First time teaching a class today. Please kill me.

[Xyga]

I'm not a licenced teacher nor ever received any training for this, but the job center called me to fill in for a sick English teacher (we're in France btw. Yeah, this is how much we care about our kid's emdumacshion: even a sucker like me can replace a genuine teacher)

I took it because I was curious and needed the money, the Head seemed happy to see me and not bothered with the fact that I have no experience.
(not confirmed but apparently the regular teach's either in the middle of a nervous breakdown or cancer)

Okay so they gave me two Y7(6thGr) and two Y9(8thGr)... started with the 6th graders this morning, and even though they weren't the most tame you could imagine - had to hush-shush'em every 10~15 minutes or so, we're in 2016 after all - they were still manageable and we could get to the end of that poetry bit.

Ended the day with another 6thGr class whow were all just adorable and asked me to become a 'resident' for good. Yeah kids can be cute. <3

The problem ? The two 8thGr classes I had in between ... ... ...

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.

I mean; I've been to school and experienced 'difficult' classes, I even dare say when I was their age I sometimes contributed to the commotion or disruption.
Society more or less knows how troublesome teenagers can be before they only have sex on their minds (and usually settle by turning emo).
Just to confirm; we're talking about 13~14 year olds here, I've been one, I've seen and heard them, that was during the 90's. Okay.

But the ones I've had in front of me today ? Never seen any like those. A bunch of psychopaths. Apparently with zero respect neither for age, status, condition (most of them mocked the class's only handicapped kid), or role and authority.
Without the slightest fear of punishment apparently, they did everything they could to disrupt the class, asking twenty times the exact same question "Sir I dropped my pen can I pick it up?", requesting trips to the infirmary every 5 minutes, shouting, throwing pens/erasers/shit, hitting the desks loud and hard, etc etc.
Even just proposing a reply to one of my questions was an opportunity to tell shit and make the whole class laugh like hyenas on cocaine.

Aside fom a small silent group sitting together in the bottom, most of the class joined forces to anihilate the session (well: both sessions, like the first gave the others word), most of that highly disruptive pack with an incredibly perverse smirk on their faces.

The little silent group came to me later to say they were sorry about the class, and they looked sincere.
But seriously, even though as I said I've experienced kind of difficult classes in my teens/90's, I've never even once whistood such level of disrespect and nofuckstogiveness about anything in the fucking World, as this time.

I used to think kids of my generation were not serious and respectful enough, and we kind of deserved some of the trouble we've found ourselves in later, but this, is telling me the current generation means there's no fucking hope for the future of our world.
The worst classes of my time had 2~3 disruptors, current have 3~5 actual pupils, the rest are all unattended patients in an asylum.

Anyway it's only for a week, I don't give a crap after that, I will never do it again.
But be afraid. be very afraid of these kids.
I understand why some of them, even with no ties to religion and not even ethnic, end up joining ISIS and get themselves killed in Syria: because it's almost in their DNA, they are the humans our current western society, at least in France since this is where I'm experiencing this madness, managed to raise.
Raised more and more by jobless or shite-job victim parents, only having the torrents of despair and hatred from the internet as a reference (which was very obvious just listening to them) it's understandable they don't give a fuck, nobody will kick their asses nor let'em have only bread and water for days.
Nobody.

Oh I almost forgot: you thinking that middle school's located in a shitty suburb of something ?
Nope...a cosy little suburbia French village, where you'll find as many doctor's or manager's kids, as you will ex-convicts's or alcoholics.

What a shit day in a shit era.

PS: fuck the money's not even worth it, I can earn more in a two days undeclared.

Any happy teachers around ?

[soprano1]

Same shit over here. Some parents also go to school to beat the crap out of teachers for taking their kid's cellphone or something. Girls are worse, you have 12-13 year olds falsely acusing male teachers of groping or saying things they think it's improper.
We are a society that went from a parent saying "If my son misbeahaves, you go ahead and slap him" to "Hey asshole, your gonna take a beating for trying to educate my son and showing i'm a failure as a parent".

[Kollision]

I guess it's the same shit everywhere.
I'd say RUN THE HILLS, but the hills aren't as safe as they were in the past either, so...

