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Students Lazy Whiners? MGM Students’ Responses

Recently, a high school teacher from Philadelphia included in her personal blog that she felt high school students had become “disengaged, lazy whiners.”  This teacher went on to vent about how her job had become very difficult due to the students’ attitudes and actions.  Recently a group of MGM students were given the opportunity to learn about this teachers’ blog and the reactions it had solicited.  Here are what two MGM students had to say about the teacher.

An eleventh grade girl wrote the following response.

Your future all depends on what decisions you make in high school; therefore, I choose to make good grades to help better my future.  A majority of students try very hard in school, but you always have kids who could not care less.  I think this teacher was disrespectful, and she pretty much labeled all students as failures.

Most of my friends are in all honors classes and are far from out of control.  There are many students who are disrespectful, but it is not the teachers’ job to fix that.  The parents of these students should have set higher standards for them and then maybe the students would care about their futures.  This teacher should have thought about all the good kids she teaches, and not always focus on the failures. 

It’s almost like the good kids are being punished, and the bad kids are getting all the fame.  On the news, you never hear all the good things students do.  You only hear about kids bringing illegal items to school.  It’s like everybody wants to do bad things so they will be recognized.  I think we should totally change this.  One way is by not even recognizing kids when they do bad stuff, and only publicize student achievements. 

“They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative.”  This statement by the teacher is very untrue.  A lot of students enjoy doing creative projects and not always doing bookwork.  This teacher should start only focusing on the motivated students and not worrying about the failures.  Not all students are the same person, and people should realize this. 

In my opinion, this teacher should be fired for not following her obligations as a teacher.  Teachers are supposed to motivate students, not bring down their confidence.  This teacher made many bold statements that she should not have made public.  This could hurt the confidence of good students because she basically labeled all students by the negative actions of a few of her students.

The following was written by a junior boy.

For the most part, all teenagers fall into the category of “lazy whiners.”  Motivation of students should be the teachers’ job.  They are here to make learning interesting.  One can’t expect to place and energy-filled kid in a four-walled, white cell for eight hours a day, share subjects that may or may not be relevant to their future goals, and expect them to learn it all.  They are more likely to go to sleep. 

I am probably the laziest student there is, but I’ve been observing my peers and discovered that every single student has at least one thing he/she excels at, if not more.  Like a gardner, it is the teacher’s job to find the things that her students do well, plant the seed of learning, and nurse that seed of what her students excel at patiently until it blooms.

I literally hate both math and English with a passion.  When given homework, I forget to do it.  I know and understand that doing the work can help me, but I will not do it.  Yet on the other hand, place a history exam on my desk or tell me to write a narrative of my own choosing, and in doing these things, I shine.

History, mythology and writing are my strong suits.  These are the things that run through my mind non stop.  If my teacher would find the time to learn about my strengths and weaknesses, then I am positive I would be a better student.  If teachers did that with all students, the benefits would outweigh the risks. 

The old saying goes, “There are no bad students; only bad teachers.”  Teachers must comprehend they can’t make someone learn something if the person has no interest.  Then the teachers chastise their students for the inability to learn.  No one has the inability to learn; one must just find the right soil in which to plant the seed.