Sometimes what happens in the classroom is worth sharing.

I was attempting to introduce the idea of British colonialism, in preparation for reading a story based in India during the colonial period. The students were clearly not aware of the concept of colonialism, so I started using some examples. I thought I'd start with an easy one - I asked them what happened to England's colonies in North America.

"They did fine?" "They got disease and died?" "They made money?

I stressed again. England's colonies in North America.

"They went to India (In this genius's defense, the word India was written on the board)." "They all died." (etc)

New tactic. "Who where the first colonies in America?"

"Pilgrims!" Close enough.

"What became of the pilgrims?"

"They all died off?"

Now I'm flipping out. "What happened to their colonies through history?"

"They got diseases?"

Dear god! My 9th grade students don't know anything about American history! They looked surprised when I summarized the history of the American colonies.


Just to add weight, the same class tried to convince me that they don't have any rights, especially a right to free speech (SCOTUS ruled that students retain a right to free speech on campus with limits, primarily as long as it does not disrupt education). We argued, and I tried to get them to look into their rights.

"You can go to jail for saying the f-word to a cop."

"No you can't."

"Oh, I should have told that cop to f-off then!"

So I tried to make the point that if they don't know their rights, then their rights can be taken away. The response?

"We don't have any rights to take away."

My head hits the desk. "You should look up your rights. I know all of my rights, no one can take them away."

"That's because you're old and just sit around studying them."

The moral? Prepare well for retirement, this is the generation close behind us. I knew about the damn Pilgrims in elementary school.

I bet they know who won every season of American Idol though!

Hey... the minimum wage jobs have to be filled by somebody. Seems like there's a lot more of these particular somebodies in the generation of teen / tweens these days though.

"You can go to jail for saying the f-word to a cop."

"No you can't."

"Oh, I should have told that cop to f-off then!"
In student #1's defense (sort of):
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/firstamendment/2007/11/profanity-and-t.html

Note that the question is not whether it is _right_ for swearing to result in jail time for disorderly conduct, but whether it is _possible_. And clearly it is possible to be arrested for it (though I have no idea under what circumstances it might result in jail time).

I was pretty sure minors didn't have Constitutional Rights till they were emancipated.....guess I was wrong.

Could be , Kanyli, they were yankin your chain, because you are the teacher that 'blows a fuse' when students 'act dumb'.... ;)

Minors have constitutional rights, however they are abridged in numerous cases (schools are horrible about this), or deferred to their parents/guardians in many others (it is, for example, entirely legal for a minor to consume alcohol, there are just a huge lists of exceptions). The deck may be stacked against them in many scenarios -- that is however the canonical example of what happens when people don't have representation.

I wish they were yanking my chain!

The attitude behind not knowing the rights was the bigger issue, more than whether or not they have them in school. Two more gems:

As we're watching the movie of The Odyssey, a girl asked if the movie was made before or after the book was written. You know, the book by Homer, the very dead Greek poet. The class broke into an argument trying to figure out the answer.

A student dropped a picture of Malcolm X on the floor, and someone remarked on who it was. In a class of about 50% African American students, a blond white girl shouts out, "Who's Malcolm X?" As the offended parties tried to 'educate' her, she and her corner of white friends came back with, "Who cares?" To keep other students from killing her, I calmed them down and asked if one student could tell us about Malcolm X. I called on one student, and the best he could come up with was, "He was a Black Panther." Really? No kidding? You just picked a fight, and that's what you think you know about Malcolm X?

I have some great students, but then moments like this. I was dumbfounded after the colonies conversation yesterday. I figured it was worth sharing somewhere. Don't elementary students learn about Thanksgiving and Pilgrims every November? How does a person not know about the American colonies past the age of 6?

How does a person not know about the American colonies past the age of 6?

Because American Idol/Dancing With the Stars/Survivor are all far sexier than a bunch of Protestant Separatists trying to live in the wild.

