An Open Letter to High School Students

[Connery]

Why is it that so many replies are certain that A) I'm not a teacher, B) don't exist, C) or a fraud?

I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to verify my bona fides and some will never be satisfied. I am, in fact, a teacher at both the high school and college level. My main content areas are History and American Government.

I'm sorry that some of you do not care for my style of writing but I totally understand. I think it was Barb who replied that I "officially suck"; and it must be true since she's the official expert on sucking--so thanks for that. Makes me feel right at home. I get insulted by teenagers on a daily basis and frankly, "you suck" is mild by comparison and not nearly as creative.

I think DGS49 got it right though... 5 to 7 years is about all any one adult can stand in this kind of work environment.

If I had to do a demographic of my classes, I would say that out of 30 students (13-17 yr olds):

* at least one is wearing a "Lo Jac" around his/her ankle so the State can keep tabs,
* two are on some type of parole/work release from the juvenile court system
* at least four already have kids of their own
* one or two are currently pregnant
* 30-40% are reading at two or more grade levels below their current grade
* 20% are being treated for ADHD with Ritalin, Adderall or some other methylamphetamine salt
* at least two are packin' some form of weapon
* at least two are holdin' some form of recreational drug and another is selling the same
* at least one has clinically diagnosed oppositional defiance disorder and two more should be
* several will have aggression issues that haven't been worked out yet medically
* 40% have no concept of what constitutes acceptable public behavior and don't care to find out
* I could go on but by now you get the idea...

and 95% will go on to the next grade regardless because of "social promotion". Some will even graduate and still be functionally illiterate. It's criminal and difficult to witness.

Anyway... I'm sorry that so many of you didn't care for my letter. Despite its title it really wasn't written for High School students... just a late night rant in between getting lessons ready for tomorrow.

Thanks.

It is very unfortunate for those students if you are their or involved with them on any level. You claim some have illicit drugs, some are pregnant, some should be diagnosed with a ODD......do you have proof of this?

 

[Two Thumbs]

Wow... so now I'm a pussy AND a twat. I'm detecting a theme here. Still not up to my 9th grader's level... but give it time.

Honestly, if this is what passes for discourse on this board I think I'm going to pass. But you guys keep right on posting... it makes your ID block so much more impressive. I'm especially taken by the number of Thank Yous some you have accumulated. It's fantastic.

So you're actually claiming to be a teacher. And you thought coming here with your blog style was going to get kids to read your long winded blather.



Lets add pathetic douche, to the list.

 

[Jackson]

Wow. You really missed the point of the exercise, didn't you.

"Just maybe someone will respect you if you give them some respect and someone else will listen and learn something in your class."

Where did you read anything about me NOT giving respect? What you did read, though, was the part about students demanding respect without acting respectful. So aim this barb in the other direction. Part of the reason the job gets frustrating is that teachers are required to remain professional at all times despite the daily provocations.

"Won't get through o 95% of them? It doesn't mean you still don't try."

Really, Captain Obvious? You mean I should just keep on going even though I don't reach 100% of students? That never occurred to me.. gee thanks.

"Make the lessons interesting and change their day from the hell they're living into something different for an hour."

The "hell" they're living???? Did you seriously just write that? These kids get fed breakfast and lunch on someone else's nickel during the school day. They get driven to and from school every day--the one's that don't drive themselves, that is. Every one of them has a cell phone with an unlimited texting plan, instant Internet, little responsibility and even less accountability. They have a roof over their heads, a place to sit down, and air conditioning. They have an army of support people and their beck and call--from nurses to guidance counselors, instructional aides, school psychologists, etc. Everything is handed to them--paper, pens, pencils, notebooks-- because they can't be expected to remember to bring stuff. They're too busy. They're given access to sports equipment, gynasium, track & field, and a library. Adults trip over themselves to kiss their little backsides and give out inflated grades to help them graduate. Other people pick up their trash and clean their rooms. All that is really ever asked of students is that they mind their behavior for the six hours that they're in class.

If it's hell they're living... it's a hell of their own making.

"We have just 7 hours and then a break before we go back and try it again. Who knows, someone just may thank you one day. Don't look for it, but it would be nice."

I don't know anyone in this profession that does it expecting thanks, including myself.

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. But don't stop looking for new recipes, sometimes, it's a bad chef."

And sometimes it's the ingredients...

I appreciate the time and effort it took for you to post the "cut and paste" commentary and warmed-over cliches but you assume too many facts "not in evidence".

It appears to me that you don't give respect to anyone but yourself, whether it is your students or others on this board. As a teacher it is you job to reach the students and impart your knowledge. It's not to make judgments on their lives.

