Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Don't tell me what to do!

So I spent 7th period relaxing at my desk, getting a little work done, with my space heater pointed right at me. All three of these things are abnormal for my normal school day. Let me explain.

So for most of the school year so far, the Seniors have been complaining that they should be allowed to leave the building for lunch on a certain day each week. Past Senior classes have done this, and now it's their turn. But for reasons I don't exactly understand, they have been denied this privilege. I think it's something about students misbehaving out in the world, making the school look bad (because they are in uniform). Needless to say, the current Seniors are mad. It's not fair.

What do angry, entitled children do when they don't get their way? First they pout. Then they argue. Then they put signs up around school, because if the rules haven't changed by now it's because no one is listening to them. And when all that doesn't accomplish their goals, they plan to form a small mob in the hallway, barge past the security guards, and go out for lunch anyways. And should any Senior decide that they don't want to be involved in all this and just go to the cafeteria, they are bullied into abandoning their lunches and leaving with everyone else.

Well, when they returned from their lunch out in Pristina they found that they were locked out of the school. I am not sure exactly what consequences await them (if any), but I do hope that something happens.

These students (and particularly the Seniors) believe that if they demand something all together then they must be granted it. On Monday they all came to government class and instead of reviewing for their test on Tuesday they opted to spend nearly the whole period trying to argue with me about pushing the test back. They felt sure if they all asked/begged/harassed me enough that I would change the date. They were wrong, I am more stubborn than they think. Many also threatened to just skip school (the student handbook says if they have an unexcused absence on the day of an assessment that they will just get a zero). But they all showed up. And just when I was hoping that maybe they were figuring some stuff out about how school works, they pull a stunt like this.

7th period is normally my most difficult class of the day. I have a volatile group of kids and lots of attitude and behavior problems. Most 7th periods it is a fight to accomplish anything, and when we do accomplish something - only a fraction of the students are part of that "we". And because there were no students during 7th period today -

I got the heater all to myself.