mackenzie

every day, she walks in with a smile. her blonde ponytail swinging back and forth. she is, what my sisters and i would call, a "buchanan girl". in other words, she's a farm girl. she has adorable dimples and an infectious smile. she wears john deere t-shirts, and she's smart as a tack. she's disciplined with a terrific personality. she's what we want our own daughters to become.

but in today's school society, which i believe is a microcosm of the 'outside world', she is largely ignored. not by her teachers, but by her peers. granted, she is choosy as to who she lets into her sphere of influence, probably because she sets standards for herself. but she is simply not flashy enough to attract the pseudo-phony-shallow attention that so many others crave.

there used to be two kinds of students in schools: the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. most conflicts arose due to the inherent differences between these two groups. this is no longer the case, however. we now have the following:

1. the "i (or, my parents) have way too much, and i'm (or my parents are) not afraid to flaunt it"
2. the "my parents work hard for a living and i have what i need, which is fine, thanks."
3. and lastly, the " i don't have what i need at all. can you please help me?"

if i had to label these groups, this would be my politically incorrect way of doing so:

1. the nasty snobs
2. the regular kids
3. the poor

i am continually amazed at group number 1 (the nasty snobs), and not in good way. in most cases, these apples have not fallen far from the tree. no boundaries have been established for these children ~ parents give them their hearts' desires, all in the quest for popularity and wardrobe dominance and trashy my space sites~ in the name of bmw's and ipods and sleazy prom dresses ~ never mind the consequence. never mind that we have junior high students who drink and are sexually active. (seriously, if you could see the way some of our girls dress. oh man. who buys those clothes, anyways?)

the challenge as a teacher is to impose some sort of discipline or structure or accountability or boundaries for these children who are held to absolutely NOTHING at home. and when we do try to impose some sort of discipline or accountability for these same children, guess who comes calling? it's incredibly frustrating.

we teachers like to say that "it starts at home." really, it does. how can anyone deny it? we also talk about how we worry about the future. there's a scary sense of entitlement among so many of our children. are these same self-centered individuals, reared by members of a "me" generation, going to be willing to take care of us later?

mackenzie, by the way, belongs to group # 2.

more importantly, she is, by all accounts, perfectly happy to be there.