This is not why I got in to teaching.

When I think about why I wanted to become a teacher the desire to yell at kids and put them in ISS is never on the list.  I got in to this line of work out of a desire to use history as a way to help young people learn to reason and help them use that reason to excel at whatever came after High school.  I don't require a quiet class room to work in, in fact if it is too quite I get a little worried, and I don't stress the fine points of modern education that much.  Jokes are OK even the ones aimed at me and I am not the gum or skirt police.  I have too much to do to try and catch every student with a stick of gum and I will never ever under stand a dress code the condemns tank tops but gives the OK to cheerleader outfits.  I try and set a good feeling tone in my classes where every one knows we are there to work but we can have fun while we do it.  It is a balancing act one which I frequently fall on my butt trying to pull off. The truth is as much as I might want a class room where every one is engaged and interested and acting like adults, I teach kids.  Kids don't always want to work and sometimes I don't do a good enough job teaching to make it interesting for them.  Kids just don't think like adults  and if you're a adult teacher who jokes and plays with them it's not really their fault if they miss you're cue it is time to go to work.  I think most discipline problems are  in reality not the students fault.  Take my eighth period class it is 27 seventh graders 8 of which have a  IEP or have a 504 there are 5 more who should be but for what ever reason don't.  They come to me straight from athletics and are ready to go home.  Many of them really need a lot of help which means we go slow which means the kids who get it are bored to tears, is it their fault they start to talk?  If I go faster there are about 5 kids who just can't keep up they get bored because they have no idea what the rest of the class is talking about many of them have behavioral issues all ready. Is it there fault when they lose their minds, probably not.  The real fault lies with their parents who neglect to teach them how to behave at home, with a system that puts a premium on cost not the individual needs of each student and their teacher who can't find a way to keep their attention and hold their interest.  I can't tell them that though there is no time and it's definitely not administration approved.  So I tell them to sit down, be quiet, quit disturbing class.  I give them lines, send them out into the hall and tell them how bad they are acting.  Which is all a kind of lie because in my heart I don't blame them I blame myself, their parents and the school.  On the days it is really bad and I lie a lot I all ways have the same thought; this is not why I got into teaching.