This year is the first time I have experienced a new class as a teacher. What I mean is that as a second year teacher, I have never before had to adjust to a group of kids with an entirely new dynamic and collective personality than the class from the year before. Though it seems an obvious thing, this wasn't something I was prepared for as the school year began. Now, more than a month into the year, I am constantly amazed by the drastic differences between the two classes.
Last year's group of boys were obsessed with sports, particularly football. They all played together on a rec team, and in all likelihood they will continue to play together all the way through high school. The girls were split into two groups, one group was more studious and their main interest seemed to be reading fantasy novels, and one whose main interest was socializing. Cliquishness was not a problem for the most part, and the boy/girl dynamics that characterize the middle school years didn't emerge until very late in the year.
This year's boys are primarily skaters. Long hair, junior Jackass-esque antics, and general silliness prevail. Some of the boys are astonishingly immature, even to the point of baby talking in a manner that is embarrassing to witness. The girls are again split into two groups, but they are much different from the two groups from last year. There is a group of ultra-tomboyish girls who all play sports together and are at the age where they are actually athletically superior to most of the boys due to different developmental timelines, and there is a group of social girls who fawn over the skater boys and are constantly flirting or gossiping. Cliques are already rampant among both sexes.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about these differences, and there is one thing in particular that I've been struggling with quite a bit. I can already tell that several of the aformentioned skater boys are headed for trouble. Some combiniation of drinking, drugs, general mischief, and poor schoolwork all seem likely. This worries me a great deal and I feel a strong sense of responsibility to try to keep them from self-destructing, but at times I can't help but feel that my efforts are somewhat futile. Once they move on from fifth grade, my influence will be drastically reduced, and besides that, teenagers are going to get into trouble regardless. It's just how things work. Like many people, I found trouble with the help of all of the aforementioned vices during my formative years. I suppose this is how parents feel as they try to usher their children safely through puberty and adolescence. You can do your best to try to keep them on the right track, but ultimately they have to make their own decisions in life. This lack of control is frightening, especially when the kids are already showing signs of trouble to come. I suppose all I can do is provide them with a positive role model, and be an ally when things get rough so that my small part in shaping who they are, and who they will eventually become, might help them come out the other side of this crazy time in their lives intact and relatively unscathed.
I'm not sure if this has been even moderately coherent, or if I just diarrheaed random, halfway developed thoughts onto the page, but I can't seem to escape thinking about this issue of late, so at least this helped me come part of the way towards understanding and crystallizing my views on the situation.
-T
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