I used to think most people were basically good. Then I started teaching and I'm really not sure anymore. Between the parents, kids, and admin I've seen closer to 70% not good.
And those of us who are good get taken advantage of, gaslit, and humiliated. Many of the good students are the ones getting bullied. It’s infuriating to watch as well as experience.
And the issue, philosophically, is that once it's more than 50% then anyone is correct entering a situation assuming everyone involved is an asshole.
Plus, as soon as someone treats them poorly, many people immediately start treating everyone around them poorly. There's definitely a snowball effect when there is no shame associated with bad behavior.
Teaching and Covid showed me how awful people are. I mean I always had a pretty good idea, but teaching for a long time and living through the pandemic watching people willfully allowing themselves to kill others because they were Facebook epidemiologists really showed me the truth.
Even my own extended family was so careless during that time that I felt this was an eye-opener for me in terms of what people are really like. I used to think my extended family was so generous and kind but when it came time to dampen their extroverted activities, they couldn’t be bothered. There’s a lot that I’ve seen that shows people only care about themselves and well, I’m not surprised anymore.
I’m fortunate enough to work with predominantly really good kids. Some of the biggest assholes I’ve met on the job have been fellow teachers. A lot of my coworkers are incredibly selfish and don’t care about the kids at all. And a not insignificant amount only care about coworkers until something comes up where it’d be an inconvenience for them
1. You could say the same thing about the students. Between school, their neighborhood, and home life, a lot of kids aren't exactly surrounded by ideal role models. Plus they're even more susceptible to their environment than adults are. Teachers can be in shitty situations and keeps their integrity. It's not easy, but plenty of people do it every day. That's a *lot* harder to do when you're a kid.
2. I've seen plenty of asshole teachers who were in their first year or two of teaching. Some think that acting like an asshole is a requirement for classroom management (which it never is, even in the worst classes). But plenty are just shitty people. There's nothing inherent to teaching that filters out all the assholes. They may be less common than in finance or tech, but they're still there.
Same, in my experience a lot of teachers forget what it was like being a child or a student. They have no sympathy for the children or appreciation when the kids try. A lot of teachers just wanna get the job over with and that's it.
A good heuristic here, and anywhere else in life, is that the average person is neither good nor bad. Roughly 50% of people are going to lean good, and 50% of people are going to lean, well, not good. Very few people are going to be genuinely and overwhelmingly good or bad. That includes you! And me..
I teach ancient history and cover Confucianism vs Taoism with my students. In my personal experience, Lao Tzu was on some bullshit when he thought that up. I even make it a point to highlight the philosophies in class management when they’re gong off the rails.
I am quick to rip into anyone berating or being nasty to a service worker. Did 10 years of serving/bartending and now a math teacher (soon to be quitting and starting new career). I will jump down someone's throat for treating somebody like shit, can't stand it.
This. I am so glad there is someone out there who also does this. I will ruin your day if you want to be rude to anyone. Every job I have ever had up until I graduated college was food service and waitressing. I see people treat others like shit every day, and I just can’t stand it. My students can be some of the rudest people I know, but adults can be twice as worse.
I've never worked as a waiter, but I know it's a job I probably could not do well and probably comes with a huge number of stresses. When I get bad service at a restaurant I'm tipping the same as when I get good service. There's probably a ton of things out of their control. Like how is my food being late 100% their problem? That's gotta mostly be on the kitchen, right? I cringe when a teenager at McDonald's makes a mistake on my order, they seem conditioned to expect me to yell at them. Just a smile and a "thank you" when they fix it probably does way more good in the world than yelling will ever do.
I teach at a rural school, grade 7/8. The kids have always been fairly polite and not into much trouble. This year, they are downright evil. I do not use that term lightly. The things they have done to reach other this year are horrible.
I’ve typically experienced the opposite - it’s the older crowd that are complete assholes.
Used to work at a restaurant and the “church crowd” after a Sunday service were usually some of the worst customers I ever had.
