R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Give Some to Me
I don't like rudeness in people. It annoys me. I especially don't appreciate it in students who would really do well to realize that they owe me respect in return for the respect I give to them. I don't feel it's a one-way street; I'm perfectly willing to give, too, but I expect to get.
Rudeness Case File 09142009:
The other day in class, the students were writing a persuasive essay. Leading up to this task, I spent one and a half class periods trying to prepare students for the essay by showing them other persuasive essays, explaining how they were scored, examining the rubric, and providing tips for must-haves in persuasive essays. The essay was a 60-minute timed prompt. We started at 1:30pm (I know this because I glanced at the clock and thought to myself, "Excellent. They can go to the bell if they need to. Perfect timing."
I head to my desk to get some work done, and notice the student in the seat in front of my desk with his head down. I say, "Laddie (not what I actually said, but I'm not putting his name in here, so I'll pretend this is what I called him), you need to wake up and do your essay." He lifts his head and responds, "I'm already done." I chortle, then glance down and realize that he thinks he's serious. There are 4 "paragraphs" on his page (I say "paragraph" in parentheses because it was more like a single sentence in each spot, with lines skipped between "paragraphs".) I look at the clock. It's 1:33--no lie. I say, "Laddie, you can't be done your 60-minute timed essay in 3 minutes." He says, with some annoyance, "I didn't wait for you to stop talking before I started. I'm done." I was flommuxed, so I said, "Oh kaaaay" and walked away for a minute.
Hoping he would realize the error of his ways and get on task, I gave it a minute. Then I returned. His head was on the desk again. "Laddie, I know that you can't have used the persuasive devices we went over in class if you're already done, so I think you should add to your essay." He says, " How do you know? You didn't even read it!" I say, "I don't have to read it to know that in 3 minutes time you don't have sufficient content for an essay that you can take up to 60 minutes to write. Now, you can use this work as the basis for your work--treat it like a brainstorm if you want--but I suggest you add to it. The content isn't there." He scans the page with his eyes with some annoyance, and then promptly puts his head on the desk once more.
I leave him there for another 2 minutes. This time the pause was more for me because I was very angry. I then approached him again. "Laddie. If you are done your essay--which I don't recommend, but it's up to you-- then you need to get up, hand it in on the desk up front, take out a book or something silent to do, and get to work. You aren't just going to nap in here." He mumbles, "That's not fair! I'm done!" I say, "I'm not making up a punishment for you because you won't write any more of the essay. I TOLD your class on Friday that if you didn't think you'd need an entire hour to write that you should bring something to work on. This is school--not nap time. So grab a book on the side shelf or work on your vocabulary homework that's due tomorrow or do something, but you aren't going to sit here and nap!" His response? He put on his hat and slept sitting up, as though I couldn't tell he was sleeping. I emailed his parent and the house principal relating the situation AS Laddie slept in front of me.
The next day, by the way, he didn't have his vocabulary homework. (Rather, he had the words and parts of speech--the 2 elements I supply students with-- on little cards he'd ripped apart. As he handed them to me to check, he said, "Yeah, so, I did everything except one part." I said, "Where's the definitions?" "Oh, I did everything except that." "Really? Where's the 2 synonyms and the sentences for each word?" "Well, I did everything except that stuff." "Laddie, all you did was write the words and the parts of speech--the two things I GAVE you--on pieces of paper you ripped out in the shape of cards. You actually did nothing." His response, "Well, it's better than nothing." Uh huh.
2 days later, on his way into class walking by me, Laddie says, really quickly and almost as a single word, "Youknowwhat? Youemailedmyparentsaboutmeandyouknowwhat theydid? Nothing!" Then he walked into the room. When I got to my desk, he comes up again and says, "Yeah, so, you know what my parents did? My mom was like, 'Why are you sleeping in class?' and I was like, 'I was tired.' And she was like, 'You're grounded.' And I was like, 'No I'm not. I'm going to town tonight.' And she was like, 'No, you're not.' And I was like, 'Yeah I am. You know I'm going to go whether you say I can or not so you may as well give me some money for food.' So you know what she did? She gave me this $10. So yeah."
So yeah.
Today Laddie came to class and wouldn't adhere to the class rule to leave an item for collateral in exchange for borrowing a pencil. He made quite a big deal of it, actually, refusing to leave his iPod on my desk in alleged fear that someone would steal it (even though I was sitting right there and wasn't keeping it overnight--just for the hour he had the pencil, so that he'd definitely trade back at the end) and ended up not borrowing the pencil at all but instead produced one from his backpack. Interesting... Then he acted like he didn't know the protocol for the weekly vocabulary work even though it was explained in detail several times over the past 2 weeks, including the first day of class (meanwhile, this is the second week of vocab, to boot). Then he was going to rip a page out of his class journal (a big no-no) because he was unprepared for class and didn't have any paper--even though I made it quite clear on day ONE that having paper, books, and a writing implement in class every day was a requirement-- and even though there's paper on the side shelf for emergencies (which I also explained on the first day of class). Then he asked what we were doing in class today, even though I explained on the first day of class that the agenda would always be written on the white board in blue so that they would never have to wonder what we were doing that day in class. Next he said he had a headache---HA! HE had a headache?????---and asked to go to the nurse. He left about 5 minutes into the block (yes, all that crap I just shared happened in 5 minutes time) and didn't return until 7 minutes before class was over.
Now, I ask you, is there a reason I should have to put up with this kind of nonsense from ill-mannered kids when all I'm trying to do is teach them how to read, write, and speak? The answer is a resounding "NO!"
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