Alrighty, it's been a while, I've been busy and this shitty-ass heat makes my shitty-ass computer go apeshit on me. But boy, do I have a lot to rant about. Now, it's September...Labor day, Autumn begins (though shitty-ass SoCal weather says otherwise. Ass.) and of course, for many people of all ages: school begins. Another year filled with excitement, anticipation, tests, homework, your local bully just waiting to give you an atomic wedgie. A time when children get up every morning and go to school and receive a fine education.
Or do they? School is a place where children are supposed to learn and prepare themselves for the future. However, throughout the years - through my own experiences as well as the experiences of my younger siblings - that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm sure there are other children who are going through that struggle to receive an education. Now, I'm 25 years old, so it's been quite a while since I was in school. However, having two younger siblings - the youngest one in elementary school has allowed me to come to one conclusion: nothing has changed. In fact, schools are getting worse in quality. More than a decade ago, it was, I believe, a former mayor of L.A who said: "L.A.U.S.D is a disaster". My father and I agreed - and sadly it's still a fucking disaster - maybe more.
To start things off, if you live in Southern California, then you already know what a motherfucking brutal day it was, with heat as high as 109 F. Earlier today, I was listening to my younger brother telling us about some of his own not-so-great experiences in school. Among one of them is when he and his classmates have to wait outside in this terrible heat, in the sun, while some teacher who gets to enjoy the comfort of the shade walks about, looking for the most well-behaved class to send to lunch.
Now, if you don't know or remember this, let me explain: at lunch time, kids are told to form a line before they're taken to the cafeteria. Simple enough, right? Well, here's where the simplicity ends. Upon arrival, they might be divided into two lines (I don't know about other schools, but one of the schools I went do did divide the line. As they're waiting, another teacher has to walk back and forth to see which class is the most silent. Once a class has been selected they teacher examines both lines to see which of the two is the most quite. Once they've been selected, they get to go ahead, while the other line is left to wait longer. If even one child is doing so much as looking around and not standing straight as he or she is supposed to, then the whole group is punished. Mm-hmm, all it takes is one dumbshit, and everyone deals with the consequences - what is this bullshit? I thought this was school, not the military. Why should everyone have to be expected to wait longer just because one person won't stand still or be quiet? If someone has to be punished for "bad behavior" then it should be the one behind it.
Now, after the lunch period is finished, according to my younger brother, when the bell rings, everyone in the school yard is expected to freeze on the spot. The first thing that came out of my mouth was "I can't believe they still do that!". I had to do that when I was in third grade... c.c;; And this idiotic system is still being put to use more than a decade later in another school.
The schools think of this as a form of discipline, teaching kids how to listen and follow instructions. Know what I have to say to those schools that use those methods? Fuck you, okay? That's not discipline, that's nothing more than getting children to submit into a system of control for the sake of convenience, and then continue to shove that down their throats. Another prime example of trying to get children to submit into control is the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm sorry, but I believe this Pledge of Allegiance is a lot of bullshit. Every morning kids are expected to form this unnecessary little ceremony. My question is: what is the purpose of all this? Why should children have to be programmed into parroting some speech?
Someone I am acquainted with posted somewhere that this pledge should remain in schools, and disregard everyone who feels offended by it. It's not about offending, it's about that control, what's about the point of it all? What is the point of parroting the Pledge of Allegiance? Who are you pledging it to? How is this a show of loyalty to a nation when kids don't understand these concepts yet? Plus the pledge is nothing but a load of hypocrisy, which I will get to another time.
Another thing about the school system pissing me off is schools won't even let the parents into the schools to speak with the teachers if they have an issue they'd like to discuss. They have to get past some security system, sign papers, show them an ID, etc. And now at my brother's school, they have a valet drop off where you can drop the kid off but you're not allowed to make sure they get into the school. I can understand that they want to protect the students, nothing is more important than their safety, but I believe that these methods are doing nothing more than taking away the rights from parents who should be the ones to have the final say on their child's education.
If I were a parent and I'm dropping off my kid, I want to at least stick around and make sure they make it into the building. Or if my child were entering a new school, or is late...I at least want take my child to the classroom and make sure they don't get lost and make it to the classroom safely. But no, if a child is late for school, they have to go to the main office give their excuse and then they're left to either walk back to class on their own or with a staff member. Sorry, that's just not going to happen, if my child is still between kindergarten and second grade. How do they expect a child of that age to make it to a new classroom on their own, or how can they expect me to let someone else be in charge of my child like that. I know it seems paranoid, but I think my child's safety is the most important thing. Okay, this is a staff member that has worked for the school for years and years, the rest of the staff trusts them, etc. That's great and all, but this person is still a complete stranger to me, I don't care, I'd rather take my kid to class than leave him or her alone with one stranger.
