A Few Annoying Thoughts

It’s that time of year again where what was once considered a small annoyance becomes a something that I loathe over and over again. I’m talking about high school aged children, if you didn’t already know.  I say children because that’s what they are, children in too large, too awkward bodies.  I guess I’m becoming that old person now.  You know the ones.  They filtered through your youth with a scowl or two directed at your loud immaturity.  But I never behaved how the children that I'm around on a too daily basis do, surely not.  I know I wasn't this disrespectful, or this level of loud, surely I wasn’t whatever these kids nowadays are. 

I know I was never this entitled.  I can assure you my parents taught me better than that and I know I respected my teachers.  I did have my moments of immaturity of course.  I recall the time I convinced the boy sitting next to me to eat crayons while my English teacher prattled on about Shakespeare or Dickens or some other great writer that I didn’t have the capacity to appreciate at the time.  I thought his crayon eating antics were hilarious.  My teacher did not, probably because we were seniors and this was an honors class.

But I could communicate with people, I know that much at least.  When asked if I ever needed help, I would never grunt my response.  I could explain myself.  This makes me wonder who's really to blame for the downfall of this new, confusing, and not at all likeable generation? Is it social media? Has it in fact killed the art of conversation?  There have been so many times that students ask for my help, but have somehow gone quite mute.  They can’t describe their needs, their wants.  I have to play the 20 question game just to gather some sort of semblance of an idea of how I can help them.  I feel that they have reverted to a version of the caveman.  

“Me want chromebook.”

“Chromebook….dead.”

“Fix now.”

And honestly most of the girls dress in that sort of fashion anyway.  Sports bras are now a shirt.  Skirts are no longer opaque, but leave nothing to the imagination.

I know what you're thinking.  You must be exaggerating; it can’t really be all that bad.  Oh dear reader, it's so much worse.  Last week all of the boys' bathrooms were locked and in need of repair because the students have stuffed the sinks, the toilets, so that they overflow in a disgusting display of what they probably think is hilarious, but is actually vandalising community property.

Where are the consequences? You may ask next and there probably are some, but parents have to be onboard to enforce such a thing.  The school can only do so much when parents block the school number, refuse to pick up their disorderly child when called, and then refuse to believe the teacher for what they have seen with their two eyes, but maybe didn’t hear with their two ears.  

And don’t get me started on how the government is not helping matters.  They have tied the school’s metaphorical hands.  Schools can no longer punish a student for breaking the rules if they want to maintain their government funding. We don't want the community to think that their youth is out of control, right? Better to pretend that all is well, than to showcase what is actually happening. If you don't write the referral, than the referral doesn't exist and neither does the discipline problem. But how is that teaching anyone anything? We are just setting the young up for a heap load of failure and future annoyances later.

Prime example: this weekend we went to get hamburgers at CJs Butcher Boy, a higher end fast food burger restaurant.  Two high school students were working.  We got home and everything was cold and the double meat patty was missing ALL of the meat except for a tiny sad piece of bacon.  How does that even happen, I wondered at the time, but I do have an idea.  When there are no consequences to be heard of in school, a place that such things should be taught, and at home, a place that such things should be for sure be taught, than what is the motivation? It's certainly not the feeling of doing a good job for the sake of pleasing your boss or the customer. Those days are long gone. It seems that today everyone wants so much for doing so little.

I don’t know what our world is coming to and thinking about it makes my brain want to scream. I wonder if this is a United States problem or a global one, although I find it hard to believe that such youthful antics would be tolerated in Russia or even China for that matter.

I know I can't control any of the above and all that I can control is myself and myself is heading to the beach. A place that allows me to forget about the annoyances of the world, live in my safe little bubble full of street tacos, the sun, and a good bathing suit, and be thankful that I chose a lifestyle free of the extra worry that raising a child in today's world will most assuredly bring.