It also appears you have had difficulty reaching the students but you are quick to blame them and "their problems." No one ever told you teaching would be easy and anyone who has taught will tell you it isn't. But the successful teachers keep working at it and do not keep going on why they students cannot learn but find inroads in where they do learn through enthusiastic teachers who love the subject and present in interesting ways.

 

[Esmeralda]

Why is it that so many replies are certain that A) I'm not a teacher, B) don't exist, C) or a fraud?

I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to verify my bona fides and some will never be satisfied. I am, in fact, a teacher at both the high school and college level. My main content areas are History and American Government.

Anyway... I'm sorry that so many of you didn't care for my letter. Despite its title it really wasn't written for High School students... just a late night rant in between getting lessons ready for tomorrow.

Thanks.

Well you don't teach math or sciences. I figured that with writing like this:

I can stomach the incessant cherry-cheeked white noise emanating from your insult-laden insolence, but after I sift through the wafer-thin patina of your blatant prevarications; all that remains is the steady drip, drip, drip of your insipid meanderings—the meaningless import of your profane pronouncements; the random oration in your venomous verdicts. Like some indignant moralizing gossip, you’re always the last to give up the conch. Your myopic world view is reassuringly one dimensional and the joke is at your expense. Why is it that you laugh the loudest? Congratulations. Irony is wasted on the comforted. And I hate myself for being party to your tenuous foot-hold on civility.

I was suspecting English Lit.
psik

No English literature teacher worth his or her salt would write in such a style, and if a student turned in work like this, would fail the student. The 'letter' was written by a social studies teacher who apparently thinks purple prose is wonderful, someone who may like reading authors such as Edgar Allan Poe. Romance novels also use a lot of purple prose.


"Definition:
A generally pejorative term for writing or speech characterized by ornate, flowery, or hyperbolic language." purple prose - definition and examples of purple prose

"In literary criticism, purple prose is written prose that is so extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw excessive attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It may also employ certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader's response." Wiki

From George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language":

"Dying metaphors....Pretentious diction...The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms...

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out..." https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

 

[editec]

No English literature teacher worth his or her salt would write in such a style, and if a student turned in work like this, would fail the student.

That's a bit much, I think, Esmerala.

In fact, it's certainly possible that a literature teacher might very well written in this style --for effect.

Freddy's prose was florid and a tad excessive, that is certainly true. He clearly knew that as he was writing it.

But it fails as a composition only if one believes that the modern terse style is the only right approach to composition

But terse writing (generally using simpler sentence structure) is not the only way to write, neither is it the best way to write, either.

There is no such thing as the correct style of writing.

The correct style of writing is whatever style that serves to convey the sentiments that the author means to convey to the audience that the author is hoping to reach.

To paraphase Duke Ellington's views on good music as it regards good writing?

IF it reads good, it is good​

 

[Esmeralda]

No English literature teacher worth his or her salt would write in such a style, and if a student turned in work like this, would fail the student.

That's a bit much, I think, Esmerala.

In fact, it's certainly possible that a literature teacher might very well written in this style --for effect.

Freddy's prose was florid and a tad excessive, that is certainly true. He clearly knew that as he was writing it.

But it fails as a composition only if one believes that the modern terse style is the only right approach to composition

But terse writing (generally using simpler sentence structure) is not the only way to write, neither is it the best way to write, either.

There is no such thing as the correct style of writing.

The correct style of writing is whatever style that serves to convey the sentiments that the author means to convey to the audience that the author is hoping to reach.

To paraphase Duke Ellington's views on good music as it regards good writing?

IF it reads good, it is good​

The 'modern terse style', wherever you got that phrase....you mean modern as in for the past 100 years? I disagree with you completely. Show me a published author of note who is highly regarded, one from the past 100 years, who writes like that. There is definitely a desirable writing style, and a correct one based on the principles of writing to communicate rather than to impress or to be self indulgent. To say there is no such thing as a correct writing style is like saying it's poetry and I can interpret it any way I want regardless of what the actual textual evidence suggests. Silly. 'Freddie's prose' is revolting, and he had no idea what he was doing. If he did know what he was doing, if he were doing it purposely and pointedly, it would be, clearly, written as parody, as irony. It wasn't.

Look, I'm not going to continue with this discussion. It's like arguing that 'anything I decide is art is art.' Not true. It's like arguing with someone who thinks velvet Elvis paintings are good art: his prose is comparable to that kind of thing as far as the written word. You think it's good. I am not going to waste my time trying to convince you or anyone else otherwise. I would say, take a few courses in English literature and argue with your professor about it.

