I don't play that!

Sometimes I wonder about young people today.  Many of them seem to have some sort of a complex that leads them to believe that they are the ones that control any situation they encounter.

Yesterday, in track practice a normally calm and cool coach snapped at one of our athletes.  She approached him, stood right next to him, and proceeded to correct his directions to an athlete on how to properly take a relay handoff.  She even told the coach that he was wrong and that the way she explained it was the right way.  What she actually told the girl to do made no sense.

Today, in class, I had a student tell me that she just didn't feel like doing the assignment that was given.  She said that she would just do it after the weekend.  I told her that the assignment was for now, that we would be doing something different on Monday, and that she needed to suck it up and do the work that was in front of her.  She reluctantly filled in some of the information for the assignment.

I have several students who feel that they can just wander around the school wherever they want to.  I have had students who (before I let them know that this is not acceptable) will just walk out of class.  Others who are not in my class will sometimes just barge into class to talk with another student.

There are some teachers who must tolerate this behavior, otherwise, the students would not be doing it.

So, in their classrooms, I guess the kids run things and the students can do a lot of what they want.

I think this connects to the parenting style of some people.

There are a lot of parents who are very lenient with their children.  (My child is my best friend. WTF?!)  On several occasions I have had students receive a phone call from their parents.  In. The. Middle. Of. Class.  The student answers, because, for some reason I still think that there must be some sort of emergency for the parent to call during school hours, and the call turns out to be for some mundane thing. "No, Mom, I am staying after school today."  "Mom, I did fill in the job application." "Mom, the reason you can't get through on her phone is because her phone is cut off."  "Yes, Mom, I have my soccer socks."  And incidentals that are no reason to call your kid during school hours.

Today, I had a student tell me that since it was Ac Lab time (basically like a study hall) she could talk on her phone despite me letting her know that the rules say phones should only be out during passing periods.  She proceeded to walk into the hall and make a call to another person to talk about another girl they both seem to not like.

I proceeded to write a discipline referral.

I'm not a parent, and I can't completely judge parents, but I can say that I think it is best to be the parent and not the friend.  I think it is best to not be calling or texting your child during school hours.  Most people who are parents now did not have cell phones as much when we were younger.  Our parents survived without talking to us during school time.

I overhear these students talking about how they can do whatever they want at home.  Some of them talk about how their parents buy them alcohol, and others, smoke out with their parents (not cigarettes).  This is not an "inner-city", "minority" school.  We are in the suburbs.  We are surrounded by "affluent" homes and nice neighborhoods.

These parents seem to continue to enable their children to the point where their children become our students/athletes who think that they can manipulate their teachers and coaches the same way that they tend to do their parents.

And, I guess, it works with many of the faculty at the school.

I don't play that.