Watching Boston Public & now i need to vent. . .

One of my favorite shows is Boston Public. . .i like it b/c it give me an opportunity to laugh at things i see in my classroom everyday. . . . but tonight as i was watching the character gave a speech that I would like to share on here AND i gave a her a hearty AMEN when she gave the speech. . .

I've had it. . . let me tell you something, the reason I've had it is b/c I go into that classroom day after day after damn day and try to break through to children who don't want to listen, who don't want to learn and don't and don't want to give me the decency of being quiet. . . you show me a teacher who doesn't almst lost is his mind sometimes and let me tell you that teacher is not trying. I know some parents who aren't, you send then to school thinking, the jobs done, its up to the teacher now. Well, it doesn't work that way. You've gotta get in this too. They come to school everyday singing that jingle that those can't do, teach. They get this from their parents. I know what you think of us. Let me tell you, we're in there everyday doing and a lot of the doing we do is parent. You want to compare failures. . . step right up.

She addressed this to some parents. Let me tell you, somedays i feel like this. . . its very difficult in an urban district when you don't get parental support. Its so fustrating, when they don't show up until the child is failing. This past semester, 38% of my students failed my class. And the administration wants to know what are we going to do to fix this so they don't fail for the entire year. Well, as a reward, I offered a Pizza Party to the class with the highest average at the end of the term. It actually is working. .. i've received homework from students who haven't turned in anything all year. Honestly, I believe the motivation is all wrong. Parents should be the motivators, students should learn to self motivate. . . .Okay, this is my vent for a while. . ..