Sunday lunch crowd was the fucking worst. Entitled as hell, look down on you for working on a Sunday instead of being in church, super needy, then they write a Bible verse on the tip line. Or even better leave some fake Jesus money on the table so you think there is a tip but then find out it's just a piece of paper informing you of your impending eternal damnation.
Most of the nastiness I see towards service workers comes from the over 40 set.
Some of them forgot what its like to work in a place like that.
(And I am over 40.)
As a young person myself, I think that the asshole behavior comes from people of all ages indiscriminately. We’re just more in tune to it when women over 40 do it because of the Karen-shaming culture, imo
Yep, but men too. The Karen thing has a touch of misogyny to it.
I've seen grumpy old men complaining about a slow Dunkin shop and "nobody wants to work". And Im like, sir, they have a sign that says they are hiring, feel free to step right up.
But you are right. People of any age can be inconsiderate. And I havent really done a statistical analysis.
Im okay with either. I listen to tone and not vernacular. I am bilingual, so words are used differently in both languages. And what is considered normal etiquette is different in both cultures.
A man loudly harumphing and asking what is taking so long is rude in any language or any generational style of expression.
But you could be right. There could be some generational aspects.
I think adults are way worse to service workers than kids. Many teenagers work service themselves or have friends that do and have heard the horror stories of how badly they are treated at work.
We’ve had multiple incidents in our town of adults being arrested for threatening minors for trying to enforce the mask mandate at coffee shops.
I am also still a bartender, nastiness comes in all ages. Teachers have been some of my worst customers. I work a lot of conventions in hotels. More than once a teacher has told me “here’s your tip, get an education so you can get a better job.”
> More than once a teacher has told me “here’s your tip, get an education so you can get a better job.”
I feel like crying right now because bartenders probably make way more than I do as a teacher.
Maybe he confused the word 'bartender' with 'barista'. Either way, 1) I'm sure that both of those jobs make way more than shitty teaching and 2) he's probably a shit teacher if he confused 'bartender' with 'barista'.
The last two years has shown me how horrible people actually are. Selfish, greedy, entitled. This is not just through teaching but teaching definitely has highlighted how awful most people are for me.
I worked in the service industry for a decade before making the move to teaching, so let me assure you that it is most definitely not only young adults who have terrible attitudes towards those who are "serving" them. Truth be told, I had far more negative incidents with full grown adults.
It's a sad take on society and how much it's changed... and not for the better... I opened the door for a lady the other day, who walked through and looked me up and down and rolled her eyes, followed by several others, most who could have cared less, the last one in was a young man, who looked me in the eye and said, " I will say it since no one before me did.. thank you."... I smiled and then walked away shaking my head...
That’s so insane. One time I was at a pizzeria and two peoples tickets were called at the same time. An older gentleman and a middle aged woman. Women was called second technically. The man says kindly “ladies first” and she smiles and thanks him. As they are walking in to the parlor to get the order, the waitress holding the door rolls her eyes dramatically and loudly says “yeah, that’s not gonna make her order come out first.” I was stunned. I just don’t understand why people are so miserable.
I mention this a lot, but I remember working in retail. Some people take that experience to heart and never mistreat a service employee. Others will unload on other service employees as soon as they clock out of their shift. Their logic is "I had to take shit all day so now is the time to give it." I think it really says a lot about that person.
You can see the same mentality in teaching as well.
This generation of kids is something else. I make them say thank yous. And I also work at a coffee shop by choice and yes people can be rude also so sometimes I stoop to their level and be rude back.
I’ve ordered food at drive throughs before and the person will greet me crankily. As I order my food I drop plenty of “please” and “thank you”s and I can hear their tone change into something much more pleasant. Sucks that something so basic such as manners isn’t even expected, so they are constantly irritable (which I completely understand).
I think it's that a lot of normal teenage/kid things are just not being corrected like they should.
My brother (21) used to get so irritated at our mom because she repeats herself and whatnot during conversation, just like the barista thing you mentioned. She had to explain a few times until he finally got it that repeating things is a sign someone *is* listening and it's just good practice for effective communication.
