Selling Sno-Cones at the Beach

young savages

This morning, I proctored an exam for one of the college prep companies at one of the private schools in the suburbs . Twenty-two kids, mostly boys, all with more interesting things to do than take a three-hour exam. At least it was raining, so their other options weren't as broad-ranging.

I can tell I've reached a certain age, because the phrase "kids these days" keeps springing unbidden to mind. They can't sit still; even during the exam itself feet were tapping and twitching, pencils were drumming. And once they'd finished a section and had to wait for the next one to start, the boredom for that five or so minutes must have been unbearable. Thus began the round of snacking, pointless trips to the bathroom, playing GameBoy (or whatever its high school analog is), poking and punching and kicking each other.

These are kids of the Consumer Age, who are used to having wants immediately and fully gratified. One kid wanted to work ahead, which isn't allowed in order to simulate actual test conditions. He said he had to leave early to go to work (later this turned out to be a golf game) and he was pretty miffed that he couldn't take the test in the manner he wanted. I wasn't supposed to let them leave until the test was over, but I did, just to preserve some modicum of order for the remainder.

B. says the nuns probably don't have any trouble keeping order. I doubt that - even he mouthed off to nuns, and that was a generation ago. But when you work for a company that is selling services and trying to please kids' parents, you don't have the same authority to play tyrant in the classroom as a regular instructor. I'm even chary of my bent toward sarcasm.

As I was reading, at the same time, about boys only a few years older being mowed down by the millions in France, the self-preoccupation and lack of self-discipline of these boys really grated. They can't even know how good their lives are!

But I do wonder - and have wondered for a long time - if putting kids in desks and trying to get them to be quiet and docile is just the wrong model for public education. It probably was good discipline for a lifetime of boredom working on an assembly line, but those aren't the kinds of jobs that are available by the millions any more. How do you teach interactive, engaged, but respectful behavior in the classroom? I want to do more of that when I next teach, so it bears further thought.