Life is better today but the ‘Yuff’are unfgrateful

[H2O2hair]

As a teacher I am probably a bit biased but maybe more informed.

The generation of today don’t know hardship. Sometimes for the better as there but sometimes I feel not,it does make kids entitled.

I work in a leafy suburb school.

It’s a battle to get kids to shut up to learn. They eventually do but its a battle.

They flout school rules as you watch them ,such as a one way system.

They don’t bring their ownequipment and break yours. Snap rulers, pens and throw them at each other. Glue , glue sticks to
the wall

Bins don’t exist

They ask me why I wear the same dress every week. Lots of personal commenst.

They try to sit on my seat and log onto the computer and search records.

Many more.

Did we do this as kids? I certainly didn’t . Bet half of parents don’t realise the poor listening skills and behaviour of their children.
AIBU

I agree with the OP. I went to school in the 70s (a school with a very mixed catchment socially) and teachers were treated with respect. Hell, we even treated sixth formers with respect (as I was when I became one). They had mystique. Of course there was the very occasional teacher known to have discipline problems in whose classes most pupils messed around - but that wasn’t the default setting like it seems to be now.

There is plenty of respect from teachers towards pupils. I see teachers bending over backwards to help pupils learn and it gets thrown back in their face.

The people talking about how “it has always been thus” don’t sound like they have been in a tough secondary school. I am not a teacher but support staff so I have been able to see for the last 10 years in my school how different teachers operate with classes and what works and doesn’t work. Not many teachers have the opportunity to do that, to spend so much time observing others’ methods.

The poor teachers, honestly. It is awful for them now in some schools. Awful. good subject knowledge, they like the kids, they want them to achieve but there really is a complete lack of respect for the education system as a whole amongst a lot of teens. They don’t see why they have to comply with ANY rules and often you find out why they’re like that when the parents come marching up to school and scream in the head’s face having only heard their spoilt chikd’s side of the story.

When some difficult classes won’t even stay in their seat during the lesson, and indeed climb all over them like a group of animals in the zoo, how would YOU like to teach your subject to them?

I also wish people who think they were naughty or difficult in the 70s or 80s would do some work experience in a difficult secondary school just so they can witness the change in pupil attitudes for themselves. I’m so glad that someone who has worked abroad has come in to say that yes, the U.K. is different.

Oh and re: the “volunteering” thing. Believe me, the school has put this in place for 6th formers to try and give them something to write about on their UCAS forms or job applications. Because otherwise many of them would have NOTHING to put in their personal statement. It is a lot of effort to organise and staff are giving their own time to help these young people do their chosen activity.

A class at my school signed a petition to get rid of a teacher as they didn’t like her as she had no ‘ banter’ they rhymed it with the teachers name and Brexit and all signed it.

They had a Whatsapp class group about it too titled with a saying the teacher always said.
We would have been lynched for that in the 90s.

They have taken pics sneakily of other staff in and out of lessons ( a staff member jogging) and put it on whatsapp.

They film fights from each other and send them viral.

They just seem to have no boundaries.

20 years ago I was mid way through secondary school at a middle class grammar school. Things my classmates did:

Blew up a bin in the playground with stuff nicked from Chem lab.
Set fire alarms off.
Gave nazi salute to German teacher when back was turned.
Drew pictures of 'hell' on the whiteboard in the class of an v highly strung and religious RE teacher.
Told sub teachers the wrong names and then refused to answer to them.
Climbed out the classroom windows and sat on the roof.
Released a school pet.
Turned up to school under influence of drugs / alcohol.
Smoked at the bottom of the school fields.
Ditched school.

In short. Teenagers are dicks, and they've always been dicks - even "good", intelligent teenagers from the leafy suburbs.

Stopitandtidyup: yes, yes, I’ve seen all of that. You’re damned right. Plus fights in the classroom as well as on the yard. Just general aggresvie behaviour. Possession of drugs (and dealing). Verbal abuse of female staff who simply walk across the yard. Disruption of assessments (you wouldn’t DARE talk during an exam when I was at school). Throwing a punch at male members of staff. Verbally abusing them in front of their families on a weekend outside of school. Stabbing other pupils with a sharp instrument (not a knife) in a lesson. setting fire to something in the toilets. Bullying perfectly decent cover staff to the extent they make them cry. Chairs getting thrown at a TA. Pupils deliberately soiling the toilets daily as an act of rebellion. I’ve even heard of 2 cases of pupils soiling themselves as a dirty protest.

The latest thing for teachers to worry about is kids coming into school and self-harming in school in front of other vulnerable kids who then try and copy. This is terrifying as a member of staff as you are well aware of your individual duty to safeguard pupils.

I’m pretty sure all of that is going on in many schools up and down the country daily. There are minimal deterrents to this these days. I challenge anyone to spend a few weeks in a tough secondary school and say “it was always like that” at the end of it.

It’s simply not true.

sar302: just read your post. that sort of thing has always been done in schools. You’re right. But what is happening now in schools is a whole lot worse and I just don’t think people who left school even 10 years ago would believe some of what goes on.

Sar

I bet they were dealt with more severely than now. Now schools are too scared to exclude as it impinges on their stats.

And I bet they’re too scared of some of the pupils’ parents too.

I genuinely feel that the internet and social media grew and evolved too quickly and too fast for us to naturally create the necessary rules, boundaries and policing that it needs.

That does not happen where I work. They would not dream of it even if supply was in. The HOD, HOYS and SLT would go beserk. And it is in an area of deprivation, not a leafy suburb.