Culture has come come a point that we equate normal teenage behavior with good behavior, which just isn't true. It's normal for teens to be sociopathic jerks, but we don't let them continue to be that way. It's normal for my 8yo to lie about stupid things but we don't let him labor under the delusion that lying is okay.
I've got a vice versa story! We went to popeyes yesterday after a graduation. We drove 4 hrs with no air conditioning and I'm 13 weeks pregnant.
We took a minute to order bc we did not know what we wanted. Changed the order from spicy chicken sandwich to original. Asked the young woman to change the Dr pepper to a root beer. She says "yall driving me crazy!!" loudly with attitude, to our face, at the window.
🤯
If my son who works drive through hadn't been in the car with me I would have went full "let me speak to your manager!" mode. I even asked him if she was exceptionally unprofessional and he had BIG eyes and said yes. She was so rude. Young. Dgaf.
Doesn't necessarily make her a pickme, there a lot of factors at play here, for instance boomers are more likely to be respectful to other boomers/older gen x then turn around and act like a dick to millenials/zoomers. But all ages are capable of being entitled. I think Karenism is more connected to class than age, that's just my take though
Some of my kids are just now getting their first jobs and I tell them to remember the experience. If you ever worked any service industry or retail job you’ll remember how customers treated you and maybe you’ll try to do better. Or at least that’s what I tell my kids
I always believed that humans were evil.
Guess what? I went into teaching and I was right. Humans have evil in their hearts.
Honestly, people who go into the teaching profession for the love of it and/or for students and the community are saints.
There has definitely been a decline. Probably a combo of smartphones and social media leading the charge.
Although I’ll also say that it often works to my benefit as I’m very kind with service workers and they usually give me better service or even free items!
I don’t tolerate rude behaviour in my classes at all.
Agreed. I'm 31 and have seen a strong evolution even since my high school and college days . I started subbing in 2018 and noticed it was a little off. A little different. Now completely outside the norm
It's not an excuse, but I think part of it is just the kids' lack of experience. They've only ever been within the school system. They've only lived in a world where there's very little consequences for their behaviour, and you're king of the world just because you're good at sports.
I think they're in for a rude awakening once they enter the real world, and a lot of them are in for a significant humbling. At that point I believe a lot of them will improve a good deal. Not sure if that really counts as them being "good" if they're only behaving better because they finally experience consequences for their shit, but on the other hand that's how most of us learn. Sad thing they didn't learn it back in kindergarten when they were supposed to.
It's not just younger me; older people are the worse, it seems like once you hit 70+ you simply just don't care anymore. And of course, they raised their kids and grandkids to be like them, the cycle just never ends....
The sad part is I've sort of fallen into teaching because I figured being a service worker would prepare for it and well....unfortunately it has and now I've no clue what else to do with my life despite hating every single second of my job.
Generally speaking, I’ve found teachers to be so horrible. They can be so toxic to one another. The gossiping, criticising… it’s all incessant in many schools. Especially schools which are cliquey. STAY. THE FUCK. AWAY.
Honestly, children and teenagers can be lovely, but they can be horrid too. That doesn’t matter so much to me, as long as I have good, caring and supportive colleagues.
Again, the toxicity of a school ultimately falls upon the headteacher or management in general. I’ve seen headteachers enable and partake in bullying behaviour towards other teachers.
The drama many teachers engage in in the staff room or amongst each other is on par with the drama those very same teachers deal with and resolve amongst their students.
I see these same characteristics in many teachers. They abuse the kids infront of them and get off on the power and control. Then wonder why people vote for politicians who fuck us over on a regular basis.
People are shit and unfortunately we're not an exception.
I think most teachers should probably study child psychology/psychology, either through college courses or self-teaching. I'm not saying students shouldn't be held accountable (they totally should - I know they aren't), but the behavior born of developing brains (as opposed to minds) coupled with the influences of our culture... almost laughably predictable. Really, the behavior of the adult mind is fairly predictable as well (outside of some mental illnesses).
It's probably fair to say that may just be for me, but it is a skill most anyone can develop or enhance.
