A Concerned Educator

I am truly concerned with the lack of concern for academics with this generation. I have never seen such a group of students that could care less about school. Now, maybe it’s just where I am, but what I see everyday frightens me. Students show zero concern for their inability to grasp academic concepts. It’s almost as if they do not have a desire to be successful. Sometimes I feel like I spend more time correcting behaviors than actually teaching.

This generation has no respects for others. They have a hard time respecting teachers, and they certainly have a hard time respecting each other. Could this be a problem coming from home? Have the standards gone down? What is causing these kids to act this way? Just simple things such as saying please and thank you is too much for them. They can’t just say excuse me. It usually sounds more like “Man, move!” I told a student today not to forget that he had lunch detention. He response was, “I don’t care!” It’s insane to me how disrespectful kids have become.

Some days I really think that it is the parent. I have called so many parents over the years, but this year has been the worst. Most of the time I get, “They do the same thing at home and I don’t know what to do.” Now if they don’t know what to do, how am I supposed to know? Are kids having kids and that’s the issue? Are grandparents not around anymore? What could be the reason for this?

Threatening to call parents doesn’t work anymore either. The kids just don’t care anymore. They can fail every assignment, and still won’t care. You can tell them you are going to invite their parents in to talk, they still don’t care. It’s insane!!!

Let’s not even get on parents working with kids at home. Homework is never turned in. Things never get signed and returned. They don’t respond to any messages sent to them. Oh wait, then they wait until the end of the year to ask why their child is not passing. I can’t forget my favorite line….”They said the kids are bullying them.” Just for the record, 99% of the time, their child is the one who bullies others.

I am truly saddened by seems to be a lost generation with zero respect for themselves or others. What makes this worse is that they don’t comprehend the things they need to know. There is a ridiculous amount of kids being diagnosed with learning disabilities or ADHD. They lack the attention span necessary to even be able to absorb what is going on in class.

If we don’t find a way to reach them and make a change, what will the future look like? How many of our children will be entrepreneurs? How many of them will be able to pay attention in college long enough to become a doctor or a lawyer? To be honest, I am nervous about all of this.

- A concerned educator