Monday, January 10, 2005

Too Little Too Late

I met some of my classes today. One new, one old. I must say, teaching a class of 12 is SO much easier than teaching 25 which was so much easier than teaching 40 so it's all relative but even then...

Anyway, I've given up one of my classes from last year to take on these 12 kids (they're half a class- we split the class to give them closer attention) and I've been fielding messages from wailful woeful kids from the class I gave up the entire morning.

It's strange because I had such a hard time with them last year. They were uncooperative, selfish and unwilling to share what they knew with the rest of the class, almost as if they feared that if they did share, they would be the ones to lose out. At the same time, they were apathetic, passive and unable to come up with an original thought even if their lives depended on it. The only thing they were concerned with was their REAL subjects- Go figure. They were the quintessential stereotype of their generation, self-centred, result oriented and figured the world owed them a favour.

They're not all like that, but in general, that was the class profile and I must admit, I wasn't mourning the loss of them and I figured they wouldn't be either because I gave them a hard time for them being who they were. But apparently, I was wrong. They want to petition my return, they hate the new tutor, they berated my leaving them and accused the system of being unfair.

I was slightly amazed that this occured, but that was the softie side of me. The more mean (yet another borrowed 17 year old mainstay adjective)part of me basically yelled out that it really was a case of regretting only on hindsight. Had they been more cooperative and a nicer, more teachable bunch, I might have decided to give up another class instead. But they dug the grave with their shovels and I wasn't about to help them get out of it. They'll still land on their feet and do ok when the exams come about.

So, even though I didn't tell them that, they have to in essence, get over it. Maybe one or two will figure it out but I doubt many would because another thing I learnt about 17 year olds recently, they don't reflect very much. Everything is face value. Even my leaving them.

Ondine tossed this thought in at 14:45

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" Far in the stillness, a cat languishes loudly"