Very new, very coverless atlas :(
Yes, that is a new book with the front cover ripped off and the back cover barely hanging on. The pages are crinkled and I saw the student doing this while sitting at her desk. I asked her "what do you think you're doing? What did that book ever do to you?" She laughed and said, "It hit me." I took a second one on one to ask her why she destroyed, not my, but OUR property, that the book was hers while she had it and she just destroyed HER book. Her response was that she "don't know that shit." What does this mean for our students? More after the jump. Read More.
Books don't grow on trees! Where did this student get the audacity to destroy one of my fairly expensive tomes of ancient knowledge and wisdom that I had, that day, bequeathed to her for the time she was withing my educational realm?
It wasn't the money that bothered me. It didn't particularly care that I only have a few books and she killed one of them. It wasn't that she didn't know why she destroyed it or what was in the book that bothered me, it was that she didn't WANT to know.
People who have been in the classroom are no strangers to defaced property. Desks, walls, assignments, and even personal property are routinely doodled on and scratched up by our students struggling to stay awake in the classroom. What's troubling and much more significant, in my opinion, is the destruction of the books.
Destruction is the only work I could find that carries the gravity of the situation. Why do they destroy the books? Is it boredom? Maybe, but even engaged and interested students doodle. It's a pattern I've noticed, especially amongst my most challenging students.
The aggressive destruction of books shows a complete lack of knowledge of or respect for the importance of books and the knowledge within. It's the disrespect for the effort put in to their creation. It is more than just the expression of frustration of their inability to read at a grade appropriate level (something many of our kids share). I think it is the outright rejection and ridicule of the learning process, the result of years of disconnection with learning. It really bothers me and makes me sad for their future.
What artistic behaviors bother you?
It wasn't the money that bothered me. It didn't particularly care that I only have a few books and she killed one of them. It wasn't that she didn't know why she destroyed it or what was in the book that bothered me, it was that she didn't WANT to know.
People who have been in the classroom are no strangers to defaced property. Desks, walls, assignments, and even personal property are routinely doodled on and scratched up by our students struggling to stay awake in the classroom. What's troubling and much more significant, in my opinion, is the destruction of the books.
Destruction is the only work I could find that carries the gravity of the situation. Why do they destroy the books? Is it boredom? Maybe, but even engaged and interested students doodle. It's a pattern I've noticed, especially amongst my most challenging students.
The aggressive destruction of books shows a complete lack of knowledge of or respect for the importance of books and the knowledge within. It's the disrespect for the effort put in to their creation. It is more than just the expression of frustration of their inability to read at a grade appropriate level (something many of our kids share). I think it is the outright rejection and ridicule of the learning process, the result of years of disconnection with learning. It really bothers me and makes me sad for their future.
What artistic behaviors bother you?
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