Reality Check

I want to know where I can get a reality check. I think I am doing ok, it's my students.

When did it become normal to disrupt a class (which is telling you that you are being a douchebag) during review for a final - and then insist that you were ONLY stretching. (No, douchebag, you are laying over the desk behind you, touching the person behind you who WAS working.)

When 14 people in a class tell you that you are acting in an immature fashion (ok, they worded it differently) because you and a friend are playing Marco Polo during the same review, grow up.

No, honey, it is NOT acceptable to whisper and giggle during a standardized test - and you need to concern yourself with what you are doing, not with what someone else is doing.

Gee, you got thrown out of an exam because you were loudly messing in your backpack? Sure threatening the teacher when you return endears you to everyone.

My son has recounted some of these stories to his friends at Georgia Tech over the years. Until this year, they assumed I taught low level special ed students. What is considered the normal behavior by too many of my students, my normal (I use that term loosely), average kids in this school is not the norm in schools within a 20 mile radius.

And then I see former students post that some air headed move has cost them a job and sadly, I am not surprised.

I want to change the culture in my little corner of the world - and I am not succeeding.