Teacher Disses High School Students on Blog

[Hotwire]

I'm a teenager and yes, we are unmotivated and lazy. Some teachers just don't know how to motivate us, or even get us interested. Get us interested, have us do an cool, interactive, get-off-your-seats-and-put-down-text-book projects that allow us to actually enjoy what we're learning and we'll watch.

I don't really care that she used expletives and what not. We ***** about our teachers on Facebook and behind her back all the time

While I can see your point, there is some self motivation needed here. Your grades and your education should be sources of motivation. Not every subject can be made fun and exciting to all of the kids. My trigonometry teacher used to play Michael Buffer doing his famous, "LLLLLLLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMMMBLLLLLLLE!!" to pump us up for tests. It didn't work. However, the kids who were determined to get good grades, they motivated themselves.

 

[Harls]

While I can see your point, there is some self motivation needed here. Your grades and your education should be sources of motivation. Not every subject can be made fun and exciting to all of the kids. My trigonometry teacher used to play Michael Buffer doing his famous, "LLLLLLLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMMMBLLLLLLLE!!" to pump us up for tests. It didn't work. However, the kids who were determined to get good grades, they motivated themselves.

I completely agree with you. However, that's just not going to happen in "real life."

Personally, I really enjoy learning. I mean, I don't read textbooks for fun or be a total nerd, but I like knowing things and figuring things out. It doesn't take effort for me. And also, I've always been taught to use manners and common courtesy and to have respect for others, especially those of authority/those who are older than me. So when they're lecturing or teaching, it makes sense for me that the least you can do is listen to them (instead of the many other disrespectful things I see going on at the time). But, learning comes easy to me & my mom once explained to me that it's like me & running; I hate running because it's hard, and I don't want to do it, and I can't do it very well. Same thing for students who have different learning styles or speeds, they just get discouraged.

However, a lot of my friends don't share the same views as I. They either dislike the subjects or the teachers or just plain learning/paying attention in general. There is a HUGE lack of self-motivation that the teachers can't take the blame for.

I don't know how to fix this problem, but I guess it's been going on since the dawn of time itself so it's not likely to go away anytime soon.

 

[Victarion]

If the Blog were anonymous, would the teacher have been found out and subsequently punished?

Just wondering If I should take down some blogs about the superintendent's wife and myself.

 

[CelticPredator]

The reason why most teenagers are unmotivated is, they're all different. Simple as that. They all learn differently then each other. One kid would sit there, head up high, pencil out, taking notes. Another, who doesnt learn by taking notes, would not pay attention, because he's more of a visual learner....and so and and so fourth.

High School's a mash of different developing personalities. Also take in the account that most kids dont give a **** about what their learning, because it doesnt cater to them. My school did do that...kinda, which is cool, you can pick what you want to take....which is a pretty smart idea. But at the same time, you get stuck with a lot of ******** you HAD to take for some credits.

It really does boil down to the teacher. If he/she is nice, fun, and cool, the class will be one enjoy, if she's boring, without any hint of fun, the class is going to be a long one.

 

[Victarion]

I agree with CelticPredator.

 

[WildcatNC]

It's a teacher's job, however, to give students the motivation to learn.

I don't agree with this statement at all in this age level. This assumption is part of the problem IMO.

These are high school kids.


Whether shes a good teacher or not she's right. She's just speaking the truth. Until we admit there is a problem then it can not get fixed.

 

[CelticPredator]

Your post doesnt make any sense...that's EXACTLY what a teacher's job is.....what else are they there for? They cant "force" you to learn....they have to make you want to learn.

 

[WildcatNC]

Your post doesnt make any sense...that's EXACTLY what a teacher's job is.....what else are they there for? They cant "force" you to learn....they have to make you want to learn.

To actually teach maybe?

You shouldn't have to be "made to want to learn" in high school. Thats for grade school imo. Its also the parents job to instill a desire to learn and do well in you, hold you accountable, etc. not the school system.

