What is it with today's generation???!!!! (I sound old, don't I?) Maybe it is just this area. I did grow up in the South and manners are different there. Maybe it is just people today. I don't know what it is, but I really don't understand this concept that if it is out in the open or at least where someone can see it, they think it is community property!!!! I have supplies on my desk at school positioned at my fingertips for ready use. I have set a separate set of supplies on a another, readily accessible, desk for students to use. I have STRESSED frequently what is theirs and what is mine! We will be in the LAST quarter of the school year MONDAY and I am STILL having to remind kids to leave the things on MY desk alone!
I set up a set of staplers, tape dispensers, hole punch, paper clips and tissues specifically for the students to use primarily because I am tired of MY stuff always getting broken! I also get tired of my writing utensils, note pads, calculators, scissors, etc. disappearing!
Now I have heard the arguement, "It's the school's anyway!" Firstly, that is not necessarily true. Many of my supplies I have purchased with MY money and I don't get paid enough to supply everyone's children with pencils and tissues!
Secondly, it is just the PRINCIPLE! We don't issue books and lockers to students and then tell other students to go into another student's locker and get whatever books and supplies they want, "Afterall, it all belongs to the school anyway!" What happened to the mere courtesy of ASKING first?! The same students who take things off of my desk would have a COW if I started going through their backpacks to get something I wanted to use!
We have had a similar problem with people at churches we have pastored. There have been people who have walked into the parsonage without knocking or asking permission to come in! I was in the bathtub getting ready for church one Sunday morning when a lady just walked into the parsonage! Darrell started locking the door if he left before us after that happened.
Darrell has had people to not only go into his office, but to even go through his desk! Their justification? "It belongs to the church!" (Even though the desk didn't necessarily, but since the office did, then everything in it was fair game!) They use the same justification for playing with the mics and instruments. Schools often own many instruments, but not just anyone who pays taxes in the district or attends the school is allowed to PLAY on them!
What happened to boundaries? When and where did people get the idea that they can just take or use anything belonging to someone else just because they think they have a need for it?
I'm done. Thank you for reading patiently while I ranted and raved.
5 comments:
CASE IN POINT!!! I got to homeroom after the students get there today. When I walked in the door I noticed a student with some of the balls I purchased for a physics experiment. His reasoning for having the balls? The lid was open! (It was on the container, just not latched!)
oy vey. This happens at our church, people get into the main office (mostly kids) and like to use the stuff in their for whatever. Very frustrating when you sort of count on something to be there and it isn't. We were just talking about parsonages in one of the leadership meetings... and the funny thing is I had voiced some concerns that you've mentioned here... like people assuming they can just come in because the church owns it ROFL
One thing that drove me batty in one parsonage we lived in ... they had just put in new carpet before we moved into the house. They wanted us to keep the house in good shape (understandable). However.. the carpet was beige... they were fussin about how we kep up the place... and when they came over did they take the shoes off before going across the BEIGE CARPET IN THE MUCKY WINTER TIME couse not.
ROFL
but enh ... people are people
You're nicer than I am Christa. If they had been having a fit with me over the carpet, I would have told them to please take off their shoes when they entered the house!
Teaching boundaries to someone who has never had them is difficult. Unfortunately, since the parents haven't it, falls to the teachers. We have very little time with the kids comparatively so it falls to the police when we can't get the point across.
Libby...I know what you mean! I work in an emergency dept. and people actually go through the drawers, taking whatever they want.
When asked to please leave them where they got them before they leave, I have been told that "you, guys get this stuff for free so what's the big deal!?" After explaining it's not free etc...(consider the cost of health care!duh!)They will blatantly (sp? oooh, u r a tchr rite? ugh!) walk out with the bandages, tape, kleenex, gloves, towel, blanket..whatever...and WHATEVER!
God help me.
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