 

[FreddyMuscle]

Esmeralda--- sorry but that's nonsense. No student would ever receive a failing mark for turning in a piece like this. You don't know what you're talking about... so stop. I understand you don't like it... I get it... I GET IT! It's purple... it's purple... it's purple.

This particular letter was written exactly as intended... color aside. It was deliberate... the words, the phrasing, the meter... all deliberate. You may not like it... but that's a different story.

I don't always write like that... and I never talk like that... out-loud at least.

When I posted it here... I didn't expect kids to read it... it wasn't written for them. I'm well aware of my high school students' abilities and limitations. You really think 14-15 yr olds have the kind of vocabulary to get through this letter? Of course they don't... and I wouldn't expect them to.

What I didn't expect was the infantile responses I've received from people claiming to be adults. I'm getting accused of being a kid? I think we know who's really doing the masquerading.

"you're a pussy... your a twat... you're a douche" ...you're this, you're that. Kind of juvenile. (Guys, you really seem to be hung up on the whole vagina thing.)

But then again, and let's take Unkotare as an example... I think his ID block says he joined in Aug 2011... I could be wrong. That means he's been on this board for almost 22 months... or there abouts. In that time, he's posted 25,600 times... again, I'm doing this from memory so it might not be exact... That works out to around 1200 a month or 300 a week or 45-50 a day.

Factor in the time it takes him to actually read other people's posts... assuming that he does... and what I take from this is... Get a life, people. Jesus Christ, how pathetic is this? Apparently Unkotare is a college student carrying a 2.5 GPA... I'm not surprised. Who has time to study when banging out 45-50 posts a day... A DAY.

Some people on this board need to get out more... they've forgotten how to be civil.

In any case, Editec clearly got the gist of the letter. Yes, it's over the top... yes, it mixes metaphors... yes, it's provocative...duh.

But don't tell me it's atrocious... because it's not.
Don't tell me it's rubbish, because it isn't.
Don't tell me I'm a lousy teacher, because I'm not.
Don't tell me to quit teaching, because I won't.

The truth is I'm a great teacher and my students would back me up on this if you asked them. Why? Because I do care... a lot... and I'm working in a system that has allowed them to become everything I accuse them of being in the letter. It's not their fault they are what they are... they're kids for chrissakes. It's we adults that are making a hash of things... and they suffer for it.

Take out the references to High School students... substitute your own pet peeve. Try it that way... it kinda reads the same way... or it's pretty close.

Feel better now, Esmeralda?

 

[Esmeralda]

Esmeralda--- sorry but that's nonsense. No student would ever receive a failing mark for turning in a piece like this. You don't know what you're talking about... so stop. I understand you don't like it... I get it... I GET IT! It's purple... it's purple... it's purple.

This particular letter was written exactly as intended... color aside. It was deliberate... the words, the phrasing, the meter... all deliberate. You may not like it... but that's a different story.

I don't always write like that... and I never talk like that... out-loud at least.

When I posted it here... I didn't expect kids to read it... it wasn't written for them. I'm well aware of my high school students' abilities and limitations. You really think 14-15 yr olds have the kind of vocabulary to get through this letter? Of course they don't... and I wouldn't expect them to.

What I didn't expect was the infantile responses I've received from people claiming to be adults. I'm getting accused of being a kid? I think we know who's really doing the masquerading.

"you're a pussy... your a twat... you're a douche" ...you're this, you're that. Kind of juvenile. (Guys, you really seem to be hung up on the whole vagina thing.)

But then again, and let's take Unkotare as an example... I think his ID block says he joined in Aug 2011... I could be wrong. That means he's been on this board for almost 22 months... or there abouts. In that time, he's posted 25,600 times... again, I'm doing this from memory so it might not be exact... That works out to around 1200 a month or 300 a week or 45-50 a day.

Factor in the time it takes him to actually read other people's posts... assuming that he does... and what I take from this is... Get a life, people. Jesus Christ, how pathetic is this? Apparently Unkotare is a college student carrying a 2.5 GPA... I'm not surprised. Who has time to study when banging out 45-50 posts a day... A DAY.

Some people on this board need to get out more... they've forgotten how to be civil.

In any case, Editec clearly got the gist of the letter. Yes, it's over the top... yes, it mixes metaphors... yes, it's provocative...duh.

But don't tell me it's atrocious... because it's not.
Don't tell me it's rubbish, because it isn't.
Don't tell me I'm a lousy teacher, because I'm not.
Don't tell me to quit teaching, because I won't.

