Sometimes you look at your profession and wonder, what was I thinking? It isn’t that I feel unsuited to teaching; that’s not really it at all. It’s just… well, teaching is not immediately rewarding. Yes, you have kids who love you, and yes, you see kids making breakthroughs for the first time in their lives. But you also are continually weighed down by this cloud that is apathy. Kids who are smart, but don’t care. Kids who know what respect is, but think disrespect will garner a better laugh. Kids being kids, and screwing the whole damn thing up.
I look back at when I was in high school, and I don’t recall students acting the way ours do (I say “ours” because this is not a problem that is confined to my classroom — even the vets have their complaints). Was it the school I went to? The fact that I was in Honors classes? No. Even regular ed was better. The teachers? Maybe. But some of the teachers at my school are quality, and they fair no better.
Maybe it’s one of those things you adjust to. Over time, you learn to focus on the good rather than the bad, and that tips the scales. Maybe you wax the shell until it all rolls off of you.
For now, though, it stands at this: kids suck.
