Lazy Americans

If you've ever been out of the country, especially on a mission trip, you know that the culture shock comes when you enter back into the US, not when you enter the foreign country. You get a glimpse of how spoiled, selfish, and lazy we are after you see how people live in other parts of the world. It's easy to become numb once again to our culture and take part in it as a major consumer and forget how spoiled, selfish, and lazy we are.

This week, my students reminded me twice of how spoiled, selfish, and lazy Americans are. It's been a while since I've been this frustrated with the attitudes of my students and that's saying a lot considering I teach 7th graders who always have an attitude! :)

I gave a test last week on percents. Students had to find discounts, tax, tip, commission, simple interest, as well as the total price after discount, tax, and/or tip. It is a fairly difficult concept for them since this is the first time they're learning this stuff and the problems do have multiple steps and I do make them show a lot of work to make sure they don't forget the steps. A big focus in 7th grade math is proportional reasoning. So, we solve these problems with proportions. Yes, there is a quicker way to type it in the calculator, but I'm not only teaching them percents, but also proportional reasoning so we've been setting up and solving proportions since January.

Now, there have been units where I have known going into test day that it was going to be rough for whatever reason (lack of understanding, bad teaching on my part, not enough time to teach, etc), but for this unit, I felt confident in their skills. We even reviewed several of the problems word for word from the test multiple times in the days before the test. What happened on test day you may ask? You got it...they bombed it! My class averages for this test were the lowest of the year. I could make excuses about it being almost spring break, or the fact that it's been 80+ degrees outside and we've all got spring fever, etc. etc. But, what it comes down to is L.A.Z.I.N.E.S.S. I know my students know this material...they showed me they knew it on a quiz the week before...

And then, to make it worse, my student from Taiwan got an 80 on the test. That's right...an 80. A girl who has been in the US for less than 2 months. A girl who speaks NO English. I girl who speaks a language that has totally different sounds and characters was able to come in, read my test, show her work, and get an 80. That shows you how much she studied. That shows you how much she cares about and values her education. It's not like my test says what is 2 + 3. My test was mainly word problems with multiple steps that she had to read and comprehend. And, she's been immersed in an English speaking area for less than 2 months.

I debated on telling her class about her grade. I really wanted to and I really wanted it to make them feel bad about how lazy and unappreciative they are for their education. But, I knew there were a few tender hearted children in that class who do care and still struggle. So, I prefaced my speech with, "If you know you studied for this test and if you know you tried your best, then don't let this make you feel bad about yourself..." And then, I laid into them about how this girl got an 80 and doesn't speak English...blah...blah...blah. My hope was that they would tuck their heads and be solemn and regretful about their grades. What was their response? They stood up and cheered for the girl from Taiwan. Stupid. Lazy. Americans. They still didn't care. 

And then, one other day last week, the office called up to let us know our students had left a mess in the cafeteria. So, we sent a couple trustworthy students to go clean it up. When they got back, I had a chat with my class about cleaning up after themselves, taking the responsibility to throw their own trash away, etc. Their response? They got mad...and I mean mad that I was fussing at them about cleaning up. They said, "That's the janitors' job. We pay them to clean up trash!" I was flabbergasted at this response and furious. Are they really so selfish that they think they don't have to pick up their one tray from lunch and throw it away? Or that they don't have to pick up the wrapper that they accidentally dropped on the floor? What are we teaching these children? I was shocked. I know...believe me I know...that middle schoolers are self-centered. Everything revolves around them at this age...everything. But, for some reason I could not understand their reaction of anger towards me asking them to clean up their trash. Again, lazy and selfish Americans.

I wish I could say these attitudes go away after middle school. Unfortunately middle school was just where I was confronted with these attitudes again this week. It's sad to say that the majority of Americans have these attitudes, myself included at times.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings/frustrations this week...on a lighter, happier note...

SPRING BREAK IS HERE!! Ahh...I started my spring break by going to the Durham Bulls opening night last night and sleeping in until 10am this morning. I'm headed to a Good Friday service this afternoon and then off to Grandma's we go! I'm SO excited to spend the weekend with the fam! I haven't seen Grandma and Pa since Christmas...

Happy Easter!