[ryu]

I've been an intern at a school where kids of lower social economic standing went to. Some teachers repeatedly told me about how unmanagable the kids there were, but I didn't find it too bad. Guess I've had luck with the class I was teaching there for a while. And you apparently didn't have any luck at all. But then there's probably a reason you got the job without any kind of experience.

There's all kinds of people. All kinds of kids. It's not like every third class room is like that case.

[Xyga]

Well yeah I guess kids also pick their 'victims', and their standards are beyond me.

The reason I got the job I guess is that I am available in a relatively remote area lacking actual English teachers. Also because have some degree I got in uni while studying business and playing RPG's. Our whole educational system is understaffed in English anyway since they give so little licences every year, so anyone with at least a little knowledge is good-enough for them.

(France ranked last over 37 European countries and territories for English proficiency by the way. Our gov's don't give a crap about foreign languages. Globalization? The internetz? Wuzaat?)

[brentsg]

I taught Junior and Senior level college students (engineering) for a couple semesters and they were a pain in the ass, but in different ways. This was a mandatory class for a couple different majors and no bending over backward would help some of these "kids". Of course a handful were strictly business and pleasant but probably half the class just wanted to mail it in and get by with no learning or effort. It was really frustrating.

There were a couple failing students that I went so far as to give my phone number, etc so I could help whenever they needed it... Never got a call. I graded a final paper for one girl that was going to fail the class based on what she's submitted.. I gave it back to her with specific instructions on how to fix it up and resubmit after the weekend, so she could pass the class. She came by Monday and turned the exact same paper in with no changes and said she was busy on the weekend. Then she failed and ripped me a new one on my evaluation, for not being helpful.

It's a contributing factor to me not continuing on to get a PhD. Academia is more than just teaching, but it's a significant part of it.

[ryu]

Yeah the french have a reputation for being horrible english speakers even here.

[Mischief Maker]

The worst thing you can do in that situation is let the little shits know you weren't prepared for their antics, or pretend it isn't happening. You gotta handle it like a comedian who doesn't bash his hecklers.

Watch this.

Don't pretend it isn't happening, go along with it, then shift it back on topic.

[THE SCENE: TEACHING THE CLASS ABOUT HOW TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS IN ENGLISH AT THE AIRPORT]

"Teacher, I can't stop farting" [LAUGHTER]

"What's that, you can't stop farting?" [WRITES, "I CAN'T STOP FARTING" ON THE CHALKBOARD IN FRENCH, THEN WRITES THE SAME UNDERNEATH IN ENGLISH]

"No, I'm farting real bad!"

"Okay class, Pierre here can't stop farting. Now let's say instead of asking how to get to terminal 8, Pierre was asking how to get to the bathroom because he can't stop farting in English..."

[CLASS IS SOON REPEATING, "EXCUSE ME SIR, COULD YOU POINT ME TO THE BATHROOM, I CAN'T STOP FARTING!" IN ENGLISH AND LAUGHING ALL THE WAY]

Just ask questions and ride it out.

[Eaglet]

Same situation in Sweden. Millenials and onwards are beyond fucked.
I know that over here the collapse of social cohesiveness and structure plays the biggest culprit. Most 70s parents are weak ass hippy shits who never stopped despising authority and therefore never learned how crucial a part it is in the raising and teaching of a human being.
Little kids in public transport are jumping around screaming like jungle monkeys, hitting their father while all he does (when not ignoring them, to the annoyance of everyone in the vicinity) is whimpering: "Please, don't do that.".
Kids need to be tought how to behave.
The situation in schools is even worse. Teachers hands are tied in all instances and get blamed for all of the parents kids shortcomings.
Nobody wants to realize that their kid is a shit but mostly this has to do with parents refusing to take responsibility.
It's all self-victimizing bullshit.

[MintyTheCat]

EDIT: I have censored the swearing.

In a similar vain I had a "kid issue" today too.

I was walking the doggy and given that it is winter and icy and snow all over the place in Germany where I live I am walking along carefully along the pavement next to a wall that seperates the street and a sort of play area for the kids.

