act if they know they will not receive any backing from the principal. We can serve as an example...but when your outnumbered 100 to 1 it's hard to be effective. Teachers shouldn't be placed in such situations. Teachers are meant to educate in a classroom...not serve as crowd control. But even so, teachers will act effectively if they know they will get backing from above. If they know they won't...then it's a hopeless cause anyway.
That principal should have never allowed that assembly to go on if he couldn't quiet the kids down to begin with. And in some schools...the best policy may be to present such information in smaller settings...as in a classroom. Some student bodies can't handle assemblies. We've gotten KHS trained fairly well...but we've got a strong administration which encourages and supports the teachers in such situations.
Sorry you had a rough time. Unfortunately it's not a unique situation. Sounds like you had some lousy teachers there as well. I've been there and have been driven to extreme frustration in those kinds of scenarios. But keep on keepin' on. Ezekiel says to preach even when they won't listen.
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