In Which I Am a Despicable Person

Remember the part where there are, like, a thousand kids in my fourth grade class this year?  One of them is moving at the end of this week . . . maybe.  We're all a little unclear about what exactly is going on.

Anyway.  I'm having a bit of a hard time getting upset over it.  And by getting upset I mean not jumping for joy over it.

I know, I know.  I'm horrible.  But this particular kid has been nothing but frustration all year.  He's never even pretended to care about what's going on in class . . . and to say that he's actually brought his homework half a dozen times all year might be overestimating the case.  I just don't get how a nine-year-old could already be to the point where he couldn't care less about school.

The part that really confuses me though is the fact that his parents apparently don't care either.  I mean, if it was high school I could totally understand, heaven knows I didn't learn anything there that has turned out to be useful since (at least, not in the classroom, but that's a subject for another day).  But fourth grade?  It may be (and is) on the tail end of the things you'll actually use in real life - but it's still got some pretty important stuff in there.  For three years now I've been trying to wrap my head around parents like that.  Do they really not care if their kids can't read?  Have they really convinced themselves that technology is moving in a direction that makes knowing how to add single digit numbers unnecessary?

Because when I ask a kid what six plus nine is and all I get is this:

That's kind of a problem.  (granted, I could watch Sean Connery all day, but when I get this look from fourth graders I kind of find myself wanting to carve my eyes out with a plastic spork)

But anyway.  Seriously.  How does that work?  The not caring part?  I mean, clearly it starts at the top and works its way down to where the kid doesn't care either, and doesn't try to hide it like the kids who's parents do care but the kids don't . . . they try to hide it.  How they don't care, I mean.  But this one (and a couple of the others over the past couple of years) . . . there's just such an air of "whatever" about them.  And I just don't get it.

I feel bad for the kid - I can't imagine things are going to be pretty in about ten years.  But there's not exactly much you can do when they choose to doodle instead follow directions when you're trying to help them.  It just gives me one more instance where I feel like I'm not doing any good.

On the plus side . . . the class is down to 33.  That's, like, a record low.  For this year.


P. ost  S. cript
So I'm guessing everyone has seen this one already since it was making the rounds on facebook back around Christmas or so, but it's kind of awesome.