All of a %$#~& sudden a huge block of ice is tossed over the %$#~& wall - "OI!!!!!", I exclaim as it hits me on the upper arm.
As I am making my way along the pavement to go and confront which ever %$#~& threw the ice my housemate has just pulled out of our street and sees the entire spectacle. She drives up to the gate area, beyond the wall, and gets out and %$#~& the imbeciles in matter of fact and frank German.

Then I appear, looking haggard, rough and %$#~&, covered in winter wear that you'd usually find in harsher climates, and let rip some carefully chosen - poised words, along the lines of "what the %$#~& are you doing?!?!?!? If there had have been an old lady walking along when you %$#~& did that and she got hurt YOU BOTH would be in heavy %$#~& now! Never %$#~& around here.".
No point in trying to be hard or anything - they had no idea what to do in this situation.

The look of shock was a picture. I am actually a bit scary in public and I can tell you that they would never in all their dreams expect to find British English with such force directed at them in the middle of Brandenburg

I feel proper middle-aged now and it was so close to "keep off the grass!" but I ask you, what a stupid thing to do.
The idiots just stood there looking %$#~& stupid without a clue - completely caught on the back foot.
Now, of course we used to lob snow at each other back in the school days but we avoided civies and stuck to us kids and I can tell you that we would have had an escape plan and it would not have been a random situation.

Is it me or are kids thicker these days? Less creative? I cannot believe that it is german kids only but my goodness.

I dare say they will %$#~& themselves the next time someone speaks english around them
I tend to swear only in English and when I am suitably %$#~& I never speak foreign languages - also, I try not to swear in other languages to keep them clean having failed gloriously in English

The last time I had some little scumbags acting up was back in my University days during my Dissertation time when I was riously putting the hours in and there were three of them trying to be hard.
I was carrying something like 5 bags at the time that were heavy. Once they had gotten to what they felt was a safe distance and my back turned - of course - cowards - I felt stones hitting me. Bags were dropped and the distance was made short pretty quickly as I sprinted and went all berserker (yes, I was known as that in my kendo days) and all three of them received my commendation. I do not think that they would have tried that again any time soon.

Whenever I hear kids scream and act up I instinctively do a mental inventory and determine if I am at all low on contraception - am I alone here on this?

Right, we can let the blood pressure fall back to normal a bit now - %$#~&%$#~&%$#~&.

As my Grand Mother would say: "these things come to test us".

[Mischief Maker]

I used to think kids of my generation were not serious and respectful enough, and we kind of deserved some of the trouble we've found ourselves in later, but this, is telling me the current generation means there's no fucking hope for the future of our world.

Is it me or are kids thicker these days? Less creative? I cannot believe that it is german kids only but my goodness.

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

Ever read "Hagakure, the Way of the Samurai?" Same deal. A grumpy old retired samurai carrying on about how the Samurai back in his day were so much more respectful and tougher and diligent and more zen compared to this 1700s generation of Samurai.

Spoiler

[Bonus!]

You will find complains of the youth even in ancient Greek texts. However, it seems hard to deny that things have really gotten out of hands. In most (all?) European countries, things are so bad that there are no-go areas where people live in parallel societies, showing nothing but disrespect for society. Britain has Pakistani gangs sexually abusing over 1000 girls, Germany has Libanese clans that openly confront the law, France has their banlieues, Sweden has all of that rolled together. The difficulties we are seeing nowadays are arguably related to large parts of society, no matter which cultural background, being disenfranchised. Of course, this isn't being helped by unrestrained mass immigration and failing integration efforts.

[Xyga]

Complaining about the young being shites is a common thing of all eras, but when it actually gets worse with each generation the system will inevitably reach a breaking point and collapse, school will be useless, kids will make it their turf, form gangs with their own laws and attack people.
Not just the underprivileged or minority ones, all of them joining forces, the remaining normal kids will be silenced in most cruel ways.

Only half joking there, one of the two 8thGr classes clearly has got its leader (+ obvious lieutenants and many followers) which the staff apparently has been 'dealing' with since the beginning of the school year 'trying to find solutions', while the little criminal keeps destroying classes with a smile.

The problem as I said - at least in my cuntry - is that the class disruptors are no longer a minority an understaffed and weak school personnel can hope to control. From what I could guess chatting in the teachers's room, some either have developed a deal with the troublesome individuals or found a way to hide the situtation under sheets so nobody will make a fuss publicly. They're really scared of parents and laws, and all give that feeling they only care about doing their assigned work securing their salary and go home. Totally uninvolved, detached, acting.
Under these conditions I believe the breaking point isn't too far away in time, or it's already passed but the authorities did everything they could to mute the loud cracking sound.

This also makes sense why they hire total outsiders like me. You think the real and experienced resident teachers could handle the problem classes while people like me take care of the easy 6th & 5th graders ?
Nope; the legit ladies and gentlemen took most of those easy classes for themselves, because simply: they all wanted a vacation from those 8th grades from Hell, and I'm the sucker hired as a temp punching bag.
One really stressed teach in her 50's told me temps often do a single week and never apply again because it's too hard.

Spoiler

The worst thing you can do in that situation is let the little shits know you weren't prepared for their antics, or pretend it isn't happening. You gotta handle it like a comedian who doesn't bash his hecklers.

Watch this.

Don't pretend it isn't happening, go along with it, then shift it back on topic.

[THE SCENE: TEACHING THE CLASS ABOUT HOW TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS IN ENGLISH AT THE AIRPORT]

"Teacher, I can't stop farting" [LAUGHTER]

"What's that, you can't stop farting?" [WRITES, "I CAN'T STOP FARTING" ON THE CHALKBOARD IN FRENCH, THEN WRITES THE SAME UNDERNEATH IN ENGLISH]

"No, I'm farting real bad!"

"Okay class, Pierre here can't stop farting. Now let's say instead of asking how to get to terminal 8, Pierre was asking how to get to the bathroom because he can't stop farting in English..."

[CLASS IS SOON REPEATING, "EXCUSE ME SIR, COULD YOU POINT ME TO THE BATHROOM, I CAN'T STOP FARTING!" IN ENGLISH AND LAUGHING ALL THE WAY]

Just ask questions and ride it out.

I actually did exactly that with one of the 6thGr who were a little agitated, turning the lesson into something funny and taking the opportunity to introduce new words.
But with the 8thGr it wasn't doable, too many of them, about half of the class were already running amok after about 10 minutes into the class, and I was totally submerged with the madness and noise.
Should I add that the class's equipement was giving me trouble ? The software used for the roll call froze and they saw it, even though I didn't waste more than a minute with it.
Then the CDrom with the recorded dialogue I was supposed to use for the lesson was so scratched it just wouldn't read.

[MintyTheCat]

Ever read "Hagakure, the Way of the Samurai?" Same deal. A grumpy old retired samurai carrying on about how the Samurai back in his day were so much more respectful and tougher and diligent and more zen compared to this 1700s generation of Samurai.

Spoiler

I do indeed own a copy of hagakure.

The book of lord Shang is amusing when he starts going on about "medicine for women" being used for "men"

[MintyTheCat]

This might sort a few issues out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvO4NuUBsFI

To be serious though, I think it is the detatched aspect that I notice the most these days.
I suppose no matter what the system has to peddle a story and some how work out cohesion but yes, it is pretty obvious.

[Specineff]

I second Mischief Maker's suggestion: Put them on the spot. Show them that you can and will use their own tactics against them, and they WILL regret it. Make it so that when they drop the pen to disturb the class, it will be to their detriment, not yours.

Student: "I dropped my pen. Can I pick it up?"


You: "Well, Mr. Whatever, can you? Are you really able to lift the object that allows you to make the notes you will need for your tests, so you can get a passing grade and move forward in your education? Can you handle the pressure that comes with the challenges I, as your teacher, present you today so you can be prepared for the challenges life will throw at you tomorrow, when mommy and daddy are not there to help you, just so you don't have to end up regretting you didn't pay attention in class, wondering as an adult, where your years have gone? Huh? Can you, little grasshopper? Would you be able to pick it up, and write your response in English, only to discover you are actually answering to yourself, instead of me? Me, a transitory person in your life, in comparison to what you may learn here, which will stay with you forever? Can you prove to yourself, that you can handle a task as small as this and thus have the capacity to learn more than just one language? I ask you again, young man: Can you?"

If picked up: "Good. Write in English, that you can."

If not: "There's your answer." And continue with the class.

Teach those motherfunkers a lesson, shmupper. They're small fry who'll only engorge your score.

EDIT: If they reply with "I'm asking you." You can tell them they already know the answer. Find ways to drag on the time they'll spend on the spot. If a puppy can learn, so can they.

EDIT 2: Reply in English: "State your question in English, Mr. Whatever. We all know you already have mastered French."

[Xyga]

Bloody Hell. I am trying to make a up a small text in present simple and I will ask them to put it all in past tense, but it needs to have enough irregular verbs in it to make it worthwile (the lesson is supposed to focus on those).

But I realize it's not as easy as it seems when you haven't done something like that in like 20 years. Their vocabulary is very limited so I also have to keep it as 'dumb' as possible, but still correct.

Present

Eight o clock! it's time to get up, but Franck is still sleeping. His mother is in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Suddenly she shouts: " Franck, wake up, the toasts are warm; I am waiting for you! " But Franck does not answer... ten minutes later, his sister climbs the stairs quickly and enters her brother's room saying: " Dad is coming up, be careful. "
Three minutes later, Franck stands up, pulls on his clothes and drinks a hot chocolate in the kitchen. But he forgets to comb his hair and he has not his shoes on. He must go faster because the schoolbus is already in front of the house and it will not wait. Franck is in a hurry as every morning.
Frank sits in the bus with his friends. Like him everybody is half-asleep. Later, in the classroom, Franck listens to the teacher only from time to time; everybody is quiet; Franck dreams about food... twelve o clock rings. Franck opens an eye: it's time to eat the lunch box his mother cooked for him. But, once more he forgot it at home.
Poor Franck! now he wonders how he can become a better kid to make every day a better one.

Past

Eight o clock! it was time to get up, but Franck was still sleeping. His mother was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Suddenly she shouted: " Wake up, the toasts are warm, I am waiting for you! " But Franck did not answer... ten minutes later, his sister climbed up the stairs quickly and entered her brother's room saying: " Dad is coming up, be careful. "
Three minutes later, Franck stood up, put on his clothes and drank a hot chocolate in the kitchen. But he forgot to comb his hair and he did not have his shoes on. He had to go faster because the schoolbus was already in front of the house and it would not wait. Franck was in a hurry like every morning.
Franck sat in the bus with his friends. Like him everyone was half-asleep. Later, in the classroom, Franck only listened to the teacher from time to time; everybody was quiet; Franck dreamt about food... twelve o clock rang. Franck opened an eye: it was time to eat the lunch box his mother had cooked for him. But once more he had forgotten it at home.
Poor Franck! now he wondered how he could become a better kid to make every day a better one.

Urgh. Where did I screw up ? I doesn't feel like correct English to me but I'm doubting every sentence I write. Also there definitely aren't enough irregular verbs, anyone's got a correction/suggestion please ?

EDIT: scratch that I think that's enough irregular verbs actually.

Basically I'm trying to get them busy-enough for at least an hour, and they'd better be because I'm gonna have to give'em marks. *kill me*

@Specineff; yes but I also really do need to fill every minute of the class with work, otherwise i'll have to try and be smartass every five minutes as they'll take turns trying my wit and patience.

[Xyga]

Turned the whole thing into a test + a make up mini-test for the next day.

HAPPY M-M-M-M-M-MONDAY ! little bastards.

[Specineff]

Give them hell, Xyga.

[Ruldra]

Surprised guigui didn't show up yet. He's a french teacher so he should have some valuable input for this thread.

[Skykid]

There's no doubt that a proportion of millennials and 90s kids are mentally deficient and that any significant drop in generational cognitive function is most certainly a real and not imagined thing (or a result of generational misunderstandings). But more importantly it's not a result of happenstance.

For me this stupidity is learned culturally. It's not about parenting necessarily (although there's some responsibility there too) but broader influences. Young minds are sponges that soak up everything around them and regurgitate influences via hormonal changes and no small amount of angst, but if you look at culture as a prime factor of influence then it's much easier to understand and define why kids in different parts of the world think and behave in different ways.

In China the majority of young people I've taught English to are really charming, and it's often a pleasure to hold a class with them.

If there is one age group and gender that is most troublesome in China, it's boys between 7 - 12 years, who are so unruly it's almost impossible to get them to keep still or behave. This is because boys in China are spoiled like no other children on earth and treated like royalty by their parents and grandparents. Girls in the same age group are relatively angelic.

This is all down to cultural and historic factors. When Chinese kids reach middle/high school they may as well be in the military. They have no time to breathe, waking up at 6:30am and finishing at 9-10pm, often not even having lunch breaks, completing daily homework and having one day of rest a week. They're under extreme pressure from their parents to perform well. And while I don't agree with this schooling system because I don't consider it productive, it is interesting to see how teenagers are shaped differently by the influences around them. Generally speaking they're very respectful and only occasionally guilty of falling asleep due to exhaustion.

In comparison to kids in the west - and even those I went to school with - the difference is light years apart. Western culture is prone to fucking up young people's brains, and it's a massive pot of peers influencing each other behaviourally, resulting in the kind of beasts Xyga and other teachers have to deal with on an hourly basis.

It's my belief you can't affect the downward spiral without first affecting current cultural and social factors, and since that's a losing battle against educational businesses, general marketers, corporations and other people vying for your and your parents pocket money, it's essentially a lost cause.

[Blinge]

Britain has Pakistani gangs sexually abusing over 1000 girls

Credible source please, or this is bullshit.

[MintyTheCat]

Britain has Pakistani gangs sexually abusing over 1000 girls

Credible source please, or this is bullshit.

Ah that relates to a situation whereby one of the local councils tried to cover up a gang of paedos.

We shall need a reference though.

Edit:

Think it was this one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochdale_ ... cking_gang

[Eaglet]

Britain has Pakistani gangs sexually abusing over 1000 girls

Credible source please, or this is bullshit.

On the same note (but not directly related to the topic, sorry), there is nothing that makes me more murderous than this sort of filth behavior we see from people descendent of MENA/muslim culture. edit: (i don't mean that i only get murderous if they're muslim, it's the behavior itself. We only see this kind of thing from "people" of those cultures though)
I've heard several first hand accounts (people I've gotten to know after the events occured) of young teenage girls (14 year olds) that have been drugged, abducted and locked inside an apartment getting gang raped by upwards of 30 different people for over a week. This is not human behavior. Someone who's participated in or facilitated anything like this is worth less than filth in my eyes.

This sort of behavior and mentality is symptomatic of the culture in general though. At least over here, young MENA brats are effecting our younger generations of kids (where young swedish girls are called whores based on what, nothing?) and i attribute at least some of the regression/degeneracy we see to the influx and predomination of lesser cultural values.

[guigui]

Surprised guigui didn't show up yet. He's a french teacher so he should have some valuable input for this thread.

Yes, I am so very late to the party. Hope Xyga's week has ended with him still alive.

Well, teachers will tell you that education in France has turned into a big mess. Basically the role of teachers has gone from teaching to educating, which is what, I thought, parents should be doing. I also taught (mathematics, but it actually does not count) to a variety of 12-18 years-old and I immediatly understood that I could not do it.

However, I met people who can, and enjoy it. I have no idea how, but those people can enter such a classroom, get the attention of kids and actually make them use their brains to answer another question than "how can I disrupt what will happen during the next hour ?". Great kudos to those people, they are going to save our future from the total dumbness annihilation forecast in this thread.

As for me, I cannot do that (and to be honest, I did not study mathematics all these years to do that). So I decided to candidate for teaching at higher level, post 18 years-old, and that if I did not succeed, I'ill drop the job after one year. Fortunately I succeeded.

In my class, things are way different and I can make people work, even though their lack of knowledge is still hard to handle (adding fractions, anyone ?). In the end, kiddies get out with some knowledge, work methods, and get a job. So I'm rather satisfied.

As you see, I try to remain very positive about my work (why not ? 25 years of it more to go), but this does not mean I cannot see the big issues here, list :

- Government keeps lowering the exigence to reach the "80% of an age category must have their 18 years-old diploma (baccalauréat)" goal. This makes absolutely no sense.
- As Xyga stated, nobody wants to be a teacher anymore. Some reasons : money is bad, starting of career is hard since you always get the classes the older ones do not want, non-teacher people do not understand nor like you.
- Even though some kids can get through 10 years of school with their brain intact, they inevitably lack knowledge. Our elite is weakening, near future : China invents and rules all, Europe produces. Not sure if it is good or bad, let us see.

[Xyga]

It was Hell all week through, I will never do it again. I don't call that 'school' indeed, I felt more like a prison warden except there weren't bars between me and the criminals.

Poor kids, most of them are already assholes, but clearly they don't realize they'll lack most of the essential knowledge to make it to - or simply through - higher education.

And our declining economy today only really rewards those who reach the top, or at least complete a Master degree in a speciality that's not meaningless to an unforgiving market.
Become some manager, engineer, lawyer, doctor, graded civil servant, use your connexions...or struggle as a wage-slave and through endless unemployment periods for the rest of your life.

There's the option of going full liberal, but we're a country that never encouraged the young to opt for training in trades and entrepreneurship (going to technical school was always considered a failure).
You either grew up in a family where it's a thing, or die trying to integrate a world you don't know shit about, where administration and taxes will do everything in their power to take your budding business down.

France is a country that aced The Glorious Thirty but stupidly though it would continue to prosper out of the same old assets forever, never thinking about the future and the changing, globalized world economy.
How we let our previously glorious education system die is only one of the many examples why France's sick, but also why it won't get better anytime soon.

Yeah, we're all gonna have to till the soil at some point, but those kids won't even get crumbs.

[MintyTheCat]

The way you two french citizens describe France sounds a lot like what I found taking place in England.

With the "everyone is the same", "one size fits all" and all the other useless rhetoric. I think that the main issue is responsibility and accountability. If I look back to my grand parents' way of thinking there was more accountability. The 1980s gave a free card to those with lower moral standards and now in the UK it is seen as being the way to do things often in a number of professions. The whole becomes dragged down by this and in the end no one cares, people end up losing out on the whole but a group of scumbags end up winning out.

What usually happens if you look back at systems and empires that failed is that the system becomes so weak internally that it essentially collapses or it is simply taken under by other systems and empires that are less corrupted and have a more long-term outlook. Essentially, if a society has not sufficiently invested in its young it is a matter of time before things fall apart.

You never want to have inequality too great as it becomes harder to level out over time. The UK to me has gone down hill and I pity anyone in their twenties and upper teens now.

[emphatic]

In Swedish schools, much of the resources that are supposed to go towards tutoring for those in need of extra help is now spent on the refugee children there. This is all good and well IMHO, if they've been granted asylum, but there are also people that have no identity papers when they arrive in Sweden, and while some of these even has been declined a stay in Sweden, they still receive benefits from the state while dodging the Police, such as school for their children and other welfare. IMHO, this is insane, and as a parent, very frustrating, especially when I go to pick my kids up from school, and see first-hand how some of these kids act up towards the teachers etc. and knowing there's not enough resources to handle them in a proper way. The school my kids attend even has a 20 something guy from Syria (I think, he might be afghani) who's there to help out, but I've only seen him acting like he's an overgrown kid, instead of as a grownup.

When I was a teenager, we had a "special school" where the delinquents were placed, and they actually came out the other end adjusted because the teachers there gave a shit and knew what they were doing. Meaning that the more focused kids didn't get distracted by them either. It seemed to me that they believed they were in a "cool club" or something. Today, if a kid is the issue at hand, the school's afraid to point that out, or the parent's get pissed off instead of thanking them.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm reading A School for Fools by Sasha Sokolov (not liking this English title much; I suppose A School for Numbskulls would be more like it) - not that it's about any contemporary school. Namedropping it here 'cause it's rather good and somewhat related to the subject matter.

[mnneurope]

u need to change ur attitude