For the past two years I have been working in a private school in the city. Last year I had only nine students who were all very dedicated and down to earth, the worked hard and were interested in learning. This year I have two groups of students each group with fifteen students. One of my groups who are 7th graders are pretty much impossible to deal with. For the best six months I have been battling against them and I have yet to win the fight!
I was watching today as they were sitting their exams for this bimonthly period and I began to wonder why it is these particular children turned out the way they did. I have often heard the phrase 'born with a silver spoon in the mouth' but I have never really met people who truly demonstrated its meaning.
At this moment in time in this country it is obligatory to give a child a passing grade of 6 in their exams, in primary schools you CANNOT fail a student and in the school where I work this rule applies in secondary school too. As a result I have a bunch of students who have the most basic level of English taking a course which is made for students with a higher intermediate level. The majority of these students cannot even present themselves in English, still struggling with the difference between 'Tengo (I have) 12 años' and 'I am 12 years old'. However, I am given the books and told to teach them and at the end of the bimonthly period instructed to give failing students a 6.
These children do not listen to any authority figure and when told to be quiet they continue talking ignoring completely the person who is talking to them. This brought me to the question, why are so many children nowadays like this? When I was in school and I was told to be quiet I shut my mouth and stayed quiet for the remainder of the class, if not the day because I understood that in school when a teacher gave out to you, told you to be quiet or do something you did it and respected what the teacher was telling you. i also remember clearly that when this happened it was normal to avoid eye contact with the teacher because you felt ashamed. These children do the complete opposite. Fore example, yesterday having told one of the boys to take out his book and study he sat with the book closed on his desk talking to his friend across the room, when I started to stare at him he merely stared back at me until I finally won our little staring competition. When the contest was over I asked him to open his book and he did not move, i proceeded to inform him that unless he has x-ray vision it would be very to study the contents of a closed book. At this point he opened his book and continued talking to his friend as if nothing had happened, needless to say today when he took his exam he failed, not that it makes much difference because his parent will just pay extra for him to continue on tho the next grade of junior high.
It makes me sad and it makes me angry to see that education has become something which can be bought and that young people today who have the funds to pay for their education lack any type of motivation to do well in school. They do not take pride in their education as generations before them did and I think it is a shame that one of the most precious things in this world is being wasted on children like these.
Rant over :)
D.M
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