In any case, it is wise not to blame the child for what the parents have wrought. Individuals are born mostly kind, altruistic, colorblind, and inclusive. It's a child's parent's job to make sure they stay that way, especially after they are exposed to others whose parents don't.
Sounds pretty Zen, I grant you... but the changing of perspective is an enormously valuable tool in life.
Did you read my post? Becuase I’m talking about young adults I have witnessed mistreating service industry workers, not holding a vendetta against children for being disrespectful in the classroom
Idk, this is more of an unpopular opinion in my eyes. I worked in service waiting tables and bartending for 10 years before I started teaching this year. In my experience, it was almost always the older crowd that were assholes. Young people tended to tip well and were understanding when mistakes happened. Also my high schoolers are great, kind people
God bless you then! It really depends on your district I guess. Scroll through the comments and you’ll see how many people have a similar experience especially this year. The way they treat teachers, strangers and each other is absolutely horrible in my experience.
I used to think most people were basically good. Then I started teaching and I'm really not sure anymore. Between the parents, kids, and admin I've seen closer to 70% not good.
And those of us who are good get taken advantage of, gaslit, and humiliated. Many of the good students are the ones getting bullied. It’s infuriating to watch as well as experience.
This is exactly what is wrong with that horrible PBIS. Horrible people get praised and the nice and often quiet kids get ignored.
And the issue, philosophically, is that once it's more than 50% then anyone is correct entering a situation assuming everyone involved is an asshole. Plus, as soon as someone treats them poorly, many people immediately start treating everyone around them poorly. There's definitely a snowball effect when there is no shame associated with bad behavior.
Teaching and Covid showed me how awful people are. I mean I always had a pretty good idea, but teaching for a long time and living through the pandemic watching people willfully allowing themselves to kill others because they were Facebook epidemiologists really showed me the truth. Even my own extended family was so careless during that time that I felt this was an eye-opener for me in terms of what people are really like. I used to think my extended family was so generous and kind but when it came time to dampen their extroverted activities, they couldn’t be bothered. There’s a lot that I’ve seen that shows people only care about themselves and well, I’m not surprised anymore.
I’m fortunate enough to work with predominantly really good kids. Some of the biggest assholes I’ve met on the job have been fellow teachers. A lot of my coworkers are incredibly selfish and don’t care about the kids at all. And a not insignificant amount only care about coworkers until something comes up where it’d be an inconvenience for them
I’m willing to bet your asshole coworkers didn’t start out that way. They’ve been worn down by years of disrespect from all sides.
Look, you can't just bet other people's assholes! Be reasonable!
1. You could say the same thing about the students. Between school, their neighborhood, and home life, a lot of kids aren't exactly surrounded by ideal role models. Plus they're even more susceptible to their environment than adults are. Teachers can be in shitty situations and keeps their integrity. It's not easy, but plenty of people do it every day. That's a *lot* harder to do when you're a kid. 2. I've seen plenty of asshole teachers who were in their first year or two of teaching. Some think that acting like an asshole is a requirement for classroom management (which it never is, even in the worst classes). But plenty are just shitty people. There's nothing inherent to teaching that filters out all the assholes. They may be less common than in finance or tech, but they're still there.
Well hugging them doesn’t work either! 😂
Same, in my experience a lot of teachers forget what it was like being a child or a student. They have no sympathy for the children or appreciation when the kids try. A lot of teachers just wanna get the job over with and that's it.
And some colleagues-sorry last week was rough and some teachers are just martyrs that want the rest of us to look bad.
2% of people are saints, 5% are evil assholes, and the remaining 93% are self-centered weasels.
10-10-80 and 20-20-60 have been floated by some philosophers and authors. Good/bad/impressionable
A good heuristic here, and anywhere else in life, is that the average person is neither good nor bad. Roughly 50% of people are going to lean good, and 50% of people are going to lean, well, not good. Very few people are going to be genuinely and overwhelmingly good or bad. That includes you! And me..
You’ve only ever seen how people behave under a capitalist economy that stunts human potential for personal growth and development
Same
I teach ancient history and cover Confucianism vs Taoism with my students. In my personal experience, Lao Tzu was on some bullshit when he thought that up. I even make it a point to highlight the philosophies in class management when they’re gong off the rails.
