059 - Big Babies

If you’ve been following this blog you’re probably aware I’m working temporarily as a substitute teacher, filling in for a band director currently on maternity leave.

I work at two different schools in the same district and the contrast between them couldn’t be greater.

One of them the children generally behave and react in age appropriate ways, can be reasoned with, and put forth effort to pay attention to instruction and learn. The other the children are almost universally way less emotionally mature, impatient, prone towards anger if they don’t get it right the first time, and have difficulty focusing on a task. Herding Cats is the phrase that best comes to mind. They aren’t mean or destructive, they’re just, well, big babies. Not ALL of them are like this, but enough are that it keeps meaningful instruction from happening.

Having spent over 25 years in public education before I retired I’ve come to the conclusion that kids are the same everywhere and when this kind of thing happens it’s not because one school has kids that are any different from any other, I lay the blame on the administration, and by that I mean the principal, and this is from observation, not just opinion.

I know this because I’ve experienced it first hand. When I was fully employed I had two schools that were almost carbon copies of these. One principal was hard line & the other way too forgiving. The two were literally swapped between schools, and the next year the situation completely inverted. At one school kids that had been difficult straightened up and at the other school responsible kids turned into, you guessed it, big babies.