Yesterday during our Character Education time, many of my seniors attended a motivational meeting in the theater. Unfortunately, the guest speaker was stuck in traffic and never made it to the school. To fill the time, one of the administrators decided to conduct the meeting. I wasn’t there, but another teacher who attended the session came to see me later. He was concerned because the administrator had been so negative during the meeting, and the teacher knew that students would be upset.
A few minutes later my second-period students filed into my classroom and confirmed that they were depressed because of what they had heard during the meeting. Here are a few of the gems they were told during Character Education.
- Students today are lazy, much lazier than previous generations.
- The economy is so bad that these students will never find jobs.
- They will have to live with their parents forever.
- They will be competing with their parents for future jobs.
- Their parents will be given these jobs because they work harder.
I can’t remember what else the kids were told, but these were the major topics that I heard repeatedly from students and teachers.
After this section of the “motivational” meeting, another administrator addressed the approximately 300 seniors to tell them about graduation procedures and what they were supposed to do. According to seniors, the administrator told students repeatedly what would happen if they failed to report to practice, failed to return their books, failed to follow directions, etc. She never took even one minute to congratulate them on making it to their final semester of high school or to celebrate their achievements.
Most kids can just laugh off the meeting and forget it. Many of them, however, are absolutely crestfallen. In fact, one highly motivated, intelligent, and diligent young woman who has taken just about every AP course we offer and plans to become a doctor told me this afternoon that maybe she shouldn’t plan to attend medical school in the future. When I asked why, she referred to yesterday’s meeting and told me the group had been told to forget becoming a doctor because they would have to borrow so much money that they would never be able to repay. The student believed this.
We have to be careful when we talk to students. We, indeed, have the power to inspire students, but we also have the power to crush their spirit. Sometimes it’s much easier to chastise than it is to motivate.
Tomorrow I think I may give my own little motivational talk.
By the way, the last time I checked, my generation caused the current recession, not teenagers. If we want to complain about the economy and the poor job market that our high school seniors will face in the future, perhaps we should start with an apology instead of criticism.