The truth is I'm a great teacher and my students would back me up on this if you asked them. Why? Because I do care... a lot... and I'm working in a system that has allowed them to become everything I accuse them of being in the letter. It's not their fault they are what they are... they're kids for chrissakes. It's we adults that are making a hash of things... and they suffer for it.

Take out the references to High School students... substitute your own pet peeve. Try it that way... it kinda reads the same way... or it's pretty close.

Feel better now, Esmeralda?

Actually, I do know what I am talking about. As far as getting the meaning of your 'letter,' I did. I'm the one who carefully explored every word of it, like navigating a field full of cow patties, and responded to you fairly and thoughtfully. As if you deserved it. Which I see now you didn't. What I understand now is that you only want to hear what you want to hear. Go buy a velvet Elvis painting. You'll feel better being in your own company.

 

[FreddyMuscle]

Wow... my previous post was written before I read your latest missive to Editec.

Now, I'm "revolting" on top of everything else.. <sigh> You do realise it's only your opinion... and others have their own, right?

"My writing is like a velvet Elvis".... I love it. I LOVE IT. Please, I want to use this... often. Hope you don't mind!!!!

 

[FreddyMuscle]

No you don't

Yes, I do

No you don't

Yes I do



Now I see how people accumulate so many posts.
I'm done.

 

[Esmeralda]

No you don't

Yes, I do

No you don't

Yes I do



Now I see how people accumulate so many posts.
I'm done.

You need some self awareness. Your behavior and attitude are as bad as anything you ascribe to your students or to the people posting on this message board.

 

[Jackson]

When commenting on your class, you threw them under the bus big time. They were either in the court system or on their way, a few had children and one or two were pregnant while about 12 students had no acceptable public behavior and nearly all of your students will be socially promoted regardless of the grades or knowledge that incurred in your classroom.

I heard no redeeming qualities about any of them, especially in regards to intellect or talent. Just that they would "back you up." Is that what it is all about?

You could tell about the negatives on many of your students, but what about the positives? Each student is an individual with strengths and weaknesses. Have you taken a student and built from his strengths? Have you taken the time to sit with students after class and work on those weaknesses and give the added practice they need?

No, I would venture a guess you are not great. Not even good. You would know of the incredible highs a teacher gets when the students "get" the difficult concept for the first time. It's when you go and give them all a "high five" and take the deep breath and say, "YES! It's all worth it!" Even the bad days. But you never throw them under the bus.

 

[Unkotare]

But don't tell me it's atrocious... because it's not.
Don't tell me it's rubbish, because it isn't.
Don't tell me I'm a lousy teacher, because I'm not.
Don't tell me to quit teaching, because I won't.

It's crap, and you are full of crap. If you really were a teacher, your attitude alone would prove that you suck. The fact that crappy teachers like the one you are pretending to be don't quit and aren't shit-canned like they deserve is a big part of the reason why K-12 public education in this country tends to suck.

 

[Unkotare]

No you don't

Yes, I do

No you don't

Yes I do



Now I see how people accumulate so many posts.
I'm done.

No need to make an announcement, just GTFO.

 

[Old Rocks]

Kids today are pretty much what kids have always been. One of the best books I have read about what a good teacher is, is called 'The Thread that runs so True'. Don't remember the author's name, but were you to read it, you would find that you really don't have it so tough.

 

[Katzndogz]

No you don't

Yes, I do

No you don't

Yes I do



Now I see how people accumulate so many posts.
I'm done.

After reading all the replies do you finally understand why your students are the way they are?

 

[Esmeralda]

Kids today are pretty much what kids have always been.

This is so true!

 

[Two Thumbs]

wow, flaming out in her first thread

tis sad

 

[editec]

Esmerala?

You really stepped in it here, lass.

The 'modern terse style', wherever you got that phrase....you mean modern as in for the past 100 years? I disagree with you completely. Show me a published author of note who is highly regarded, one from the past 100 years, who writes like that.

How about William Faulkner for starters?

 

[Esmeralda]

Esmerala?

You really stepped in it here, lass.

The 'modern terse style', wherever you got that phrase....you mean modern as in for the past 100 years? I disagree with you completely. Show me a published author of note who is highly regarded, one from the past 100 years, who writes like that.

How about William Faulkner for starters?

William Faulkner does not write in any way like the OP's 'letter.' Nothing like it. Take out some Faulkner and compare it.

Here's an analogy: Purple Prose

Naturally beautiful:

They are both wearing makeup, but one is using restraint and subtlety, the other is over doing it. Which is more beautiful? Which is getting the message across better?