Hopping Mad

  Sometimes a short week can feel like a long week wrapped in a smaller package. This week was one of those weeks. Despite the fact that we were only at school for four days it was tough to get to the end of the week. By the end of the day today it was tough to get the kids to do anything. I had a moment at the end where I was ready to throw most of my last class of the day through a wall.

  Everyone is tired at the end of the week. The allure of the weekend is calling your name, but as most people know it will come and work has to be done. Today, I had a kid decide instead of working or paying attention she was going to write a comic with her friends the entire time. She has given up on school in April of her senior year. This frustrates me because I really want them to be successful and I am putting in a lot of work to get a program together to get them ready for their AP test that is coming up in May. When I asked her to stay after class she gave me an attitude and refused to even look me in the eye. Basically rolling her eyes at me the entire time, angry that I would ask her to keep it together. I explained that she had to take the test and she should be ready for it. Failure was not an option. She shrugged and refused to look at me, so I told her to just get out. I did not want to deal with the crap that she was wanting to dish out. It is rare in an AP class that we get someone that acts up like that. The unfortunate part is that if she does not take the AP test then she will have to take my final, and my final is an AP test. She is a kid that is on the fringe grade wise. If she messes up now she may not get the credit. She cares about the credit, but is not willing to put in the effort. Everyone has bad days, but kids that think they can skate at the end of the year are in a world of fantasy. The truth is that I do care. I had another teacher tell me that I had been labeled as mean for making the kids work and trying to raise the bar higher at the end of the year. I refuse to lower the bar. Just because we got close to the finish line does not mean that we can just say good enough. As someone that cycles a lot I know that the end of the race is the hardest. I take pride in the fact that I push myself and them to the next level. The easier thing for me to do is to put on a movie or the rest of the year and hand out grades, but that it not what I am going to do. I am so happy for a three day weekend.

Until Monday,

Education seems to be in America the only commodity of which the customer tries to get as little he can for his money.

Max Leon Forman (1909-1990) Jewish-American writer.