Monday, December 8, 2008

The Hallways

The reason that hallways exist is to provide an avenue for students to get from one classroom to the next. Coincidentally, students recognize each other and say hello in the hallways, maybe pausing briefly to chat. I've observed several occasions where massive amounts of people gather and block the hallway. The reason this is frustrating is that these people are well aware that they are blocking the hallway...if they are not, they should get the hint after 600 people have said excuse me, and several teachers have asked them to move along.

Why must they continue to stand? There is no productive value to standing in a hallway. Most of the students I observe are standing there and saying nothing. So why are you standing there?!?!?!? It seems that in the 4 minutes to get from one class to the next, it has all of the sudden become "uncool" to arrive to class on time. I have no idea why the adolescent brain determines that arrival to class on time is something that detracts from your status in the teenage jungle (I'm thinking of the movie Mean Girls). Has there ever been a time when someone has poked fun at you because you got to class on time?

The business world that I have participated in while I was obtaining a teaching certificate values those that show up on time. In fact, a characteristic of employees that eventually lose their job is chronic lateness. Now comes the argument of, "Well we don't get paid to go to school", to which I respond, "I don't get paid to tell you when you can go to the bathroom or ask you to take your hood off, but it's something I have to do when I'm here." So, while you're here, participating in the school institution, one of your jobs as a student is to show up on time. If you have a great distance to walk, so be it, I can understand that. But if you're late because you're posted up, think about the impression you are making and the persona you are building by being the "late guy".

TOTALLY UNRELATED NOTE
Unit II Test performance was similar to that of last year. There will be three quizzes, three IT's, and one Unit Test in Unit III. We will also see our first problem set over winter break(happy holidays) . It is a very manageable unit, if you understand the rules of randomness, sampling, bias, and experimental design.

2 comments:

mysocksdontmatch said...

one of my biggest pet peeves is when the entire hallway is blocked by loiterers. generally, i am one of the students who has to go from one side of the building to the completely opposite end. when it takes a minute just to get around people chilling in the middle of the hallway, i arrive late to class and have to apologise to my teacher. (in my classes, it ISNT cool to arrive late...)

it wouldnt bother me quite as much if the dilly-dally-ers stood on the outside of the hallway. then, students who actually wanted to get to class would have a chance. but no, they have to dawdle in the very middle of the hallway. then, we have to shove our way through them and pray that we make it out alive. (ok, well maybe its not QUITE that bad...)

"so why are you standing there?!?!?!?" good question...

forevervora7 said...

I agree with you Mr. C, even though i am occasionally (not sure about the spelling) one of those people..next time i will keep the blog in mind. However, some of the things that you blog about Mr. C, hoods and hallways, makes me want to go into a time machine and see you as a teenager ...not because you are that old...but because I fail to understand whether you matured so much in such a short period of time or if you were always this mature. I just would think that would make an interesting blog, don't you? Though, I do agree with both your blogs as of now, so maybe it would not be as interesting as i assume.