Working Hard or Hardly Working?

This past January I was in my first teaching position. I had, of course, gone through two practicums (three weeks in a classroom observing and teaching some) and student teaching, but I was excited to get my first class of my very own. I know I sound like a kid in a toy store and sadly my naivety got the better of me. However, it wasn’t long after I had the job that I learned a harsh lesson about teaching. In discussing a topic on the play we had just completed I asked the students a simple question. One student looked me directly in the eye and said, “Can’t you just tell us the answer?” Luckily, I at least had enough experience to be able to hide the shock I felt at the time. Of course, looking back on this moment I am not sure what caused my shock. I have been working since I was fourteen and had many co-workers with the same mentality as my students. Why do the work, when someone else can do it for you?

In today’s schools students have become lazier in their educational endeavors. With tools like SparkNotes and Pinkmonkey.com they don’t actually read the text assigned. Scarier thought is they are willing to admit freely to having used SparkNotes to complete an assignment. Now, I know I am only in my twenties and have not been distanced from my frivolous teenage years, but I am still disheartened by the lack of effort put in work in today’s society. We would rather be given things instantly, then take the time to figure them out. This mentality may be the same reason that so many teenagers today will not pick up a book to read. Why bother when they can get a plot synopsis online in two minutes, right? What concerns me is that there are people willing to just hand things over. Teachers will feed the students the answer to avoid fighting with them to get them to find it themselves.

Maybe I am still too young and naïve, but I do not see how we are helping anyone when we do not make them do the work required to complete a task. I grew up learning how to value hard work and to this day I rather work hard to get the “C” than be handed an “A”.

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