They're Looking Out The Window, And I Don't Blame Them

Spring break starts today--for me, anyway.  Some students have classes, and some of the college staff are working until noon or 3 pm.


It's a break in the sense that I won't be in classes. However, I have a bunch of papers to read and grade, and some other things to do that are related to my teaching. 


At least I'll get to spend a few days with my parents.   


Teaching was brutal this week. Most of the students had checked out some time last week, if they hadn't already.  I can't say I blame them, though:  A lot of them are in college only because they've been told they should, or need to be, there.  And, frankly, this society and economy hasn't figured out a way to use them--or, for that matter, most other people their age.  


They can't get jobs and have had any ability to do anything useful, relevant, joyful or fulfilling beaten out of them.  All their lives, they've been told--indirectly, of course--that they are useless.   And they, like most young people, live up--or down--to whatever judgments and labels are placed on them.  The ones whose parents indulged them, and whose teachers didn't challenge them, treat their kids as they do precisely because they don't know what else to do.


Now those parents don't want them in the house.  No employer wants them, either.  Even most volunteer organizations don't want them.  And, in some cases, the military doesn't want them.  So I have them in my classes, and other profs have them in theirs.