Relativity

This time of year is always hard for a teacher who teaches students who are at-risk. (What a ridiculously all-encompassing term.) Every year it feels like the kids are worse. I can never tell if it's because I've put up with the abuse for 8 months and just can't take it anymore, or if really, the kids just keep getting worse. I can't believe I've been teaching at-risk kids for 13 years. I think the "shelf-life" of an at-risk teacher should be no more than 10 years. I know I'm cynical because all I see are students who have very few shining moments. They constantly make poor choices, and basically, they treat most adults like dirt. Every year it feels like they get away with more. I don't know if it's true, I just know it sure feels like it.

Three weeks until finals, and I just wish it was over. I don't even feel like celebrating their accomplishments because they seem so hollow, so undeserved. The staff is doing everything they can to help the seniors graduate and they can't even give a little. There are some staff and to some degree, the principal who are in a round-about way, saying that the important thing is that the kids graduate, not that they learn, not that they fulfill obligations, not that they take responsibility for their own poor choices, but that they graduate from high school. I understand that a high school diploma has value, and that there are a lot of people who earned one without learning a thing--but even those kids learned how to either play, or beat the system. Our kids have done neither. It's frustrating to see that day after day. Even though the kids say things like, "I never would have graduated without Fern," I'm not sure what that means, or even if it's true for that matter. I just don't get it, and I'm frustrated.