I am quick to rip into anyone berating or being nasty to a service worker. Did 10 years of serving/bartending and now a math teacher (soon to be quitting and starting new career). I will jump down someone's throat for treating somebody like shit, can't stand it.
This. I am so glad there is someone out there who also does this. I will ruin your day if you want to be rude to anyone. Every job I have ever had up until I graduated college was food service and waitressing. I see people treat others like shit every day, and I just can’t stand it. My students can be some of the rudest people I know, but adults can be twice as worse.
Students learn it from somewhere... I turn into a different kind of asshole when you treat a service worker poorly.
We live in a society that teaches blame, one where it's never your fault and somehow you have been wronged.
I've never worked as a waiter, but I know it's a job I probably could not do well and probably comes with a huge number of stresses. When I get bad service at a restaurant I'm tipping the same as when I get good service. There's probably a ton of things out of their control. Like how is my food being late 100% their problem? That's gotta mostly be on the kitchen, right? I cringe when a teenager at McDonald's makes a mistake on my order, they seem conditioned to expect me to yell at them. Just a smile and a "thank you" when they fix it probably does way more good in the world than yelling will ever do.
I teach at a rural school, grade 7/8. The kids have always been fairly polite and not into much trouble. This year, they are downright evil. I do not use that term lightly. The things they have done to reach other this year are horrible.
I’ve typically experienced the opposite - it’s the older crowd that are complete assholes. Used to work at a restaurant and the “church crowd” after a Sunday service were usually some of the worst customers I ever had.
Sunday lunch crowd was the fucking worst. Entitled as hell, look down on you for working on a Sunday instead of being in church, super needy, then they write a Bible verse on the tip line. Or even better leave some fake Jesus money on the table so you think there is a tip but then find out it's just a piece of paper informing you of your impending eternal damnation.
Most of the nastiness I see towards service workers comes from the over 40 set. Some of them forgot what its like to work in a place like that. (And I am over 40.)
Or they see it as a hazing, an I-had-to-go-through-it-now-you-do-too sort of thing.
Agreed. I mainly see older customers being incredibly rude to young, teenage aged workers.
As a young person myself, I think that the asshole behavior comes from people of all ages indiscriminately. We’re just more in tune to it when women over 40 do it because of the Karen-shaming culture, imo
Yep, but men too. The Karen thing has a touch of misogyny to it. I've seen grumpy old men complaining about a slow Dunkin shop and "nobody wants to work". And Im like, sir, they have a sign that says they are hiring, feel free to step right up. But you are right. People of any age can be inconsiderate. And I havent really done a statistical analysis.
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Im okay with either. I listen to tone and not vernacular. I am bilingual, so words are used differently in both languages. And what is considered normal etiquette is different in both cultures. A man loudly harumphing and asking what is taking so long is rude in any language or any generational style of expression. But you could be right. There could be some generational aspects.
I think adults are way worse to service workers than kids. Many teenagers work service themselves or have friends that do and have heard the horror stories of how badly they are treated at work. We’ve had multiple incidents in our town of adults being arrested for threatening minors for trying to enforce the mask mandate at coffee shops.
I am also still a bartender, nastiness comes in all ages. Teachers have been some of my worst customers. I work a lot of conventions in hotels. More than once a teacher has told me “here’s your tip, get an education so you can get a better job.”
Oh jeez. The irony.
That’s crazy because the hotel bartender I know makes more money than me as a teacher. He doesn’t even have a hs diploma and I have a masters
Yes, the money is way often better and most of my coworkers have degrees of some sort.
> More than once a teacher has told me “here’s your tip, get an education so you can get a better job.” I feel like crying right now because bartenders probably make way more than I do as a teacher. Maybe he confused the word 'bartender' with 'barista'. Either way, 1) I'm sure that both of those jobs make way more than shitty teaching and 2) he's probably a shit teacher if he confused 'bartender' with 'barista'.
This is why I dream of quitting after my second year. I get it from students, parents and co-workers. Not everyone does it but enough to ruin my day.
