Entitled children
I say entitled but only because I don't like the word spoiled to be used for kids, they're not fruit after all.
My school is well resourced, but I am frugal with resources. Call it poverty mentality or anything you like really but I believe people should not be wasteful and, more importantly, ungrateful. My kids waste so much. And they take without asking. and they assume my space is their space and my stuff is their stuff. I shouted at a kid after I handed out packs (complete packs) of crayons to each group. He came back and asked if he could change his pack for another one. I asked why, he said because the orange crayon in his pack was shorter than the others. My response was "GO SIT DOWN AND BE GRATEFUL THAT YOU HAVE CRAYONS!".
My kids also don't share there stuff. If there is a kid in the group who doesn't have a pencil and another kid who has three pencils then toughies... I have to keep pencils in my class for kids that don't bring theirs. A kid came to me asking for a new English note book because the one I gave him was full and I asked to see the one I gave him... It was full alright. full of Korean chats with his friend, and drawings of poo. When I spoke to my co-teacher about it she said it's one of the things the older generation is concerned about. This generation did not have to work hard for what they got. The kids don't understand the value of their things.
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| Look at these little monsters |
I mean it's pretty weird for me to be sitting in a class of eleven year olds who all have smartphones but whats even weirder is that they're so casual about it; forgetting them in my class, whipping it out to show me their game scores and running around in the dirt with it.
I hear myself say these things and I think of my mom telling me she had to walk home from school on the hot ground or the frost without school shoes and at the time I thought "Well that was bad but shoes are a basic necessity, every kid should have shoes, I don't feel particularly grateful for having shoes." I can't think that way about smart phones, the desire to play angry birds at any point in the day is not what I consider a necessity... it shows how wealthy I am that I think shoes are one. But still!
Teens don't get up on the bus for old people and toys are ripped apart and ruined. What's frustrating is that, that level of discipline, not just classroom management, is hard for me to enforce. Firstly, the language barrier restricts me from discussions with younger grades. Secondly I am always aware that I might be imposing my values on them. I feel very strongly about colonising minds, I'm not down with it.
Kids cry, all the time, and at first I thought it was my teaching method, or my hair or something but it's not that. just today a kid threw his pencil case at another student head and when I confiscated his pencil case (just for the lesson) he started crying. Ain't nobody got time for that. I give the tiny ones the benefit of the doubt because they cannot articulate their feeling so I'm compassionate about it bursting out of them, but at grade five you should know you cant throw a pencil bag at someones head. And I know he's not crying about being punished, he's crying about someone taking his stuff, cause they're entitled little buggers!
Anyhoo, I don't have experience teaching little SA kids, spent most of my time with High Schoolers and I think I made the right choice even back then.
Signing off
Vasti
