By Libby Wadman, 6th Grade Reading Teacher at Ecker Hill International Middle School, Park City, UT 

      I wasn’t sure how to start my entries for the Journal about teaching from the trenches; after all I have a lot I’d like to talk about.  Each time I’ve looked at my list of subjects to prioritize them, I’ve come up with a reason for them all being number one.  However, the events of the last few days in the trenches, decided things for me.  What suddenly presented itself as my number one topic of discussion was one that wasn’t even on my list, manners and the basic respect that goes with manners.  Manners seem to be sorely lacking in many students.  Now, I’m not talking solely about the basics of saying please and thank you, and I’m certainly not talking about all students.   There are plenty who understand these things.  I’m talking about the sort of manners that are bigger and deeper, such as deep abiding respect for each other, respect for belongings and the world around us.  I find this situation very troubling, and one for which I have no solutions. When I was a kid there were the occasional pen and pencil nibblers, but they were few and far between.  The biggest issue was probably nail biting.

      During the 11 years I have been involved with the Park City School District, I have seen manners go more and more by the wayside.  What used to be a rare occurrence is now commonplace. Daily, I watch students poke or dig holes in and chew on non-food groups.  In the hallways, students kick the lockers shut, shove each other around, throw other students’ books in the trashcan and throw trash onto the hallway floor rather than taking a few steps and seconds to throw it out properly. The odd thing is I truly believe and want to believe that most kids aren’t even aware of what they are doing.  It is as if they have an inner need, like a craving for chocolate, to wreak havoc upon some object.

      While these are daily occurrences, the actual impetus for this article was the action of three boys.  One of them had a bottle of green soda pop in the hallway outside my room, which in and of itself is not allowed; food and drink are allowed only in the lunch area.  These boys were shaking the bottle and then removing the cap. They thought it was hysterically funny when it bubbled up and spilled all over the carpet.  If I hadn’t stopped them, they would have kept on walking and laughing leaving the mess to permanently stain the carpet.  They were most unhappy and disrespectful when I did stop them and told them to clean up the mess.  Taken aback by their reaction in being asked to clean up the spill, I asked them if that sort of behavior were acceptable in their homes.  Happily, they thought I was nuts thinking that would be allowed, but unhappily, it was obvious they felt it was perfectly acceptable to trash their school.

      As I thought about this incident and using it as a topic, I started to think about all the actions like this that my fellow teachers and I see happening. The most common group of walking weapons of mass destruction I classify as the aerators.  These students have an overwhelming need to poke holes in everything, and I mean EVERYTHING!  They destroy book covers, papers (including those that are final copies for grades), even clothes, by punching holes in them.  This might be good training for future pointillists, but what did these items do to deserve this torture?  Shouldn’t a teacher be able to expect that papers etc. passed out for use by the students will come back in the original condition?

      The next group, the excavators, seem to be endlessly fascinated digging at the edges of the desk with the pen nib.  This leaves white holes of varying circumferences in the black edge.  What I find truly interesting is that this action is not limited to the front edge facing the students’ chests.  Somehow, these excavators manage to dig at all four edges without being blatantly obvious in their actions.  I suppose I should look at the bright side of this rather than the negative.  After all, being able to do this undetected requires cleverness and dexterity, two traits that are considered desirable. However, this is basic vandalism and should not be considered acceptable by anyone.

      The third group would be the garbage disposals.  These students are sometimes excavators as well given that a pen can be used for both forms of destruction.  These high-powered disposals put everything and anything into their mouths.  Usually it is the pen cap, but I have frequently seen students chomping on paper of unknown origin, paperclips, the spiral wire from the agenda, erasers, pencils, scissors, bookmarks, and the shreds that are sometimes created by the aeration process.  Some of these might be a viable source of protein, but most of these items are loaded with germs, and do you really want to single handedly provide your dentist with a mansion on the Riviera?

      The last group I’ll describe, although by no means does this list cover everyone, is the Alfred E. Newman club.  These kids wander around with a “What, me worry?” attitude.  They don’t appear to care about the consequences of their actions. The three boys I spoke of earlier fall under this category.  For all the Alfreds, trash on the floor is acceptable, denting lockers doesn’t matter, and what do they care about how they made someone else feel?  I think most parents would be shocked at some of the behavior if they sat in the hallways watching and listening. On the other hand perhaps it is I who would be shocked by parents not seeing the problem?  Hmmm, I don’t even want to go there.

      While I’ve made light of the situation, the number of students involved in these actions concerns me.  I might chalk this up as a passing phase, but my daughter, recently returned from college, says that it’s even worse with the college students.  She has been amazed and appalled at the amount of damage kids will do to dorms and apartments without a second thought.  If they have been behaving like this since elementary or middle school, what will they be like as adults?  I have a hard time convincing myself that this will just magically disappear one night, and all will be suddenly better. What is the driving force behind the destruction? What is lacking in these kids’ lives, or is it due to an overabundance of things?  I hope someone somewhere has an answer and a fix for these actions.  In the meantime, I will continue my efforts as a teacher from the trenches, because working with these kids is what I truly love to do.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 10:31 am and is filed under Arts & Culture, Education, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.