Difference in Deference
Times have changed since I was in elementary school. It is to be expected. That's a long time that has come and gone. But I am still shocked at the behaviors that I see in students, and that they are surprised when I try to quell them.
When I was younger, if a teacher was explaining things, I listened. If I didn't understand, I typically asked a question, or at the very least, I waited to see what the other students were doing before taking action. Perhaps that is being a sheep, perhaps not. I think for me it was deference to the idea that the teacher had control of the classroom, they were doing their job, and I was supposed to do mine - be a student while maintaining at least a minimum amount of order.
Sometimes kids kinda lose it. I get that. Hell, sometimes adults lose it. We can all get a pass on it once in a while. But there are some students that continually chip away at that barrier. I look at them as little sociopaths in training, because they just don't seem to care when I ask them to nicely calm down, to stop hitting their friends, to stop slamming doors while they run in and out of the classroom and the halls, shouting off and on while they do it, and then I simply want to explode.
I think of what I would have done had a teacher ever really been angry with me, and it would not have made me feel very good. It's not that I always kowtowed to my teachers, but I knew well enough to at least make an effort (even if I knew I would fail, I tried), because if I hadn't, not only would the teacher have been upset with me, but my parents would have been upset with me...and that was a far greater peril.
I just don't know anymore. About anything. How did I get here? I feel like the omega man, only not nearly as cool.
When I was younger, if a teacher was explaining things, I listened. If I didn't understand, I typically asked a question, or at the very least, I waited to see what the other students were doing before taking action. Perhaps that is being a sheep, perhaps not. I think for me it was deference to the idea that the teacher had control of the classroom, they were doing their job, and I was supposed to do mine - be a student while maintaining at least a minimum amount of order.
Sometimes kids kinda lose it. I get that. Hell, sometimes adults lose it. We can all get a pass on it once in a while. But there are some students that continually chip away at that barrier. I look at them as little sociopaths in training, because they just don't seem to care when I ask them to nicely calm down, to stop hitting their friends, to stop slamming doors while they run in and out of the classroom and the halls, shouting off and on while they do it, and then I simply want to explode.
I think of what I would have done had a teacher ever really been angry with me, and it would not have made me feel very good. It's not that I always kowtowed to my teachers, but I knew well enough to at least make an effort (even if I knew I would fail, I tried), because if I hadn't, not only would the teacher have been upset with me, but my parents would have been upset with me...and that was a far greater peril.
I just don't know anymore. About anything. How did I get here? I feel like the omega man, only not nearly as cool.
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