Enlightening Conversation

I had an enlightening conversation with a couple of my students the other week about what their expectations of themselves and of society are when they leave high school.  Whether they graduate or drop out or pursue their GED, there's usually a discussion around these matters at some point.

What I found astonishing is that our students seem to feel that society owes them so much and that society needs to take care of their needs.  And though finding a job is necessary to support their own lives they are not willing to advance themselves educationally to find a better job...  So they often mention that society should increase minimum wage and pay people more who work at the bottom of the social ladder...

My response...

As students, YOU have to offer SOMETHING to SOCIETY worth paying YOU for.  If you have nothing meaningful or interesting or unique to offer to society, then why should they go out of their way to pay you MORE?  It is the absence of social responsibility and duties to your community that create this terribly selfish and self-centered view that society needs to do these things to accommodate your personal needs when you have done very little if anything at all to develop yourself into someone worth paying more money for.

I cannot imagine how students who finish school or even earn their GED can live with this mentality that society owes them these things when they have never once seriously committed to learning something that would make them worth the higher salary.  It seems that our students are more interested in their happiness at present, at the expense of their grades, than investing their time now to live with actual capacities that are worth a greater pay check.  Let's not kid ourselves, some of our students would probably struggle to operate a cash register since it's really just an elaborate calculator.

Though I understand that not all students are this way, I feel that I have surrounded myself with this particular mentality in this school community.  This is a very unique student population.  Arguably, one of the most educationally hostile groups to teach.

I can't wait until summer...  10 more teaching days until the Regents!!