#passingthebuck

#thirtyninesteps #perfectnumbers

&fourandahalfleavedclover

Fault is a funny thing in a school.  Teachers are found at fault more than anyone realizes.  The news makes a huge scene of teachers who err at their jobs and the politicians are quick to blame the teachers for test score failure in which numerous people play a contributing factor.

Parents, teachers, paraeducators, administrators, community officers, and politicians all contribute to the failing schools and test scores.  However, do you know who else contributes to the failure of our students?  

Our students.

Teachers are frequently told by their students that nothing is their fault.  For example, it’s not Andre’s fault he punched another student because “no one was doing anything about him, so I had to” or Shaka’s blaming her coach for her failing grades because, “practice is so time consuming.”

I currently work with a class of students that breaks the mold for inactivity.  To hear them talk, the world had destroyed them before it could be their oyster. Quite literally, nothing is their fault.  They blame their bosses for their write-ups at Burger King and their ex for that fight they started last year.  Most recently, a handful of them are blaming me for their inability to pass a writing sample. Honestly, I don’t know if they could complete a passing writing sample because none of them has moved past the first paragraph.  They talk, play on their phones, leave for bathroom breaks or to call home or just, otherwise, spend 45 minutes trying NOT to work.  When you point this out they say, “I’m alternative ed. I don’t have to do real schoolwork.”  

Meanwhile, my other classes are moving forward on their writing and asking things like, “May I put a dream within a dream in my narrative?” and “May I put more statistics in this fourth paragraph?”  

Any other time, I would stop and ask myself what I am doing wrong but, I know, this last quarter is the most solid writing unit I have ever created.  Every other class has excelled greatly and, I realize, the difference between them and this one inactive class, is the victim mentality.  All of my students come from some kind of setback or struggle but this one specific class is older and committed to playing the victim.