Ever experienced mutual loathing on sight with someone you teach? I know it's not politically correct to admit this, but there are some kids it is hard to like.
I am only human, after all, and period 5 on a Friday is not the best time to enter my classroom shouting "You're not the boss of me!", before spending the first five minutes of the lesson defacing most of your brand new exercise book with pointless and wholly unimaginative graffiti. Nor is it wise to keep muttering "Your mum" or "sut up" (genius, huh?) under your breath every time I ask you to stop, look and listen.
I don't mind that this student doesn't like me or my teaching style - fair enough! But what happened to common courtesy? How come many of the students from the same demographic pool are able to behave in a way recognisable as sentient human beings? What sets this child apart?
The answer came when I contacted the "responsible adults" by telephone. The female respondent (not the mother, apparently) listened to what I had to say about my concerns for the child's attitude to learning with the occasional grunt, before saying "I don't care about X's behaviour, talk to her father", and hanging up on me. The father, who sounds about 12 on the phone, was a bit more voluble.
"Oh yeah, X has always had a attitude problem, even when she was a baby. We don't know what to do about it. Sorry, can't help ya."
Interesting that you have to have a licence to drive a car, but there are no basic requirements to qualify one to bring a vulnerable human being into the world, a blank slate on which to imprint your values and attitudes.
I am going to make a special effort with child X - no matter how rude she is to me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment