"You want kids to come to class? You want them to get excited?"

[mbperrin]

18. You really never have taught adolescents, have you?

Not only do my students have a 98% pass rate over 3 decades on state tests, they have voted me their favorite senior social studies teacher 14 times.

Quite normal for them to challenge authority and to think they know more than they do. (Here's some fun "facts" 15-18 year olds have disclosed to me and the class over the last couple decades: if you douche with Dr. Pepper after sex, you can't get pregnant; if you take 3 aspirins before an exam, you will do better than if you study; you can drink yourself all the around back to sober; and - ugly girls are harder to get pregnant than pretty ones!)

So yes, it reassures them to know that people teaching them know more than they do - if they didn't, well, gee, I don't know. You're about to get an appendectomy, and the surgeon says, well, I've never really studied this, but I'll figure it out, and so you say, sure, go ahead, I want you to feel empowered.

I don't silence my students' criticisms - I teach them better when they are uninformed, and especially, downright wrong. I live in the neighborhood where I teach, and I see many dozens of the more than 8,000 I've taught over the years on a regular basis. In all cases, they are anxious to show me new degrees, babies, houses, jobs, paychecks, and other events in their lives.

I'm not in school to be their friend, although my overall demeanor is friendly. I'm surely not there to puff them up for no reason. What I'm really trying to do, and I tell them this frequently, is to make sure no one puts the con on them five minutes after graduation resulting in a lifetime of misery, poverty, and debt.

Now go get an actual instructional degree from an accredited program, concentrate on secondary, and then come back, and we'll talk technique. Until then, philosophy and attitudes are okay, but like I tell the young earth folks, you can have your own opinion. You just can't have your own facts.

Have a blessed day.