Train Up A Child

Beth continues to tell me that she feels little 'flutters' inside - that's the baby telling us hello.

Speaking of the baby, we're going to the doctor in a few hours to find out if we're having a boy or a girl.  How exciting!  All the girls in the dorm are excited and waiting for us to get back and tell them the news, and the students/teachers at my school are anxious to find out, too.

An update on my students.  They still surprise me every day.  It is such an astonishing thing to me that they will goof off and not pay a lick of attention all year, and now that it is exam time these are the questions I hear:

"Mr. Kirchner, will you show me my average?  I need to know what I have to score on the exam."

"What extra credit can I do, Mr. K?  I have to bring my grade up."

"Will you help me with this problem?"

As if scoring well on the exam is going to help some of them...

What ever happened to just "credit"?  I mean, if they had done their homework, studied, asked questions all along, they wouldn't have to worry about extra credit to bring their grade up.  Last Friday I had gotten to the end of my rope with them asking me for extra credit or telling me that I don't give enough or saying that they need it and I have to give it to them, so I made them all write me an essay discussing this question:  "Why do you think you deserve extra credit?"

Awful is about the only word I can come up with to describe the essays I received.  I am surprised that any of them passed the State English Test.  What makes it worse?  Almost every last one of them wrote all kinds of reasons for why they deserve extra credit, and every single reason was something they are expected to do for just plain credit.  You don't get extra credit for taking notes in class, or paying attention, or doing your homework, or "because I'm doing better than last semester."

It is frustrating, to say the least.  What worries me the most is that these are our future politicians, voters, doctors, nurses, mechanics, waiters, teachers...I get down just thinking about it.

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6

Lord, may I do just that - in my classroom and in my home - and maybe this generation will not just grow up, but grow up and make a difference for You.