Thursday, September 10, 2009

Anyone else frustrated??

Well this post is going to allow me to release some frustration. Its been awhile since I posted on my blog and this topic I've dealt with numerous times, but I had a couple of new instances recently...

As I new mom, I am learning how to be a good parent and wait for the challenge of parenting Caylan when she gets older. But as a teacher I see children from a different angle. I just hope I remain steadfast to my conviction in regards to dealing with my child's decisions and behavior.

When did it become okay to make excuses for children and their behavior? Now, I was raised in a conservative home and learned from the school of hard knocks. I learned that you make a decision, there is always a consequence. That has and will never change. But now I noticed people (and as a teacher especially noticed parents) making excuses for their own or other people's behavior. Everyone wants have accommodations made for themselves or their child and don't feel their kids are subject to certain rules or standards...when did this become the norm????!!!

For example, I had a student question why he received a certain grade on an assignment in my class. When I explained that you did not follow the criteria that I gave you in written form, explained to you verbally, and had another teacher explain to you so your grade suffers because of your choice not to follow my guidelines. His answer is that's not fair!! And to make matters worse, his parent agreed with him and emailed an excuse as to why it was not fair his child received a lower grade.

When has it become okay that everyone gets what they want and don't have to follow any rules or guidelines from others???? When has it become okay to "pass the buck" and blame others for our misfortune based on a decision YOU made??? I don't know maybe I'm too old school, but to me decisions and choices we make are black and white. You either do something or you don't....you follow directions or you don't....you complete something or its not complete...but we have allowed so many shades of gray to penetrate our thinking when it comes to rules, guidelines and regulations. We've allow excuses replace responsibility.....

As a teacher if I can't hold a kid accountable to a certain reasonable standards, require him/her to follow certain rules or guidelines, and meet certain expectations what exactly am I supposed to you????? Yes, I know that I teach a content area and should increase each student's knowledge basis in health, but they should also learn life lessons....if they don't learn them from me in a relatively nurturing way, unfortunately they will learn it the hard way when they reach the real world....unfortunately by that time they might have made a really bad choice and the consequence causes a huge misfortune in their life and mommy or daddy won't be able to "bail" them out of it......

Sorry to ramble, but this topic really gets me amped!!! :)

1 comments:

Anita said...

I agree with all of what you've said. Hopefully, you will be able to stick with the decisions that you have to make and that your principal will back you up if necessary. Maybe the family will learn that they can't push people around, and that the kid will learn to be responsible.
But, on the other hand, I have a friend that has given many a teacher a hard time, and some of the teachers had gotten so tired of the demanding parent, that he or she would just pass the child through the system so as not to have to deal with the family and so that the focus would remain on the other kids that want to learn.
Hope good things will happen to compensate for the nonsense.
Blessings.

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