Too Expressive

Many of the students I have, particularly my seniors, are very expressive in all areas of their lives. They don't hold anything back! And while that's one thing I love about them, it's also one thing I can't stand. It's good when they're telling me what they don't understand or they give me suggestions on how I can teach better (when they're being polite about it). However, it's not so good when they complain. In fact, it's been driving me crazy lately!

And now I shall vent (read if you please...but I warned you).

Today was a test day and the two days prior were review days. These are the complaints I heard on Wednesday and Thursday:

"Two days?! How can we review in only two days?"

"We didn't have enough quizzes, you should have quizzed us after every other section."
My response to this one: "Well, maybe. But in college, you may only have 3 tests and those are your whole grade! This is helping prepare you for college."
Their response back: "College! Don't give us that! We're in high school right now so don't treat us like college students."

"We can't use our notes on the test? Then why did we take them? We have to fit all of this info on just one sheet of paper for tomorrow?"

"How can I remember all of this? It's crazy!" (and for the record, it wasn't that much information)

Shocked? So am I. Even after 12 weeks of being here, I'm still shocked that they can complain so much. Not only that, but I reminded them that it was their review day and that they were wasting their own time. They can't handle taking responsibility for their own education and so they throw it in my face (or any teacher who pushes them) and play the blame game.

During the test I heard comments such as:

"How do you do this" 30-50 x's (literally)
"We did this?! I don't ever remember doing this!"
"Wait, I shouldn't have to do this because I wasn't here for the review."
"Miss D, can you come here?" Me: "Just a minute, she asked first." I then walk over to him and asked him what question he had and he replied "Nope, I don't take being second." I just walked away.

Today, I had a good conversation with a student after school. He said, talking about himself and his peers, "We're smart and dumb at the same time. We're smart enough to know that if 75% of the class fails, they'll blame it on the teacher. But we're dumb because we don't think about the future and that we're not getting anywhere." So, it's not just me that sees this. The students are very conscious of what is going on. They're not dumb in that respect at all, but in fact quite aware of "the system."