Teenagers exhaust me.

Teenagers exhaust me.

They really do.

I am with them all day, every day.

Lucky me.

I assigned them six pages to read last night. Six. They didn’t do it. Most of them cheated their way through the reading quiz by asking friends from other periods what would be on it.

This bugs me.

Teenagers care waaaayy more about their girlfriends and their video games then they do about completing their reading assignment for English—no matter how short, interesting, and do-able that assignment may be.

So then I ask myself, Why would they care about The Catcher in the Rye?

Well, cause it’s a darn good book, and they’d probably actually like it if they gave it a try. Holden is hilarious—and just as pessimistic, sarcastic, and lazy as many of them.

So then I think, How can I get them to try the book?

Well, I could come up with engaging lessons, class activities, and group discussion. I could read them some of the really funny parts to get them interested.

I’ve tried all that.

Didn’t work.

During my first year of teaching, my mentor teacher told me that she once realized that she could’ve swung from the chandelier naked—and two minutes later, the students would’ve been bored again.

Probably true.

So, fine…they’re bored…and they’re not going to do their reading. I can accept that. But what I can’t accept is that they then act entitled to a good grade. Entitled.

Look, peeps, if you don’t do the work, you don’t get the grade.

Why does this seem to be a new concept to them?

Whining, whining, whining. Cheating, cheating, cheating. Sometimes, it’s exhausting.