Dealing with drama... in retrospect...

There is so much drama to deal with in a high school. These kids are experts at blowing the smallest things out of proportion and making it their life's purpose to drag a stupid event or statement to the grave.

Many students are blind from the outside world. They think the Bronx is the entire world. The only life that has any meaning is their own. They don't give two shits about science. They don't care to learn about nature or about the environment. The only environment they know is the hood. Imagine teaching students what proteins and nucleic acids are when they just don't care.

In retrospect, it's interesting that first week and month of teaching. You come into this classroom with such high expectations and when you realize where your kids are in the grand scope of understanding, you're just as lost as they are. They retained little to no prior knowledge from their previous years. I could give the incoming freshmen the 8th grade science test and most of them would probably fail (or even the sophomores would fail also).

What's even more interesting is your first all out fight in the classroom. It's something you wish would never happen, but it's inevitable. In high school, the fights are very vicious. Not to say the middle school fights aren't, but physical development of 12 year olds versus 15-17 year olds are dramatically different. They'll fight over anything too. I've had 2 girls fight over who had a sluttier looking handbag... Really?

It's amazing how poor their logic and reasoning is. To them, a 3 day suspension is a 3 day vacation. They don't value their education enough to control themselves from getting into trouble over stupid shit.

The depression and mutilation students are trickier to handle. It's tough to determine whether or not a student is legitimately depressed or just crying for the attention of other students. It's also something you're not instinctively looking. As a first-year teacher, you're usually overwhelmed by the academic development of your students that you may lose sight of their emotional well-being. I have had both successes and failures at getting depressed students the help they need. It's not just a matter of medication or intervention, but it's a matter of cooperation from their parents, ACS, and lots of denial.

It's a scary thought but some of these students are on medications. Some students take psychotropics or anti-psychotics. Some of them are sexually active and don't know what the word "contraception" means... I can still remember the time during class when one of my students asked a graphic question about how likely it is to get pregnant should a condom break or should the man ejaculate inside her vagina. I've turned into the unofficial school doctor for sexual matters...

I know it's not healthy to create labels for students, but at some point, it just seems like they've created their own labels and willingly live up to them. They've filled their own lives with drama just to be that one "drama queen."

But we've all come a long way I suppose. I can't assume that everything that these kids do is all for some silly image or reputation they want to maintain but it's funny that they think it's worth spending a significant amount of their time and energy in school to keep it up.