Invincible, Marigolds, Hamsters and Irwin

There are actually some singular points to this and it is for the most part connected. Forgive me, however if I take a while. To begin with, I'm sick.

Wet Miami weather (for all that I had a wonderful trip and look forward to the next one...) and 4 hours on a plane in less than four days have conspired to make my brain swim in snot and my throat drown in it. (Yes, I know what a pretty picture that is. Sorry.)

On Tuesday my students read the story "Marigolds," about a young African American girl growing up in rural Maryland during the depression. Great story. The crux of which is that innocence and compassion cannot co-exist, as innocence is the ignorance of others and compassion is being able to put yourself in their place. Beautiful story. I spent 20 minutes before the story telling the class about personal experiences I had had that this story made me think of. Then for fifteen minutes after they read the story (listened to it on CD while reading along actually) I made more comparisons in life, literature, movies and my life. Then I asked the class what they thought about the story.

Dumb looks ran rampant for almost 8 minutes. Then one brave child stood up and said, "it's about this girl." OK. Next child said, "It's about racism." Here I thought might be a spark. "How is that?" I ask. "Um... I don't know." Two strikes. OK. Another child says, "It's about growing up, changing the way we look at things." Yes, Good! Then "Growing up." They just said that. Next, "Growing up." Yeah, we got that. Middle child got lucky, the other two after tried to ride that train. Thirty students per period, three periods. Not an original thought in the bunch. This is why I became a teacher?

Today I played them Pat Benitar's "Invincible." It's about child abuse and has the line, "We cannot afford to be innocent." Innocent again means ignorant. It took the class over thirty minutes to begin to come close enough to what the song is about on it's own so I could hint to the point that they got it. Then they had to figure out how the story and song were connected. Another thirty minutes.

I've often joked that inside our heads are hamster wheels and that is what powers our brain. Difficult days in class just about "Kill the hamster." Let me tell you, there were dead hamsters all over my class today. The sad part is that many died in vain. I do not believe that the kids made a connection of any significance either day.

A week ago when I was explaining what I thought about something, one of the students whistled and said, "Ms. X, you think way too much!" The class laughed a bit. I did too. But in light of the dead hamsters I'm not so sure it's funny.

These kids want it all explained for them, so they don't have to try much less pay attention. I'd even consider telling them if I thought they listened. They can't even master, "Don't talk" and "Do your work" for more than three minutes at a time. This absolutely terrifies me in terms of out nation and planet's future. Kids don't know how to think and I'm not sure they even want to learn how.

One child, a gifted child at that, told me, "This is too hard." when I asked him to write down all the things he thought about when he read the story. He had written one line. "This story was good." That's all he turned in, as a matter of fact. "That's all I could think of."

What happened to Steve Irwin was a tragedy and a real shame. However, when you think of how he spent his time, all the things he had to have learned and known and how aware he had to be of his surroundings it is amazing to me that he was in such good health for as long as he was. (Not to mean he "had it coming" or any other such rubbish, just that accidents happen and you have to keep your brain working...) My students, even with training wouldn't last a month. They can't and won't concentrate, won't focus and don't pay attention. This is a dangerous thing. These are people we are about to let drive.

Oh, they tell me, "We like driving." So you mean to say you can focus on what you care about? Hope you get the dream job that involves nothing you don't enjoy when you grow up. Be a bummer to lose a job you like and can do because of that one small part you don't like, didn't pay attention to and therefore messed up.

Why should I be surprised though, when they where shirts to school that say, "My worst day anywhere is still better than my best day of school." and "Wake me up when class is over."

Pardon me, I have to go shovel the bodies of the fat, lazy, bloated, dead hamsters off the floor before the next group gets here.