Saturday, November 3, 2012

Career Change: Whatever Happened to Personal Responsibility?!

My school has just reached the end of the first quarter and I have discovered something curious. Wait, no! Let me correct that statement: it's not curious, it's annoying! Apparently, the fact that I have a few students failing because they don't come to class (or if they do, they sleep/chat through my class), never turn in any assignments, fail every quiz or test, etc., is MY fault that they are failing!  Erm, huh??

Of course, most of my students come to class, do their work and are passing - several with A's - which is attributed to the students' abilities, not the teacher's. That's reasonable and I agree completely. But I don't understand how an idle, failing student is the fault of the educator?! Whatever happened to personal responsibility?? I will agree that it IS the teacher's fault if the student is in class, attentive, completing their work, etc. and still fails. That scenario is an example of a teacher who is not invested in their students. But beyond that, at some point, the onerous for passing a class has to come down to the student, particularly in high school.

Yesterday was the end of the quarter. Consequently, I had several students who came to me asking why they were failing my class, which if they had checked the online gradebook at all over the past few weeks, they would have seen that they were failing.  My answer: "Um...you haven't turned in any work, you sleep or chat through my class, and/or have excessive absenteeism, and you still expect to pass?!"  Many of these students are seniors and they are planning on going to college next year, that is if they pass their senior year. 

The truly annoying factor is that students in my school are not held to ANY personal responsibility and haven't for a long, long time.  As far back as elementary school, these students were just passed through the system and never had to have any accountability for their education. I don't really blame the students, entirely.  This comes down to years of inaction on the part of previous educators and parents, and now those of us attempting to educate these students in high school are left holding the bag for years of apathy! Because my school is in receivership and is beholden to the state, these failing grades actually could end up with me losing my position, but I refuse to pass a student out of fear of losing a job. I have certain standards that my students must uphold and one of them is show up, pay attention and do the work in my class. I don't think that's a ridiculous request.  <sigh>  It's going to be a long year!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You know, I went to some crappy schools in my life and some good ones, and it was always the parents and not the teachers who were most instrumental in pushing us along. My parents were not strict disciplinarians - esp. in high school (we could stay out to all hours on weekends)- but somehow we learned that we are responsible for ourselves. This is something I hope my daughter learns well. Thus far, she seems to take it to heart. Next year high school will start and we'll see what happens then.

Sandi said...

Man, I wish I had your parents growing up! :-)