toilet!!!!!!!!!!
February 18, 2005 at 5:46 a.m.
Okay, I guess this is funny. I didn't think so at the time, but that's what I hear later...
So yesterday I'm sitting in my homeroom just staring at them because there is nothing to do. My co teach, Peter, leaves the room for a sec and the class hears him say in the hallway "hey y'all should get to your homerooms! Wait - you're supposed to be in MY homeroom!" and a minute later, he comes in with this amused look and asked me to fish some girls who are skipping class out of the bathroom.
So I go in there and these dumb freshman girls are actually HIDING in a stall together - like I won't see to pairs of feet and I don't already kow they are there and all of the other obvious plot holes in their moronic plan. So I tell them loudly and authoritatively to please get out. Nothing. For I don't know how long this goes on, but man I got MAD! Next thing you know, I'm STANDING ON A SINK, looking down at these two freshman, yelling at them to get out and they actually are thinking they are STILL HIDING because they are giggling and huddling together with their heads down, staring at the freaking toilet.
Finally I yell "LOOK UP YOU IDIOTS!!! I AM FREAKING LOOKING AT YOU RIGHT NOW!!" and then they notice that maybe they have been found out (OH MY GOSH!!) and they come out. I take them to my office and I ask them "seriously - are you idiots? Did you actually think that if you hid in a toilet that you might not get in trouble - that maybe you'd freaking disappear or something??" They had no answer. Oh my gosh, freaking MORONS!!!!!! I just can't believe how dumb they are!
Well, I actually read an article a while back about how teenager's brains - until about 18 or so - have not fuly developed and one of those parts is the portion of the brain that can fully comprehend consequenses to their actions. So maybe they really did think they could just flush themselves down the toilet and not get noticed. Duh.
All the other teachers thought it was hilarious and wondered why I cared so much, but I hate the number of kids who are so disrespectful to themselves and others, and me. I'm not used to punk kids, Luckily the orchestra gets a better group of kids, but dealing with the dregs brings me down.
I locked myself in my office after it happened and cried myself silly. I hate yelling at people. I was raised in the Suzuki method - you do not yell and push a student or fellow human being to be respectful, you show them with so much example that the can't help but begin to mirror it. It's is a lovely concept, and it really, really works. But not with the kids that are already hardening into buttheads (professional word). I hate being hard. I don't believe in it.
Hmmmm... with all my wonderings if this is what I should be doing next year, it almost seems like if I have a few more instances where I call students idiots and scream at them, I might not HAVE to come back. Heh. They might just ask me to leave;)
And in other news, 2 of my top orchestras are preparing to head to the national finals in the high school orchestra division of ASTA in Reno, Nevada next week. They are doing really incredibly and I really think they have a shot at 1st place. Crossing all my fingers... although it does mean that even though I am excited about competeing and the experience, I have to leave my husband for 4 days. No one wants that... grrr..... and I get to chaperone... arg!!
SUPERCRACK is flyin' high anyway!