Seriously, STOP 4

Seriously, STOP 4...As a teacher there are some things you want to do to help your students succeed. However, we all need to sraw the line somewhere, and I have drawn the line at caring more than they do. Teenagers need to Seriously, STOP being so apathetic.The war against the teenager has gone on for centuries, and maybe I am just getting old enough to realize why people have been so frustrated all these years. It isn't because teens are stupid, it is because they are lazy. They want everything handed to them. And I proclaim right here that I quit perpetuating their problem!I recently gave a speech to my class of sophomore language arts students about the PSAT (which they get to take for free), the SAT and college requirements. My lower level classes all looked terrified as I spoke. They were realizing that their grades from last year counted and they probably were not getting in to UGA the way they planned. However, they were more concerned with that than how to fix what they had messed up. My "honors" students however were terrible. They seemed bothered that I would want to tell them about this test they should be taking in the next year or so. They seemed to look at me like I was crazy as I told them the entrance requirements. And then their was the straw that broke the camels back!! A girl looks me dead in the eye and says, "We are in honors, this is not something we need to worry about." I was speechless!It occured to me that these "honors" kids think that they are so smart the requirements don't matter. They don't care about studying for some stupid test. They are smart, they always get an A or a B, so how could they possibly do poorly on the SAT? This example of apathetic behavior is not in isolation. They need to seriously, STOP, and so do we!We as teachers need to stop catering to their every need and follow the old Chinese proverbial saying, "Give a man a fish he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." We need to stop giving up our fish, and they need to stop expecting us to!!