Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration in Opportunity

I got stuck in the opportunity class today.  It's been about six weeks since I saw these kiddos last (this day and this day), and they haven't changed a bit.

Opportunity is code.  It's kind of like the "success" class for those who needed to learn how to succeed in school.  Opportunity is a last chance for some of these kids to get some credits, and all of them have behavioral issues.  They've had run ins with the law.  Anger issues.  You get the idea.

Well, of course today was inauguration day.  And being on the west coast, that meant that the swearing in took place at 9 AM.  The administration of the school encouraged the teachers to show the inauguration on TV.  I knew that getting the students to do any work would be a challenge anyway, so maybe having the TV on might help.  It didn't.

How was the speech?  Any good?  I wouldn't know.  I couldn't hear any of it.  

I kept shushing the class.  They were having none of it.  They were having too much fun writing vulgarities on paper (at least not on the desks), calling each other rude names, and just generally acting up.  One student kept asking me for a dollar.  When I told him I had no money on me (it's generally a good idea not to bring in the wallet), he then asked me for change for a five.  Then another student told me that I had said something incorrect, and he insisted that I apologize (I wasn't incorrect, so I didn't apologize).  

It's too bad, too.  These kids aren't stupid.  They're just so angry at the world that they are unwilling to see the good things around them.  And they act out, as if that makes them cool or something.  It just makes me sad.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I appreciate your comments.

I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.

*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.