High school kids rant OT

I have been persuaded to sub teach for local school. Originaly I said only for my friend the ag teacher unless theres an emergency to have enough subs. Sure must be a lot of emergencys as I have been called a lot. I have heard so much about today's kids, their attitudes, lack of respect and general acting like goons. Well folks I am here to tell you here in south west Ind and I bet most rural schools across america the kids are GREAT!!!. Sure they tried me at first but just a bit. They are respectful, helpful to me , and a real pleasure to work with. Maybe the big citys are different. I do not have one child that I have had in class that I would not want i n my shop or home for that matter. I do make every effort to treat them like my best teachers treated me 50 years ago. I think possibly the media needs fodder for the news cast. Our local kids are not in the local news. Most have jobs and or chores at home. To close I will just say rural america is alive and well in my opinion. Bill Wilson Hey I even had to sub for an english teacher one day.

What you are saying is that the parents did a good job for the most part in raising them. You can forget about the city kids, punks that need a butt kicking.

My sons grade school is well managed and the kids are polite and respectful for the most part. From what I see every day when I pick up my 9 year old.

Thanks for the positive post and I agree that's also the way it is south of your border in our great state of Ky. I spent 33 years in education and know that in many cases schools, teachers and students get a bum rap. I found that most kids are respectful and well behaved. I am also from a rural area where you can still hire kids to help on the farm if needed and they will try to do a good job.

Just went to my wife's 25th reunion last week and were fortunate to get a tour from the principal of the updated school. We all marveled at the complexity of today's study and how much like college it is. She pointed out that media etc. always hammers the U.S. schools but here they are teaching college level courses never heard of 25-30 yrs ago. BUT,... This does not take into account the inner city schools. The inner cities which at the time are running some of our states and our country. Near me the city schools have a graduation rate of less than 30%. So its not so much the kids as the family or lack thereof environment that they are in.

(quoted from post at 00:58:10 10/16/10) I have been persuaded to sub teach for local school. Originaly I said only for my friend the ag teacher unless theres an emergency to have enough subs. Sure must be a lot of emergencys as I have been called a lot. I have heard so much about today's kids, their attitudes, lack of respect and general acting like goons. Well folks I am here to tell you here in south west Ind and I bet most rural schools across america the kids are GREAT!!!. Sure they tried me at first but just a bit. They are respectful, helpful to me , and a real pleasure to work with. Maybe the big citys are different. I do not have one child that I have had in class that I would not want i n my shop or home for that matter. I do make every effort to treat them like my best teachers treated me 50 years ago. I think possibly the media needs fodder for the news cast. Our local kids are not in the local news. Most have jobs and or chores at home. To close I will just say rural america is alive and well in my opinion. Bill Wilson Hey I even had to sub for an english teacher one day.

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Come to Southern California and you'll be singing a totally different tune. I'm a high school teacher over here and I had a sophomore threaten me two days ago because he has gang connections.

The finest students in my university classes are rural/Farm kids. There are exceptions both ways, but Farm kids are rational and positive, as well as equipped with a grasp of how things work. Amazing! Jim

About 25 to 30 years ago, I spent five and a half years as Buildings and Grounds Supervisor for a local public school district, not the same school I attended, but in the same county. I took the job when an old family friend retired from it. I've often wondered since how he coped with it.

To this day, I refuse to believe this school district was typical of all Midwest schools. It was different. The Superintendent was an alcoholic, the town drunk, if you will. I knew that when I took the job, but I had no idea how much it affected his interaction with the staff. Or lack of same. People openly joked about him around town. The School Board didn't have the guts to do anything about the situation because they were afraid he'd sue them.

The high school Principal was marking time for a few years till he could retire, and refused to rock the boat by engaging in any form of discipline.

The elementary Principal had not one lick of common sense. He had his doctorate, and one time after a snow storm he looked at the snow on the south side of a snow fence and commented, "We sure must have had a strong south wind to blow all that snow on the south side of the snow fence".