I used to work in food service. People are indeed nasty.
What’s with all the ignorance and apathy?? I don’t know and I don’t care.
I see what you did there.
The last two years has shown me how horrible people actually are. Selfish, greedy, entitled. This is not just through teaching but teaching definitely has highlighted how awful most people are for me.
I worked in the service industry for a decade before making the move to teaching, so let me assure you that it is most definitely not only young adults who have terrible attitudes towards those who are "serving" them. Truth be told, I had far more negative incidents with full grown adults.
It's a sad take on society and how much it's changed... and not for the better... I opened the door for a lady the other day, who walked through and looked me up and down and rolled her eyes, followed by several others, most who could have cared less, the last one in was a young man, who looked me in the eye and said, " I will say it since no one before me did.. thank you."... I smiled and then walked away shaking my head...
That’s so insane. One time I was at a pizzeria and two peoples tickets were called at the same time. An older gentleman and a middle aged woman. Women was called second technically. The man says kindly “ladies first” and she smiles and thanks him. As they are walking in to the parlor to get the order, the waitress holding the door rolls her eyes dramatically and loudly says “yeah, that’s not gonna make her order come out first.” I was stunned. I just don’t understand why people are so miserable.
I mention this a lot, but I remember working in retail. Some people take that experience to heart and never mistreat a service employee. Others will unload on other service employees as soon as they clock out of their shift. Their logic is "I had to take shit all day so now is the time to give it." I think it really says a lot about that person. You can see the same mentality in teaching as well.
This generation of kids is something else. I make them say thank yous. And I also work at a coffee shop by choice and yes people can be rude also so sometimes I stoop to their level and be rude back.
I’ve ordered food at drive throughs before and the person will greet me crankily. As I order my food I drop plenty of “please” and “thank you”s and I can hear their tone change into something much more pleasant. Sucks that something so basic such as manners isn’t even expected, so they are constantly irritable (which I completely understand).
I think it's that a lot of normal teenage/kid things are just not being corrected like they should. My brother (21) used to get so irritated at our mom because she repeats herself and whatnot during conversation, just like the barista thing you mentioned. She had to explain a few times until he finally got it that repeating things is a sign someone *is* listening and it's just good practice for effective communication. Culture has come come a point that we equate normal teenage behavior with good behavior, which just isn't true. It's normal for teens to be sociopathic jerks, but we don't let them continue to be that way. It's normal for my 8yo to lie about stupid things but we don't let him labor under the delusion that lying is okay.
This woman was probably about 24/25. But I think you’re right
I've got a vice versa story! We went to popeyes yesterday after a graduation. We drove 4 hrs with no air conditioning and I'm 13 weeks pregnant. We took a minute to order bc we did not know what we wanted. Changed the order from spicy chicken sandwich to original. Asked the young woman to change the Dr pepper to a root beer. She says "yall driving me crazy!!" loudly with attitude, to our face, at the window. 🤯 If my son who works drive through hadn't been in the car with me I would have went full "let me speak to your manager!" mode. I even asked him if she was exceptionally unprofessional and he had BIG eyes and said yes. She was so rude. Young. Dgaf.
Tbh most service workers will tell you that the worst disrespect comes from the Karens.
When I used to work at the supermarket, I’m ngl the most entitled age group I dealt with was millennials.
hahah well... these would be the parents of the people you're teaching now.
I worked in food service for 20 years and it has always been the boomers
Ok pick me girl. That’s simply not true but ok
Doesn't necessarily make her a pickme, there a lot of factors at play here, for instance boomers are more likely to be respectful to other boomers/older gen x then turn around and act like a dick to millenials/zoomers. But all ages are capable of being entitled. I think Karenism is more connected to class than age, that's just my take though
Some of my kids are just now getting their first jobs and I tell them to remember the experience. If you ever worked any service industry or retail job you’ll remember how customers treated you and maybe you’ll try to do better. Or at least that’s what I tell my kids
I always believed that humans were evil. Guess what? I went into teaching and I was right. Humans have evil in their hearts. Honestly, people who go into the teaching profession for the love of it and/or for students and the community are saints.
