October 26, 2015
The Battle To Raise Responsible Young Adults


I have been a teacher for 20 years, and the last five I've gone back to teaching high school.  For the first time, I feel hopeless.

The explosion of divorce, mixed with the rise of cellphone use has contributed to the ruination of my profession.   Even though the rule in my classroom is "no electronics," cellphones go off during the whole period, with kids taking selfies, listening to music, texting, Facebooking, Snapchatting and even talking with phones to their ears, all while I'm teaching!   Some other teachers and even the school administrators buy into the saying "this is what this generation is - let them use their phones to help them learn!"  Unfortunately, the kids AREN'T learning by doing this, and many even try to cheat in my foreign language class by using "Google Translate."

Although I've tried numerous times to explain to parents that this behavior often leads to their children's bad grades, the problem is that it's the PARENTS who are sometimes texting and sending selfies of their "cute"  new hair cut to their kids while the kids are in class.  That's why I love it when you get a call from a parent shocked that their teenager is getting texted "smut" on his or her cellphone. You consistently tell parents the child shouldn't have a cellphone to begin with, but with divorce rates high, they seem to want to be their child's best friend and not their parent.  

Teachers are often blamed when the test results are low, but it's a two-way street.  Keep up the good fight to continue to hold parents accountable for raising responsible young adults.  From my perspective, it looks like it's a battle on the verge of being lost.

Disillusioned Teacher


Posted by Staff at 10:59 AM