Of the student body, roughly half had a Mennonite background. Some were more dedicated to the order than others, but all were superb students. The other half of the student body were undisciplined holy terrors. They knew there would be no discipline enforced in the school, and acted accordingly. They'd bust outside windows in zero weather just for laughs. The night before high school graduation, someone put a sufficient amount of stink bait in the ventilation ducts in the gym so that graduation had to be moved to the gym at a community college in town.

A favorite ploy was to hide out somewhere in the school until it was locked up for the night and then emerge to create all sorts of mayhem. My night custodians locked up at 11pm, but there were too many hiding places to check them all every night.

I was normally the first one into the high school building in the morning, and one morning after a basketball game I found where someone had tried to torch the building. Someone had set some wooden soda pop cases in a pile against some wooden cabinets in the faculty lounge and set them on fire. Thankfully, the fire went out on its own.

The "you know what" hit the fan with a full scale investigation up to and including the State Fire Marshall. Then one of the students who was interviewed recalled seeing the School Board President's daughter, who had graduated the previous year, and one of her girl friends in an inebriated condition hanging back in the building after the basketball game when everyone else was leaving. Instantly, there was not one more word said about the entire event. Instantly, it was like it never happened.

I could go on and on. I stuck it out five and a half years, and one Spring about two months before the end of the school year I sat in my office one Friday afternoon and asked myself, "Why am I doing this?" I thought about it some more over the weekend and Sunday evening wrote a letter of resignation giving two weeks notice. I was an "at will" employee, so I figured if they could fire me at will, I could tell them to stick it at will. I didn't even bother to finish out the school year. I bypassed the Superintendent and hand delivered the letter to the School Board President the next day.

My successor lasted four years. But about then, the elementary Principal left of his own accord, the Superintendent and high school Principal retired, and a whole new regime took over. It had to be an improvement.

I apologize for hijacking the thread and going off on a rant, but it was a job I could have enjoyed until retirement, given a modicum of level headedness and support by the Board and Administration.

BINGO! Guru you are right on the money. Columbus Public Schools are spending money like it's going out of style but they still have a high school that's graduating 42%. It's the PARENTS that make a difference!!

(quoted from post at 21:12:11 10/15/10) BINGO! Guru you are right on the money. Columbus Public Schools are spending money like it's going out of style but they still have a high school that's graduating 42%. It's the PARENTS that make a difference!!

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now I know why so many of the people in columbus annoy me with their stupidity.

It is nice to hear some positive about the young people.

I second aFORDable's opinion.. In an area where most county high schools' are 650 kids or less, seems like the parents still have the values to instill something of worth in their children. It may be biased of me, but I attribute it to 80% of these kids growing up on or around a farm. It did well by me, and I hope it is doing well by my two young children. I've got a 5 yr old daughter who will ride in a combine until she falls asleep, and will then curl up on a blanket in the floor and stay there over going home.. lol.. Got a two-week old boy who will likely be the same way I'm sure. Good thing they're not riding in the open door of an IH 303 with their legs hanging out on the ladder eating dust like I grew up, but apparently the dust never drove me home back then, either. My rear-end saw many seasons in the door of that 303 and later a 715, and many springs of riding the fender of a 666 IH and a 165 MF during disking and planting, never seemed to wear down my desire to be out there any. Now with quiet cabs, a/c and stereos, it's making it too easy on all of us to stay out there!

Are you in or near Gibson County? One of my best friends taught Ag at Princeton for years.

Stan

Before we sold our business we hired lots of high school kids over the years. Only had to fire one. You hated to see them go when they started to college or moved on. Told the ones working for us you know what the job endures do you know anyone that would like to work here. Never had to put a sign up needing help. Still today if run into one of the kids they tell us how much they enjoyed working for us. Of course they had their own money to spend and other school kids did not. There are lots of good kids out there, but again this is the midwest.

90% of the time its how you treat the students talk to them like they are 10 and thats what youll get treat them like decent adults and they will return the favor