And we are fully aware of many of the kids who self-harm or have depression by the way. A lot of help is given to them. Just a few years ago as a pupil with such problems you would have been expected to just get on with it in school or get your parents to sort it out.

Now, it is everyone’s responsibility in school to help these kids. And that’s as it should be. But when you’re trying to keep 30 kids in line while also trying to teach them a bit about your subject, you’re aware that you can’t alwyss give the extra attention that you’d like to give to those vulnerable pupils that need it. And then you feel guilty and worried. And you spend breaks and lunchtimes checking they’re ok.

Teachers CARE about their pupils. That’s why it’s so demoralising for them to have to face such poor behaviour daily when they’re just trying to help them achieve something in life.

Yes, Seren, there are a few parents who are criminals. Not the type you’d want to get on the wrong side of.

I've worked in eductIon for the last 10 years. I started off in an inner city london school.
I've dealt with child sex abuse cases. I've held one boy who was stabbed and another who had his head bashed in, until the ambulance came. I've "swept" the flower beds for knives.

I've worked in teen mental health with suicidal teenagers and young carers. Our local CAMHS only takes 1 in 7 referrals. So I do know the worst of it.

But the OP isn't talking about the worst of it, she's complaining a bit about some kids being a bit naughty - being late, not having the correct equipment, and being rude. Nothing more than was going on at my school 20 years ago.

In other schools, the shit is really hitting the fan, which is why I have posts where I "work in education ", rather than teaching - I couldn't do it!! Also my parents were teachers, and I've heard there stories from 50 years ago. You're correct that there are now massive issues in schools, but the OP isn't experiencing those.

being late, not having the correct equipment, and being rude

I think OP meant more than this, damaging school property mindlessly. It’s a pet hate of mine too. Needless destruction.

Teenagers have always pushed boundaries and been obnoxious so I’m not sure it’s a new problem, but that doesn’t mean the OP is to blame for the bad behaviour she’s experiencing. The most skilful classroom teacher hasn’t got a hope in a school where management haven’t got control, systems aren’t strong and parents and kids don’t value education. I think after 15 long years of working in challenging schools I manage behaviour well, but I know that a lot of that is dependent on the backup of school systems. However much I’d like to believe it was down to my inspiring teaching, no one Is going to going to keep a building full of 2000 hormonal young people orderly and productive just through personal charisma.

Leave OP, and find a school with effective management where you’ll be able to teach as part of a functional team. They’re not all As you describe.

I simply did not experience this low level arguing back and disruption in the 90s.

Yes it’s a generalisation but I simply didn’t.

I was take. The register yesterday a boy was chatting. I told him to stop. Got the usual “ its not just me” Finished the register amd explained to the boy about taking responsibility for his own actions.

He then replied “ ughhh back on this are we and rolled hos eyes”

Yes it’s nothing in the grand scheme but it’s this constant talking down to which is grinding.

Never saw this in any class I was in.

I overheard one of my colleagues (same school, obviously) relating some of the tales they'd told some mates in the pub about some of the dreadful behaviour they'd encountered in our leafy middle-class primary school.
Im afraid all I could think was that they damn-well wouldn't have behaved like that with me.

Wow loving all the non teachers on here giving the OP such a hard time, some of you with such breathtaking ignorance of what you’re talking about it’s astounding.

Go and teach for a week please and then come and share your judgements.

I’ve been in education for 20 years - behaviour has hit steadily worse and respect is getting harder to teach. But with some of the posters attitudes on here why are we surprised?

Got not hit

Op I'm not a teacher but I think some parents need to see exactly how they're dc behave towards a teacher.
I also think sometimes you need to look at the disruptive dc and see if there's anything else you notice.

For me personally I wanted to learn but was bullied so I acted up to get thrown out of lesson coz for me that was better than being in a class where everytime the teachers back was turned 25 pupils said/threw something/stole something.

No-one believed I was being bullied so I didn't feel I had any other choice.
The bullying settled down in year 10 (No idea why) but ide made a name for myself with the teachers so when I didn't understand something because of my reputation I was regarded as being difficult and treated as such.

That was just my school life. Home wasn't great and my dm believed everything the school told her so I was punished at home for school.
Let's just say teenage life was grim, and that was just me back in the 90s. Nowadays with smart phones bullying is 24/7 So I can imagine why kids act up more sadly.

The chances of it getting better given the increase of children from poor families that will happen over the next few years are minimal, sadly.

Im afraid all I could think was that they damn-well wouldn't have behaved like that with me.

Our tutor on the PGCE told us we would hear this alot ( 10 years ago) comments like that don’t help support staff.

It’s in the corridors too and the management does affect it greatly and the back up.

A kid squirted acid in another’s face. They just get the removed room for a day. No exclusions.

Are you typing on your phone, OP?

I'm glad I was a teenager in the 90s and didn't have to run the gauntlet of Whatsap, Snapchat and people recording you and uploading it to social media and the like.

A man I work with who is nearing retirement was telling a story the other day about sneaking into the staff room and putting laxatives in the coffee during his school days.

He has also told of throwing chairs, breaking tables and attempting to escape from school grounds.

Some kids have always been horrid and disrespectful. It's not "the youth of today".

FWIW my MIL has the same attitude (but she absorbs every word of the Daily Mail) and thinks kids don't play outside anymore. DH and I have just bought a house on a leafy suburb and there are always kids outside playing the same things she did as a kid. Skipping, elastics, kerbsy and probably knocking on the door and running away 😂

Yoof?!
Must admit I quite like yuff though! Are you sure you are a teacher!?!!