They are there primarily to teach, not coddle and cajole you to learn stuff you have no interest in. If you don't give a crap, then barely get by, get your diploma, and get a job with your name on your shirt.

I'm not saying I don't commend teachers for giving students a desire to learn and going outside the bounds of just "teaching". Thats certainly a commendable quality.

Its not their job though. Their job is to teach you the information you are there to learn. I think what you are talking about is the PARENTS job. The fact that so much of the parents responsibility is considered to be the teachers responsibility now is what I was getting at.

 

[Kal-El.9859]

somebody needs their job back

 

[SuperFerret]

While I can see your point, there is some self motivation needed here. Your grades and your education should be sources of motivation. Not every subject can be made fun and exciting to all of the kids. My trigonometry teacher used to play Michael Buffer doing his famous, "LLLLLLLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMMMBLLLLLLLE!!" to pump us up for tests. It didn't work. However, the kids who were determined to get good grades, they motivated themselves.

This isn't always the case though, especially in classes (like trig, to use your example) where, unless it has a hell of a lot to do with your major, you're taking it because it's a requirement for that diploma. I remember that being the best answer to the "why do we have to learn this?" question: "It's required you pass this to graduate and you need to learn to pass."

Furthermore, many subjects are really things you need to learn from experience more than classroom schooling (like my field of work), and you know what? C's do get degrees.

 

[Obsidian]

Well I teach and I have to say that we do work to make schoolwork engaging, but realistically it's not going to seem engaging to everyone all the time. A teacher regardless of how good they are will always have students who are off-task. But, on-task or off, students should be respectful of teachers even if they are bored. I don't have a problem with students unless they're being disruptive in my class and preventing others from learning. Then we have students who are behavioral issues, who do whatever they can to push our buttons. I'm not a babysitter, but I'm forced to relegate to one at times and the more time I spend on that, the less I am able to spend on instructional time. I can sympathize with that person as all she was doing was venting.

 

[Norman Osborn]

I completely agree with you. However, that's just not going to happen in "real life."

Personally, I really enjoy learning. I mean, I don't read textbooks for fun or be a total nerd, but I like knowing things and figuring things out. It doesn't take effort for me. And also, I've always been taught to use manners and common courtesy and to have respect for others, especially those of authority/those who are older than me. So when they're lecturing or teaching, it makes sense for me that the least you can do is listen to them (instead of the many other disrespectful things I see going on at the time). But, learning comes easy to me & my mom once explained to me that it's like me & running; I hate running because it's hard, and I don't want to do it, and I can't do it very well. Same thing for students who have different learning styles or speeds, they just get discouraged.

However, a lot of my friends don't share the same views as I. They either dislike the subjects or the teachers or just plain learning/paying attention in general. There is a HUGE lack of self-motivation that the teachers can't take the blame for.

I don't know how to fix this problem, but I guess it's been going on since the dawn of time itself so it's not likely to go away anytime soon.

This may be an unpopular view (but I'm old and with that age I've earned the right to be unpopular) but personally I think you can start fixing the problem by allowing people to fail!

Now I'm speaking from a Canadian perspective (and a regional one at that) but nobody ever fails anymore? When I was in grade school (in the 70's) in the vicinity of 10 to 15% of the class failed ....hell I have professional friends who have failed a grade. That's where a lot of our motivation came from, the desire not to be the only kid in grade 4 shaving between classes.

And Awards night?.....everybody gets a freaking award now a days....everybody gets to walk up on the stage......long gone are the days when you had to excel to be praised.......you award everyone you award no-one. How hard is it to motivate a student who doesn't see a lot of downside in being a slacker? Internal motivation is great as Harls here attests to but what about the students who aren't internally motivated??, to me the system as it exists todays is not effective as an external motivator.

