There are more tragic things in life than failing your Regents exams. One of my students had her father die in his sleep the morning of the English Regents exam. I was surprised, like many other teachers and students that she even showed up to her exam.
It appears that rough estimates have more than 65% of our students failing their Regents exams. I haven't really looked into the estimates for each subject since grading is ongoing, but it doesn't look good for us this year. This is just frightening to me for Tuesday's living environment exam. I get the impression that my students are going to hit a brick wall and that I'll be craving booze while grading them later.
I don't know how these kids feel like it's somehow acceptable to stoop into mediocrity. They just let themselves slip into the abyss of failure and when it comes to digging themselves out, they never do it whole-heartedly. And to accept their half-assed attempt to graduate would be an insult to the institution of education...
But is it ok to accept their half-assed work? Is it alright to say they've done just enough to pass rather than inspiring them to do their best and perhaps exceeding their limits on a regular basis?
It's impossible to tell what these kids are thinking in terms of their educational goals. I argue that many of my students don't have educational goals aside from graduate and get the hell out of school. When it comes to doing what it takes to reach their goal, they don't really have a plan or something really meticulous in terms of how to get there.
I don't have all the solutions for these kids. I only have suggestions. The kids have all the solutions. They just choose not to exercise them. It's like being a doctor, you can't force the patient to take their medication, you have to convince them that it's what's in their best interest.
Unfortunately, I haven't really figured out how to best address this issue of student apathy... Perhaps after my second year I'll get some insight into how to better motivate my students.
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I hope I can figure out a way to use your insight about student apathy to inform my teaching. It really is tragic. However, reading this reinforces for myself why I am doing this. Addressing student apathy is really the sort of thing I'd like to spearhead in the fall. Thanks for the insight.
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