Andrea
...I don't care that you are poor and black and your parents never graduated from high school. I teach in the most inner of inner cities in NY. My school is consistently the worst school in the district and my students are some of the poorest around. I refuse to listen to excuses about why they shouldn't be held accountable for their actions. These excuses include (but are certainly NOT limited to) "black culture is different and it's difficult for white teachers to adequately understand their needs" and "these kids are in gangs and have drug addicted parents who just don't care about them" or even "with the instant gratification, video game world we live in, how can we expect them to read a 'chapter book'?"
I don't care that their lives are hard. When they are sitting in my classroom for 42 minutes a day, 3.5 hours a week, I expect that they will read an assignment, answer a question or two, and get through the period without calling me a fucking Bitch more than once. If they can't do that, then they need to go somewhere because I'm not going to listen to how hard it is that they have to read one short story in a 42 minute period of class.
My attitude in my classroom has followed me out into the world. My tolerance for laziness, stupidity, vapid existences it at a 38 year low and I don't expect it's going to get any higher. I don't thrive on drama, mine or others', so I have a tendency to excise the dead weight.
Country: United States
Yes! I want to read more from Real Life Heartless Bitches
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