Thread: apathy in all ages?

Originally Posted by considering

The main problem I have with these high school students is complete apathy and indifference to learning.

Why do you think elementary education would be any different? My last teaching assignment was at an inner city school in Austin. My 4th grade class was largely below grade level in all subject areas. I had students on the 1st or 2nd grade reading level and students who could not multiply let alone add and subtract.

My building administrator would not allow me to provide remedial instruction. I was told that I was expected to teach 4th grade instructional objectives. I was also told that my class was expected to make "significant progress" on the annual standardized test otherwise my employment would be terminated.

Most of my class was indifferent to learning. They actually resented my interruption of their conversations. Having become accustomed to repeated failure, most of them were simply not willing to make any effort to learn.

In reply to your question regarding apathy, I think you should consider the demographics of any given location.

Are all students in all schools apathetic? Clearly not.

Are all students in all schools highly motivated? No.

Every school is different. One of the tricks towards retaining your sanity as well as long term employment is finding the school that's right for you.

Also, is it harder to be an ESL teacher if you are not bilingual?

That's allowed?!

I am an ESL teacher and I don't speak anything but English unless you count a smattering of Spanish and French. I find that when I spoke Spanish (when I could speak more Spanish a long time ago), the Hispanic kids didn't learn as quickly because they relied on me to translate for them. An ESL resource teacher at my school speaks Cantonese but she doesn't tell the children (unless they're saying "bad things" in Chinese) for the same reason. When I had mostly English speaking children and a few ESL kids, the ESL kids in that class learned to speak English much faster because they HAD to speak English. Currently, I have a class with 17 children, 15 of them speak Cantonese, 2 Vietnamese. The Cantonese speaking children aren't learning as quickly because they tend to speak Cantonese when I'm not around. The Vietnamese children are learning VERY quickly because the common language is English.

I taught ESL a while, and now I teach Spanish. I think some of the apathy that we see is really fear. Some may be apathy, but it might be something to consider. I saw more eager, driven students than I did those thatjust flat didnt want to learn English.

In my state there is no requirement that you speak another language to teach ELD. I do speak Spanish, but my ELD classes also include kids who speak Russian, Hmong and Vietnamese. We are trained to teach English in English and we have materials to do it with.

I just came back from a SREB conference (something to do with High Schools that Work). I conversed with many teachers from across the US. What I found was Universal Apathy does exist, with franchises and offices located across the Country and around the World. The same goals, problems and successes, from many places. I found there were better places (but not much), and many I considered worse. I came back with a new outlook, "There's no place like home, Dorothy."
Hey, I will be content, (for a while). :wink: