Some children these days seem not to be taught how to be responsible for their actions. They exist with a sense of deniability and YOLOness that prompts them to be so capricious and carefree that there is almost no thought to their actions far less their consequences. By children I mean young teenagers, the ones in secondary school who should be focusing on getting their education who to my mind are still children as they  are under eighteen.

I say this mainly out of frustration because I’ve endured a day where the new 11-13 year olds seem to be under the impression that they are ‘running tings’ in the school. The behaviour is so appalling and outright boldfaced that I wonder if their primary school teachers were happy to see them go. Parents have been called to the school left, right and centre and it continues tomorrow. Most parents are in agreement that the children need to settle down and get on with their work. They yell at them about ‘makin dem shame’, give warnings and threats and keep massive leather belts in their bags but the youth themselves are in such a headspace where they don’t care….in the mean time, I am tired. I just want to teach and go home, not deal with repeated discipline issues from children who should know better because they are old enough to know right from wrong.

I think that the powers that be have become so ‘child-centred’ that they have lost sight of the fact that as they progress in age, children (teenagers) ought not to be babied and coddled into a sense of dependency,expectancy and entitlement. How is it right for society for young adults not to feel ownership to the development to their country and to feel as if they are entitled to everything? In addition to this, there have been years and years of government handouts to compound this. Now,  don’t get me wrong. I absolutely agree with the rights of the child and their right to be protected and the role of the government and the educators in this. I absolutely agree with providing relevant resources and technologies particularly to children who are in low-income families which is the vast majority at my school. But should I have to TELL you not to put porn on your laptop? Or not to fight over girls? Or not to eat the meat out of the boxed lunch and fling the rest of the food in the bin? Steups…..Sometimes my role of ‘in loco parentis’ is one that I would prefer not to accept because I need to preserve my energies for my own gremz but then again, I am the one who signed the paper right? Sigh…..

TMIDM