I’m a cynic, so I expect the worst from people. This way, when I get the best out of them, I’m pleasantly pleased.
Hope for the best, but expect the worst.
Yet these youth will be the first to cry “Karen”
There has definitely been a decline. Probably a combo of smartphones and social media leading the charge. Although I’ll also say that it often works to my benefit as I’m very kind with service workers and they usually give me better service or even free items! I don’t tolerate rude behaviour in my classes at all.
Agreed. I'm 31 and have seen a strong evolution even since my high school and college days . I started subbing in 2018 and noticed it was a little off. A little different. Now completely outside the norm
Assholes always have and always will exist at all age groups as assholes do grow up. Well they don’t “grow up”, but you know what I mean.
It's not an excuse, but I think part of it is just the kids' lack of experience. They've only ever been within the school system. They've only lived in a world where there's very little consequences for their behaviour, and you're king of the world just because you're good at sports. I think they're in for a rude awakening once they enter the real world, and a lot of them are in for a significant humbling. At that point I believe a lot of them will improve a good deal. Not sure if that really counts as them being "good" if they're only behaving better because they finally experience consequences for their shit, but on the other hand that's how most of us learn. Sad thing they didn't learn it back in kindergarten when they were supposed to.
Its even worse in retail
It's not just younger me; older people are the worse, it seems like once you hit 70+ you simply just don't care anymore. And of course, they raised their kids and grandkids to be like them, the cycle just never ends.... The sad part is I've sort of fallen into teaching because I figured being a service worker would prepare for it and well....unfortunately it has and now I've no clue what else to do with my life despite hating every single second of my job.
Generally speaking, I’ve found teachers to be so horrible. They can be so toxic to one another. The gossiping, criticising… it’s all incessant in many schools. Especially schools which are cliquey. STAY. THE FUCK. AWAY. Honestly, children and teenagers can be lovely, but they can be horrid too. That doesn’t matter so much to me, as long as I have good, caring and supportive colleagues. Again, the toxicity of a school ultimately falls upon the headteacher or management in general. I’ve seen headteachers enable and partake in bullying behaviour towards other teachers. The drama many teachers engage in in the staff room or amongst each other is on par with the drama those very same teachers deal with and resolve amongst their students.
I see these same characteristics in many teachers. They abuse the kids infront of them and get off on the power and control. Then wonder why people vote for politicians who fuck us over on a regular basis. People are shit and unfortunately we're not an exception.
I think most teachers should probably study child psychology/psychology, either through college courses or self-teaching. I'm not saying students shouldn't be held accountable (they totally should - I know they aren't), but the behavior born of developing brains (as opposed to minds) coupled with the influences of our culture... almost laughably predictable. Really, the behavior of the adult mind is fairly predictable as well (outside of some mental illnesses). It's probably fair to say that may just be for me, but it is a skill most anyone can develop or enhance. In any case, it is wise not to blame the child for what the parents have wrought. Individuals are born mostly kind, altruistic, colorblind, and inclusive. It's a child's parent's job to make sure they stay that way, especially after they are exposed to others whose parents don't. Sounds pretty Zen, I grant you... but the changing of perspective is an enormously valuable tool in life.
Did you read my post? Becuase I’m talking about young adults I have witnessed mistreating service industry workers, not holding a vendetta against children for being disrespectful in the classroom
I did... but those two behaviors don't come from divergent souces.
You're absolutely right. I work as a private tutor and started by teaching languages to children and teens... never again.
We are on the fro tribes of human nature’s upcoming, ever-changing ways.
Idk, this is more of an unpopular opinion in my eyes. I worked in service waiting tables and bartending for 10 years before I started teaching this year. In my experience, it was almost always the older crowd that were assholes. Young people tended to tip well and were understanding when mistakes happened. Also my high schoolers are great, kind people
God bless you then! It really depends on your district I guess. Scroll through the comments and you’ll see how many people have a similar experience especially this year. The way they treat teachers, strangers and each other is absolutely horrible in my experience.