Fight in My Classroom

---

In this school, every student is grouped into "sets" based on ability-level for every subject. Science has three different groups, or "sets". The "top set" is the highest-performing group, and the "bottom set" is the lowest.

Right now, I'm in the midst of a nightmare-ish lesson with my bottom set year 9 class (8th graders). They won't shut the hell up long enough for me to say ANYTHING! If you're sitting there thinking, "Well, you should just tell them blah blah blah..", I can assure you that telling them anything is just as impossible to me as trying to tell the mosh pit at a Limp Bizkit concert something. You can't tell them anything, because they aren't listening to you. They're busy. And they're loud.

So I'm struggling with my options: do I move on with the lesson anyway, acting as though they give a damn? Or do I just stop the lesson entirely and stand there with my arms folded and stare at them while they talk? (For the record: I've tried stopping the lesson, and they don't seem to mind. At least then, I'm no longer interrupting their important discussions with each other.)

I decide to scratch both of those ideas and fight for control of the class. I start calling names of the loudest students, telling them to turn around and stop talking. The rest of the class is still as noisy as the cafeteria, so it's entirely fruitless.

Rakeem stands up. "Hey!" I yell over the noise. "Rakeem, sit back down!"

Walking, he stares at me. "Sit down!" I yell, pointing to his chair, thinking maybe he can't hear me.

He rolls his eyes while he walks up to Tiana, stopping in front of her and leaning forward as if to tell her something. "Rakeem!" I yell. He ignores me.

What happens next happens so fast, it's hard to write it in order.

Suddenly, Tiana cringes and screams. "Tiana! Do NOT scream in my classroom!" I shout above the noise.

Rakeem spins on his heel, laughing, and begins to stroll away from her. "He spat his shewing gum at me!" Tiana screams.

He deserves a detention--he was out of his seat, he was chewing gum which isn't allowed, and he spit his gum onto another student. Before I have time to say any of this, Tiana flips out!

She's running--running in my classroom!--after Rakeem and practically jumps on him, hitting, punching, and kicking him. All the while, she's screaming about the gum. The noise-level in my room goes through the roof. Half the class is on their feet. I'm hollering, "Tiana! Stop it! Rakeem, sit down! Tiana! You both have detentions!"

Finally, Tiana gets off Rakeem, and he sits down in his seat while at least five students are standing, leaning toward me, yelling at me and pointing towards Tiana and Rakeem. Meanwhile, Tiana stomps up to me, hysterical, waving her arms around, saying, "Miss, you aren't even gonna do anything?? He spat his gum at me! And you didn't even do anything!"

Stunned that something so small could cause a person to flip out like that, I stammer, "Well, what do you--"

"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Tiana screams. "I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS! HE FUCKING SPAT HIS NASTY GUM AT ME AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING!!!"

Her eyes are bulging out of her head, and she's spinning around, stomping to her seat. "How would you feel if someone did that to you?" She asks, glaring at me. "What would you do if someone SPAT gum onto you? You certainly wouldn't sit there like an idiot and let them do it!"

I'm shocked into silence. There's no way for me to explain that I was about to give Rakeem a detention before Tiana jumped up. No way to explain that detentions are the only thing I CAN do about misbehavior. No way to explain that if someone had spat gum on me, I certainly wouldn't react violently; I'd probably just tell them to cut it out. No way to explain that only idiots react violently to a nonviolent aciton. Kids like this can't understand such a sentiment. All they know is violence as a way to "save face", to show toughness, and to get what they want. It's almost the only language they know.

Other students join in Tiana's outrage towards me. I hear shouts of, "Pathetic! That's what you are! You're absolutely pathetic!" And "You're the worst teacher ever!" And "You should go back to University!"

Tiana is livid, yelling, "You're the most pathetic person I've EVER met! And I don't CARE if you call my parents! Call them! I'm not serving your damn detention!"

While everyone was yelling at me, I was filling out two pink detention slips--one for Rakeem and one for Tiana. After I handed Tiana's to her was when she told me she wasn't going to serve the detention.

"Alright, let's get back to class, shall we?" I say, turning toward the board and raising my marker to write. Again, the class plunges into its normal state of chaos, as if I'm not even there trying to teach. Tiana sits with her arms crossed, refusing to work, refusing to look at me.

Ahh...another morning in paradise.

---

Comments

[Kathy]

Hang in there
Wow! That is hideous. Teaching is really hard. They sound like a bunch of Vicky Pollards from Little Britain. If you don't know who that is, rent the Little Britain DVD, 1st season. You will recognize her, and it'll give you a good laugh.

[apart4]

Thanks!
Thanks for the encouragement. I'll have to rent that DVD sometime. Maybe it'll help me laugh at my situation. :)