Outside View from Inside the Classroom

A couple of weeks ago I had this, what I thought, brilliant idea – have my students write blogs of their own on social or human geography issues (Here’s the link – Students With a View). This would serve two purposes. First it would break up the day to day class of memorize this and memorize that. In doing that it seemed like I was just creating sheep. Creatures that follow my every whim but have no thought of their own. Second it would help and motivate them to improve their writing. A skill that most had very little of. Well two weeks letter, the writing is coming around and they are starting to think on their own, but another problem has occurred – cheating.

They see nothing wrong with copying others words and arguments and passing them off as their own. They think that if the piece together a bunch of different people’s ideas, it then is their own. WRONG!!! The point was to get their thoughts down on paper, not somebody else’s.

HELP ME!!! How do I get them to understand that there is moral wrong here, they don’t see it that way, and get them to grasp the seriousness of the problem.

**My students are incredibly lazy!!

• Whatever happened to good old fashion work ethic. They students seem to want everything handed to them on a silver platter. All I ask is for a little work ethic and all I get is complaints. I thought that I was the king of laziness, but these kids take it to a whole new level, at least I am willing to work when I have responsibilities to cover.

**The level of their cheating is unbelievable!

• Do they have no moral compass at all! Copying essays of the internet, copying answers of of their friends, cheating on tests. And when caught all I get is “I didn’t know.” What a load of bull! They take no responsibility and the parents are sometimes worse saying that it is my fault that their student cheated. My Fault!! How am I responsible for their child having no moral compass to say that cheating is wrong!

**The morals of students today seems worse than ever, but maybe its just me.

• The level of students that brag about drinking, doing drugs, having unprotected sex and the fact that they talk so openly about it drives me crazy! I teach both freshman and seniors and they so nothing wrong about talking about how wasted they got over the weekend. The glamorize students that have kids or are pregnant. Seeing these kids one day in charge of our society just scares me.

**The level of support that the government (federal, state, and even sometimes local) is so inadequate that it makes me laugh because their is no other response to have.

• No child left behind. Enough said there.

**Student apathy is worse that students hating my class, at least in my opinion. If they hate my class at least they have formed an opinion.