Plato in the 4th Century BC wrote:
“What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?”
When I tell people that I’m a teacher 9 times out of 10 people respond by making references to the bad behaviour of students. They think that they’re out of control. They believe that they are ill mannered hooligans who wear hoodies and care not for their learning – insisting that society is broken. Well its not.
I’ve been teaching for 9 years and the VAST majority of our teenagers do not deserve the labels that our media and society are branding them with. I encounter children every working day who exhibit high levels of motivation, dedication and commitment to themselves and those around them. I see them feeling anxious and worried about their grades and coursework, and I hear them talking about the pressures of looking good and not being overweight. Adults have a role to play in these more negative feelings yet we are the ones condemning them.
Whenever I’m asked about my job I now always tell them about how much I love it. People are regularly surprised by this but after a short explanation they often tell me that it’s good to hear such positive stories about teenagers in schools. They are surprised because of the bombardment of negative headlines and reports from the Press and TV. So the next time you’re asked about your job, and you do teach, tell them about the good kids and the great things that they do: its about time we began to rewrite the headlines for our teenagers.
The following video is great for encapsulating the above:
[...] time in school with their teachers and friends.” – this reminds me of the essence of my blog post found here. Nice work Scott! No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this [...]