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Did you ever encounter a family that had a terror of a child with them? You know, that family you see at the mall where the child is screaming and running and even though the parents look worried and keep telling the child to stop, you still think, “I’ll never have a child like that. I’ll never parent my child that way.” Well, I had that experience the other day, except the children happened to be my 10th grade class.
I had taken a personal day and left some very hefty work for the kids to complete while I was out. The substitute was a former teacher, and I also had the special ed teacher in the room. In my mind, the class should havewent very smoothly. I came back the next day to a whole bunch of awfulness. I was informed that the sub will never sub for me again because of the actions of sixteen 10th graders. It was so embarrassing; I think even more embarrassing than if my own children would’ve acted badly for a babysitter. I felt as if this was such a poor reflection on my own teaching and classroom management. I felt disrespected by these students, that they would think it would be okay to act this way in my classroom while I was out. I felt belittled by a project that was handed in by a group of young men (who chose to act more like boys than young men that day. Young men is a compliment.) that had a drawing and expletive written on it. Mostly though, I felt embarrassed for them that when they suffered the consequences of their actions (a day of in-school suspension for two of the boys who handed in the poster), they were angry with me. How and when will these young men learn to own up to their actions and accept responsibility? They proceeded to act like their former 5-year-old selves as they whined and complained about the punishment. I know I’m in for it from them for the rest of the year, but I can only hope that they are able to learn and grow from this.