Now, the final topic I'd like to bitch about for the moment are the teachers themselves. In my years of school, I have met the nastiest people on the planet that left me with a mental scar or two who were unfortunately my teachers. Among my earliest memories in school was my second grade teacher, Mrs. Murphy. Now, this seemed like a nice person. Until the parents were gone and class started. I am not fucking exaggerating when I say this woman was downright abusive. If I was asked a question and I answered it wrong, she would speak to me in the most condescending, nasty tone. There were times where the students would be expected to clean their desks - which it wouldn't normally be such a bad thing...except that if you didn't organize your things fast enough, she turned the desk over and spill everything on the floor. What kind of person uses that kind of treatment on a child?
I told my father about this, who then went to have a discussion with Mrs. Murphy. What happened there? She outright lied and said she did no such thing. Even after that, she kept doing it. Eventually my father had a talk with the principal, who I'm sure didn't even give a rat's ass. On picture day, I was minding my own business and waiting in line to have my picture taken, when suddenly Mrs. Murphy grabs me by the arm and pulls me out of the line to a more isolated area of the auditorium where she told me to keep my mouth shut and never tell my father about how she was treating me and the classroom and threatening me, telling me I'd be in trouble if I told my father, before taking me back to the line.
So what did I do? I told my father about it. And you can imagine how furious he was when he went to the principal. Of course, again, no one in the school seemed to care that one of their teachers was bullying her own students. When they refused to discipline this fucking bitch, he had me change classrooms to a much nicer teacher...who eventually went on maternity leave and then I ended up getting stuck with another shrewd bitch for a teacher until I finally got to third grade. Of course, you'd think after changing classrooms, my issues with Mrs. Murphy would have been finished. No. I was having an argument with my former classmates when I stated that "Mrs. Murphy was stupid". Somehow, that alone triggered this huge controversy among the staff, including the principal, to the point where I was forced to write an apology letter to the bitch or I would be suspended. What the fucking hell? How does a child's words provoke such a reaction when the abusive teacher doesn't even get a slap on the wrist for her behavior? In the end I didn't have to turn in the letter nor was I suspended.
And Mrs. Murphy was certainly not the last of the nasty people I had to put up with. And looking to those experiences, I worry for my brother. Will he meet with teachers with a heart as rotten as Mrs. Murphy? I often wonder why some people even bother becoming teachers if they absolutely hate dealing with kids, they hate helping, and they're so fucking lazy. When I didn't have a nasty teacher, I also had to put up with the lazy ones. My agriculture teacher in high school was the laziest son of a bitch I ever had the misfortune of getting stuck with for a teacher. This was a sixty year old man who, I shit you not, dressed like he was sixteen and used the "gangsta lingo". We did virtually nothing in that class, and when we did go to the agricultural area, the only thing we did was the clean up job for the other classes. The one time we did get to work with plants, we planted tomatoes which we left in a very broken and poorly-maintained greenhouse. He kept promising that he would take us back to the green house to check up on our tomatoes if we did our work. He never gave us work, and when we did turn in something, he never even looked at it. Weeks passed when someone asked about our tomato plants, he looked up and said "they died". Mm-hmm...they went severely neglected and died. And here's the kicker: he blamed it on us. Even the lazy shits who didn't do their work pointed out that it wasn't so awesome to let our plants die.
My sixth grade math teacher was just as fun...A Murphy-ish bitch named Mrs. Malin, who separated the students into two groups: the smart students and the students who struggled. Her playing favorites was so obvious, no one in my group (I used to struggle with math, so you can guess where I went into) went without noticing it. She spent most of her time with the smarter kids, treated them more nicely...while for the rest of us...she wasn't so nice because we were the "dumber" kids.
So yeah, if you're gonna be mean and you're lazy, you hate having kids come up to you with questions and need help don't be a teacher. It's not always the student's fault they're failing in school. Maybe if schools would spend less time praising and babying the honor/zoo magnet/gifted students, who are already going to do well anyway and don't need that much help; and spend more time actually helping struggling students do better, then maybe the dropout rate would decrease and more students would graduate, get into a good college and have a good future. If a student fails to finish high school, it's not because they're lazy, at least not most of the time, it's because the educational system in this country needs to get its shit together and actually care about the students.
The children are the future, but if we don't do something in the present, we are literally going to fuck things up for the future generations. We need to help them succeed in school... I truly feel that kids are just getting dumber and dumber because we don't do enough to educate them, and children that do care for the future are left to fend for themselves. This shouldn't happen. I'm not saying all teachers suck, I've met and had great teachers that were a shining example of what a teacher should be. Teachers that taught me to think outside the box, and actually took the time to make sure I understood the lectures and didn't move on to the next thing until everyone understood the subject; that actually do their work out of a love they have for teaching; who taught me to reach my full potential. These are the kinds of teachers that should be educating our children, not some nasty-hearted asshole who doesn't even care anymore. And if being a teacher is so frustrating, why not change careers instead of sacrificing a child's education and self-esteem just because someone would rather be a complete asshole than do the job they're paid to do and at the quality they owe to their students for their sake.
I could go on and on and point out every single flaw within the shitty educational system. And I probably will continue this rant some other time, but I have things I have to get to. So good night, and make sure you leave a bowl of cottage cheese outside your door to ward away Justin Bieber.
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