I have a son ( I love my son ) who was a constant problem in school (he's all grown up now and successful I might add)....I'd get calls weekly from the principal at my office......and I remember one specific Parent teacher meeting conversing with one of my son's teacher who would just repeatedly use flowery terms like "joy to work with", "good student", "pleasure to be around"......spare me the nonsense, I know my son and I know the calls I'm getting....a joy he is not. But in my experience teachers are afraid to be negative towards a child in front of their parents.....because parents (in my experience) don't like being told their child is average or struggling.

 

[Hotwire]

Your post doesnt make any sense...that's EXACTLY what a teacher's job is.....what else are they there for? They cant "force" you to learn....they have to make you want to learn.

While my only experience teaching is as a Tae Kwon Do instructor, I have to say, it is nearly impossible to teach someone who does not want to learn what you have to teach them. It's right up there with teaching a pig to sing, not only are you wasting your time, but you're bothering the pig.

Teachers can only romance a subject so much, and even then, it's only going to appeal to a limited number of the students. When I took physics, my teacher did everything he could to make it as fun as possible. Just about everything we learned was in a lab setting. Actually seeing the principals of physics at work, but, there were still kids in the class that just wouldn't do it.

I even had one teacher, for a mythology class, who made the class so easy, you could get an A just by being able to read. Every myth we read, she put notes about it on the board, we were to copy them down. Every quiz and test was either open note or OPEN BOOK. This was 11th grade, mind you! She could not have made it any easier, and yet, there were kids who failed it. And as a result, didn't have enough credits to pass the 11th grade.

My point is, a teacher can only do so much to motivate the student. At some point, the student's own self respect has to motivate them. Just like it does out in the real world. My boss pays me to do a job, and will fire me if I don't do it to his satisfaction. That's the extent of the motivation he provides me, and I imagine there are others here in similar situations.

 

[Hotwire]

This may be an unpopular view (but I'm old and with that age I've earned the right to be unpopular) but personally I think you can start fixing the problem by allowing people to fail!

Now I'm speaking from a Canadian perspective (and a regional one at that) but nobody ever fails anymore? When I was in grade school (in the 70's) in the vicinity of 10 to 15% of the class failed ....hell I have professional friends who have failed a grade. That's where a lot of our motivation came from, the desire not to be the only kid in grade 4 shaving between classes.

And Awards night?.....everybody gets a freaking award now a days....everybody gets to walk up on the stage......long gone are the days when you had to excel to be praised.......you award everyone you award no-one. How hard is it to motivate a student who doesn't see a lot of downside in being a slacker? Internal motivation is great as Harls here attests to but what about the students who aren't internally motivated??, to me the system as it exists todays is not effective as an external motivator.

I have a son ( I love my son ) who was a constant problem in school (he's all grown up now and successful I might add)....I'd get calls weekly from the principal at my office......and I remember one specific Parent teacher meeting conversing with one of my son's teacher who would just repeatedly use flowery terms like "joy to work with", "good student", "pleasure to be around"......spare me the nonsense, I know my son and I know the calls I'm getting....a joy he is not. But in my experience teachers are afraid to be negative towards a child in front of their parents.....because parents (in my experience) don't like being told their child is average or struggling.

I suddenly hear Jason Lee's voice, "And when everyone's super... no one will be."

I love your point. It's similar to mine. If we treat kids in school the way they are getting treated now, where no one really fails, it does nothing to prepare them for real life.

 

[CelticPredator]

^ Not the same thing. People werent forced to take Tae Kwon Do. They did it by choice.

I was forced to take Tech Theater...making sets for those stupid plays. Horrible class. I dont even know what the point was to this day.....

You couldnt force me to build sets for the High School production of High School Musical. I refused. Gross.

 

[Hotwire]

^ Not the same thing. People werent forced to take Tae Kwon Do. They did it by choice.