A student dropped a picture of Malcolm X on the floor, and someone remarked on who it was. In a class of about 50% African American students, a blond white girl shouts out, "Who's Malcolm X?" As the offended parties tried to 'educate' her, she and her corner of white friends came back with, "Who cares?"

Hmm, I'm tempted to say that you missed a golden opportunity here. Not insofar as finding out what was known about Malcom X, but to demonstrate to her how he was important to HER. I'm not sure why the African American students were offended, however. Why should they be angry at her stupidity?

I say stupidity rather than ignorance. Ignorance means you were never afforded the opportunity to learn something. Stupidity is being offered the opportunity, and turning it down.

Because American Idol/Dancing With the Stars/Survivor are all far sexier than a bunch of Protestant Separatists trying to live in the wild.

Wrong. Education begins and ends in the home, with parenting.

What do you think they are watching at home? National Geographic?

Who is letting them watch American Idol?

I think you two are arguing the same point. While schools can be to blame, its largely the fault of parents. I think many parents today are under the impression that they can just throw their kids into the public school system, make sure they go each day and in 12 years have a well educated young adult. They don't push their kids to do their homework or check up on how they are doing or developing, instead allowing them to sit around all day watching their favorite shows. Read this (http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html), especially section II under Television Statistics.

If that is what Sixee is saying then yes, we're arguing the same point.

Those are sobering statistics. :(

That's exactly what I'm saying. Parents have to follow up at home, and limit/regulate what enters their kids' heads VIA the boob tube.

But teachers also have to make what they learn, interesting and relevant to them.

There are two sides to that equasion.

George Carlin said it best...

"Kids are like any other group of people. A few winners and a WHOLE lotta losers. The sooner you realize this the better off you'll be."

And this is exactly why as a Freshman in college I realized teaching was not what I wanted to do. I had to observe/shadow for (x) number of days an elementary class, a middle school class, and a high school class. It made me switch majors, there is no freaking way I could deal with that kind of blatant ignorance I'd want to punch the parents in the face daily.

Now you just want to punch users in the fase daily, eh Fild? :P

haha hardly, that is why we have an Account Provisioning group. I have zero user contact and work via our help desk/desktop/application support folks. I am the chick behind the curtain :p

Ahh, my dream job. No user contact, and technology as far as the eye can see....

Incidentally, if the average user's intelligence/attitude are any indication of how good/bad of parents they can be, it's no wonder the children of today have little or no chance.....

I miss George Carlin...

I had to opt out of Special Education, which was an area I once thought I wanted to teach. After volunteering in a classroom for a couple of months, I realized that I would punch a parent at some point. Special Ed teachers should qualify for sainthood.

My Mother was a special ed teacher. She was so good at mainstreaming her students that she ended up having to switch schools. She had lost four fingers of her right hand in an accident with a meat grinder while working as a waitress going to college. Her method of getting her kids to stop feeling sorry for themselves was to take off her prosthetic hand and throw it across the classroom saying if she could figure out how to write left handed, they could blah, blah, blah.....
The teachers liked getting her kids after she'd gotten them into shape because while not the brightest bunch (obviously), they never had motivation issues after working with her.

...Of course, none of the other students wanted to get worse grades than the mainstreamed "'tard" in their class, so these kids helped reduce the intentional stupidity in the classes they were in as well.

I wonder if she had to switch schools because she ran out of Special Ed students, or because the school administration got upset that she lost them the Federal funding for those classes by mainstreaming the students?

A big part of the problem, as has been mentioned, is the parents, especially when you run into great parents like these:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7658135.stm

Think this kid has had much of a chance of having been read to, or had his schoolwork supported at home, even if he was both bright and motivated? Instead he's being used to drive his waste-of-DNA parents around while they trash what few functioning neurons *they* have left...

The T-shirt on the 'dad' (and I use the term loosely) is classic ;).

Regards,
Nydia

Regar