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I didn't title this post because I am not exactly sure what I should call it. It is almost the end of the school year and many of my students are failing. They refuse to do any work and when you call the home, the parents often act like something is wrong with you. I gave an assignment where the students had to prepare a 3 page typed report. It should be in their own words. I showed them how to use in-text citations, write a thesis statement, prepare an outline and do a works cited page. Most of the kids didn't even attempt to do the work. What a lot of them fail to realize is this:three pages typed (double spaced, 12-pt font, Times New Roman) comes out to be about 6 paragraphs. It really isn't a lot. It's one more paragraph than a 5-paragraph essay.

What I've come to discover is that the reason I have to fight with many of my students is education is not considered to be valuable. A lot of them don't have real-life examples of people who went to college and made it so they just give up. I also think my students truly believe they are better off than they are. I also believe a lot of feel like they have time to get it together and they don't.

I am not sure what can be done to change this, but I always tell my students that education begins at home. Parents have to instill in their children at an early age the importance of getting an education. By the time these children come to me, they are so screwed up, it's not funny. I am always worried about the future generations but I think I am beginning to worry about the present one.