Not all of my students were there by choice. The one's I'm referring to, they were being forced to come by their parents. The moms and dads felt the kids needed some athletic activity, and the kids thought it was cool at first. Until they realized that you don't learn how to do jump spinning flip kicks your first day and with out any practice. The kids lost interest, but the parents kept forcing them to come for a few months before the head instructor would step in and put a stop to it.

That being said, whether the student is there by choice or by requirement, if they don't want to learn the subject matter, they are almost unteachable.

 

[Harls]

This may be an unpopular view (but I'm old and with that age I've earned the right to be unpopular) but personally I think you can start fixing the problem by allowing people to fail!

Now I'm speaking from a Canadian perspective (and a regional one at that) but nobody ever fails anymore? When I was in grade school (in the 70's) in the vicinity of 10 to 15% of the class failed ....hell I have professional friends who have failed a grade. That's where a lot of our motivation came from, the desire not to be the only kid in grade 4 shaving between classes.

And Awards night?.....everybody gets a freaking award now a days....everybody gets to walk up on the stage......long gone are the days when you had to excel to be praised.......you award everyone you award no-one. How hard is it to motivate a student who doesn't see a lot of downside in being a slacker? Internal motivation is great as Harls here attests to but what about the students who aren't internally motivated??, to me the system as it exists todays is not effective as an external motivator.

That "let them fail" attitude was great a few years ago... nowadays, though, so many kids fail that they just accept it. No longer do only 3 or 4 kids fail... whole groups of friends do; I see it all the time. And they don't care. If they don't have internal motivation, I don't see what type of external motivation they're looking for. These kinds of things need to be instilled in them when they are young, or perhaps it's something people are born with.

Another problem (similar to the awards you were talking about) is that people are getting more and more sensitive and afraid. The teachers/schools are afraid of getting sued because they said something, and students/parents are getting so sensitive that they're really dumbing down the education system. Think about the whole Huck Finn thing going on right now.

Anyways, call me whatever bad names you want, but honestly I don't really care about the people that don't care. Sometimes, if I know them or have the resources I try and help or see what I can do to get them to stop being ridiculous all the time, but they don't really change. Honestly, they just make it easier for me to climb to the top and I'm not ashamed to admit that. I just wish they wouldn't grow up just to drain the government support systems/funds.

 

[Norman Osborn]

That "let them fail" attitude was great a few years ago... nowadays, though, so many kids fail that they just accept it. No longer do only 3 or 4 kids fail... whole groups of friends do; I see it all the time. And they don't care. If they don't have internal motivation, I don't see what type of external motivation they're looking for. These kinds of things need to be instilled in them when they are young, or perhaps it's something people are born with.

Another problem (similar to the awards you were talking about) is that people are getting more and more sensitive and afraid. The teachers/schools are afraid of getting sued because they said something, and students/parents are getting so sensitive that they're really dumbing down the education system. Think about the whole Huck Finn thing going on right now.

Anyways, call me whatever bad names you want, but honestly I don't really care about the people that don't care. Sometimes, if I know them or have the resources I try and help or see what I can do to get them to stop being ridiculous all the time, but they don't really change. Honestly, they just make it easier for me to climb to the top and I'm not ashamed to admit that. I just wish they wouldn't grow up just to drain the government support systems/funds.

I guess that's my point though......I don't think anybody fails anymore....they simply get pushed ahead.....unless it's a regional thing here? Do people in grade school where you're from actually fail?.....and I don't mean the very troubled kids who never go to school.....I mean kids who coast?.....if you coasted in grade school in the 70's you failed....if you struggled with certain subjects through no fault of your own but weren't willing to put extra work in...you failed!....you didn't get pushed ahead and required to take remedial this or that....you went back to school with kids 1 year younger than you

...as I said...when I was young you knew if you coasted, you failed....and if you failed your summer was over....I get a sense that isn't the case anymore so I disagree with you on the premise that "let them fail" wouldn't work...we don't know.....

....and I don't think there's any need to call you a bad name.....

 

[Harls]

I guess that's my point though......I don't think anybody fails anymore....they simply get pushed ahead.....unless it's a regional thing here? Do people in grade school where you're from actually fail?.....and I don't mean the very troubled kids who never go to school.....I mean kids who coast?.....if you coasted in grade school in the 70's you failed....if you struggled with certain subjects through no fault of your own but weren't willing to put extra work in...you failed!....you didn't get pushed ahead and required to take remedial this or that....you went back to school with kids 1 year younger than you

...as I said...when I was young you knew if you coasted, you failed....and if you failed your summer was over....I get a sense that isn't the case anymore so I disagree with you on the premise that "let them fail" wouldn't work...we don't know.....

Yeah, people where I am now don't care about anything. Coasting & getting C/D's are okay with them. They take summer classes (or rather, fail those too) and fail grades (kids here have lovingly named the seniors who don't graduate & have to repeat a grade "Super Seniors"), and eventually they drop out or get kicked out or just don't care or graduate with all C's/D's. Failing is the new norm, I suppose.

 

[Hotwire]

Yeah, people where I am now don't care about anything. Coasting & getting C/D's are okay with them. They take summer classes (or rather, fail those too) and fail grades (kids here have lovingly named the seniors who don't graduate & have to repeat a grade "Super Seniors"), and eventually they drop out or get kicked out or just don't care or graduate with all C's/D's. Failing is the new norm, I suppose.

Than I would say no one is really holding them accountable for their failures. Failing must have some sort of a stigma attached to it. It has to be a bad and unacceptable thing. It's one thing to console someone who has failed, but it's another to give everyone a runner-up medal, even if they come in dead last. When I was in school, not everyone made the team, not everyone got an award, people motivated me to do better by rewarding success, and SUCCESS ONLY!

The kids who take their education that lightly, well, they're in for a huge wake up call if mommy and daddy ever quit coddling them.

 

[Harls]

Than I would say no one is really holding them accountable for their failures. Failing must have some sort of a stigma attached to it. It has to be a bad and unacceptable thing. It's one thing to console someone who has failed, but it's another to give everyone a runner-up medal, even if they come in dead last. When I was in school, not everyone made the team, not everyone got an award, people motivated me to do better by rewarding success, and SUCCESS ONLY!

The kids who take their education that lightly, well, they're in for a huge wake up call if mommy and daddy ever quit coddling them.

That's exactly what's happening. If they do badly, they get a, "Aww, it's okay, sweetheart!" & don't see a reason to do better next time.

 

[Hotwire]

That's exactly what's happening. If they do badly, they get a, "Aww, it's okay, sweetheart!" & don't see a reason to do better next time.

Then that's what needs to change. Perhaps this teacher should have been blogging about the parents as well.

 

[Norman Osborn]

Then that's what needs to change. Perhaps this teacher should have been blogging about the parents as well.

Agreed....parenting skills are a huge component of the problem we see....Part of the reason I never failed and I went on to university was through internal motivation but part of that that internal motivation was a product of a society that saw failing a grade in school as a tragedy....not to mention a home environment where making Straight A's was not mandatory but anything less than 100% effort is inexcusable....and punishable!!....in short...I was a very lucky man!

I'm not taking all the responsiblity off the kids but you have to consider the environment from which they come...

 

[zanos]

This teacher can kiss that $30,000 a year she was making goodbye.

 

[Alex The Great]

While I can see your point, there is some self motivation needed here. Your grades and your education should be sources of motivation. Not every subject can be made fun and exciting to all of the kids. My trigonometry teacher used to play Michael Buffer doing his famous, "LLLLLLLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMMMBLLLLLLLE!!" to pump us up for tests. It didn't work. However, the kids who were determined to get good grades, they motivated themselves.

Yeah. We all know we got to get our **** together. Unfortunately, we all seem to wait 'till Senior Year to do so. My current grades won't get me into the University of Calgary. Well, they would depending on the class, but my English marks need to get up this year.