I noticed it the first few days of school, but I just kind of assumed it was a trend. All my kids, or most of them, have those plastic-y backpacks sold at Walmart and Target for 2nd graders with your favorite cartoon character on them; Spiderman, Tinkerbell, Superman. Why do 16 and 17 year olds carry these around? Is it a fad? A little. But I think a lot of it has to do with the childhood they might have missed. Or the childhood they never left.
Zack came to school on Friday, bless his heart (to use a truly Southern phrase). He spoke to each of my classes for about 20 minutes-about working at Google, using Math in life, and working hard so you get yourself to places like Google, and yes, make money (it wasn't until he talked about how much money he was making and all the free food he gets that they really perked up--no offense babe). During these three 20 min sessions Zack made some astute observations that a few of my fellow teachers had been talking about for a few weeks now:
1) Where is the respect? Even on their best behavior, their mannerisms, the way they speak to adults and even each other lacks all sorts of respect. They slouch in their chairs, they interrupt you when you are talking, and they make fun of each other.
2) They aren't "hard." not like he'd expected. Yes, they are in gangs, yes, some of them have tatoos and are a little scary, 'Sleepy,'as he's asked me to call him, even has grillz (that he pops in and out as he sees the situation dictates), but they aren't all hard. And for the most part, they are just overgrown kids. Immature and unsure of themselves. Big ol' softies. They do have characters on their backpacks, notebooks and the blankets they carry around school to keep warm. They still have that 'everything revolves around me or egocentric' mentality that children in Piaget's pre-operational phase of life (yes, age 2-7) (umm, sorry for the fancy terms, I must have learned something in my really expensive class?) exhibit.
So what? Why am I talking about this? Because I am not dealing with exactly what I thought I would be. My kids are a little different from the kids at Fredrick Douglas. Some of them have lived hard lives, many in fact. Most don't live with two parents, if they live with parents at all. They live with grandma's, sisters, brothers and aunties, siblings are separated or everyone is piled into one house. Most guardians work at least one, if not 2 jobs, it's tough for them to get a ride from school after the buses leave and they don't always get a hot meal for dinner when then come home at night, or any meal at all for that matter. There are definitely a large portion of them that have had to grow up fast. Despite this, they haven't grown up all the way. Maybe they are rebelling against growing up too fast. Maybe no one bought them a Tinkerbell backpack when they were 7 and that's why they need it now.
I am not sure the answer. But I do know their immaturity makes my life rough. Their immaturity means they also don't have accountability (yes, I am bringing it up again). Their immaturity means outbursts in class about bodily functions, my outfits and their grades (while I am teaching a lesson).
Somehow, I not only have to teach Geometry and Algebra 2, I need to teach responsibility, maturity and accountability. Am I up to the task? I hope so.
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