But I Don’t Want To…….
Would you like some cheese with that whine?
I clearly remember saying these exact words to my mother, whether it was because I had to do the dishes or clean my room, the whine from my voice made it clear that I really didn’t want to do that specific chore. I’m not a mother myself (yet) but these are the words I hear from my students. When it’s time for book clubs, I hear…”I don’t want to do it,” surprisingly, I also hear these words at math time. In response I ask, ” I’m sorry, did I hear that correctly, did you just say you don’t want to? Too BAD!” I know, I’m so caring and compassionate…can you hear the sarcasm dripping from my words?
Eeons ago, I mean many years ago, when I was an elementary student I would never have dared respond to my teacher this way, that would have been impolite and rude and just plain bad manners. Yet today there is a new era of youngsters who apparently think they are in charge. When did this happen? Was I napping during this revolt? What does this mean for our future? Will our youth not want to care for the elderly because they just don’t want to? Will they use these same 5 words in response to an assignment their boss has given them? Perhaps I’m being too judgmental; predicting what characteristics these youngsters will retain into adulthood. Maybe they’ll grow out of their lazy rudeness. Or maybe they really don’t like math or reading. So instead of a generation of rude individuals who could care less about their elders or their jobs, we’ll be *blessed* with a generation of ignorant ones instead.
Yes, I know, every current generation thinks the up and coming generation is a pile of nimcompoops! Yet over my 8 years of teaching, I’ve definitely seen a change in student’s attitudes towards directions given by adults. They either can’t follow a direction at all, they remain off task continuing to draw their dinosaur instead of reading their book, or they whine “I don’t want to.” So here is my plan to change the future (I have that power as a teacher.)
- Continue to be a hard a** and demand a good work ethic.
- Use positive reinforcements to motivate the lazy ones.
- Continue to complement the ones that work and do their best, even without the brides reinforcements. (Making a huge deal about those students seems to whip the others into shape.)
- Constantly remind the students about their manners. Good manners gives a good first impression, which is what people remember most.
- Never give up on them…..somedays they surprise me.
Have you noticed changes in the younger population? Are you currently a parent who is working hard to mold those little buggers into shape? What experiences do you have with generational attitudes?
Wow, I can definitely hear my daughter’s whining in my ears with those exact words, “I don’t want to”. Ugh. And my husband says the same exact thing as you, ” Yet today there is a new era of youngsters who apparently think they are in charge. ” He says his mom would definitely punish them if anything like the whining came out of their mouth.
I agree. Both my kids do it. And you have to be a hard *ss. They may not like you for it we need a good clan of kids growing up. I also think their attitudes is a big play from society. We have everything in our disposal. We also have two-income families. I know that my working all the time is part of their attititudes. My husband and I don’t spend ample time the kids, but we do try our best. So in part, they are running their own show. But only to a degree.
And you have to play the broken record. Constantly reminding them over and over. I just hope that the end result of the broken-record-constant-reminding will work as it should when they get older.
I attribute the problem of rudeness in kids to 2 factors
1.) Kid TV shows represent the teachers in the show like they are morons. This makes your job very hard especially with the slower kids that don’t catch that TV isn’t reality.
2.) A higher percentage of parents don’t teach manners anymore and they believe their kids over the teachers.
If fact, if I were a teacher today, I’d be tempted to record the entire session of teaching, then when a kid behaves badly and lies to their parents, you have that to fall back on.
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@Money Funk – I completely agree with you, our society’s lifestyle is partly to blame along with the media. I think that if parents and teachers continue to mold them into responsible human’s, we’ll all be okay in the end!
@Money Reasons – I’d love to video tape my teaching and the students’ responses, then show it back to the parents! I think parent’s really sympathize with us when they go on field trips. Like today, I took my class on a field trip with a couple of parent volunteers and they definitely got a taste of what it’s like to work with 20 or so students, all from different family styles and backgrounds. It’s challenging, but I do really like it.
(At least this year my class is a really sweet group, energetic as all h*ll, but kind and happy-go-lucky.)
I teach math at a community college and those “adults” also use the “I don’t want to” approach to life–”I didn’t want to do the quizzes,” “I didn’t want to study last night,” etc. It is frustrating because I know that they are capable of so much more and they just won’t do it. My quizzes aren’t hard, they are essentially free points, and they are very similar to the tests. But 2/3 of those that I warned last semester did eventually step up to the plate and start doing the work.
@Professor P – It’s sad to know that even these young adults whine about not wanting to step up to the plate. Hopefully they’ll “grow” out of it soon!