Monday, April 18, 2011

Worst Teacher Behavior And The Bubbles Car Wash


http://www.oddee.com/item_97686.aspx

Of all the examples on this list I love the last one about the teacher who stapled an application form to work at McDonalds on all tests that her student's failed. Talk about motivation and inspiring them to shoot for the stars. That is some burned out bitterness right there. It's also hysterically funny.

Whenever I would talk about the value of education to my students I would tell them how much more opportunity they had with a high school diploma than without one. It was something no one could ever take away from them. It was an important life accomplishment and everyone they came across (like employers) would recognize that.

I have worked on native reserves where very few students actually completed their grade 12. I motivated those student by telling them that education was a great EQUALIZER. People would always assume that they knew less than they did because of who they were and where they were from. Those attitudes weren't right but they were undeniably true. The only way to fight that kind of racial stereotyping was the prove them wrong through hard work.

I had students who were slackers of course. To get them to do a little work I would joke that if they didn't have enough schooling they would only be able to get a job at the toothpaste factory screwing the tops on the toothpaste tubes. I took that example from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. It was the menial job that Charlie's dad did. To this day it is the worst job I had ever heard about so it became my go-to example.

My other example of a bad career path was the 'Bubbles Carwash'. That business was one I passed everyday on my way to University and while walking home. On Mondays there would be a whole new crop of fresh-faced dropouts ready to enter the glamorous and lucrative field of car detailing. As the week progressed there were less and less workers. Seeing how much work they had to do for so little pay was a rude slap in the face to these kids who thought this was the easy path as compared to graduating from high school. Very few lasted the whole week and sure enough, come Monday, the whole cycle would repeat itself.

I always wondered if some of those 'Bubbles' employees went back to school to complete their education or got stuck in these low skilled and low paying jobs for life. I always thought that a week at some kind of back breaking job was the perfect cure for lazy teens who didn't feel like an education was important. Shovelling manure for hours would give a person ample time to re-evaluation their life path.

16 comments:

Budd said...

yeah, you can actually launch a career from McDonalds. They have Burger University training program where they train their managers. They also have scholarship programs for their employees. Not great but better than Bubbles, I would say.

Still not something to strive for I guess, well not for most people.

Kal said...

I totally forgot about Hamburger University - talk about a drive through education. How do you admit that you went there to anyone afterwards. I hope they have a diploma so fancy that when it's hanging on your wall no one can tell where you went to school unless you look closely.

Sue said...

Some employers have told me they actively choose kids who've worked successfully at Maccas because of the personal qualities they exhibit - reliability, discipline, making the most of an opportunity; things like that.
In Aust, many dropouts do go on to further education as adults and are fantastic students. They're incredibly grateful for a second chance and work with a diligence that I wish all secondary teachers could see. And let's face it, they're not out catching octopus for restaurants. (now to go find a pretty little blue ringed one for the letter Z ... zing!) btw, I did bad teacher behaviour yesterday for O.

D.I. Felipe González said...

I live ina a country with strange educational distortions.
We have college graduates, lawyers, doctors and more profesionists driving taxis.
I live in a country where McDonalds was a nice job for mid class university students (my wife worked there weekends a couple of years).
I believe that education is not enough, but is a start.

Kal said...

I agree with all you said Sue. McDonalds does take the time to properly train and reward their young employees, skill that will be valable when they move on.

I am saying that I would never telll anyone proudly that I went to Hamburger University. My certificate would smell of french fries.

I should had added to my post that some people drop out and get a job at the place where you recycle your cans and bottles. Nothing wrong with good honest work.

Nick Ward said...

If you're lucky you have one teacher who made a difference. Mine was Mr Drew. He motivated me to me more than the bored little thug the Catholic school system had forced me to become. He also discovered I was a dyslexic. He changed my life. When I had the premiere of my first feature film I invited him and thanked him in front of everyone. Sadly he was drummed out of teaching for his radical teaching techinics. But he made a difference to me and countless others. Kal I suspect you would've been a teacher no unlike Mr Drew.

csmith2884 said...

We make a joke about that here too..when one of my kids shall we say tries a bit less than expected. "Do you want fries with that?" is my sometimes response. All of them get the what do you want to achieve? How hard are you going to work to make that happen? speech.

Kal said...

I was the type of teacher who worried about those five kids that were struggling more than the other twenty who weren't. I had a kid with tourette's whose particular tick was barking. I didn't know this on the first day and I kept asking her what she was doing and the more I focused on her the more she barked. It was a nightmare for both of us. But the next day I started to do alot of reading about it and got funding to get her a laptop because her writing was illegible. Seems she was much smarter than anyone gave her credit for and she tested off the scale for intelligence. Once she knew that and we got her proper medication, her ticks became almost non-existence. She now works as a pediatric nurse in the Children's Hospital - a far cry from where everyone thought she would end up.

Sarah said...

When I grow up I want to be a teacher.
To make that kind of difference in someone's life--!

Kal said...

I know I went to bed at night feeling like I was making the world a better place. It's too bad that more parents didn't appreciate the guidance we tried to give their kids. More often than not they looked at it as a critique of their parenting skills, which, in truth, it was.

Megan said...

If I could make enough to live on by working at a car wash I totally would. It might be more "mindless" (and I stress MIGHT) than what I'm doing in my office all day but at least the cars get clean. And I'd be in much better shape, too.

Kal said...

It would be nice to see the result of your hard work instantly instead of being a very small cog in a giant wheel.

Chase March said...

Great post. I've never really used education to offset racism as a motivational tool before. I think I need to add that to my toolbox.

Thanks!

Kal said...

I have to admit that I took that philosophy from the teachings of Jaime Escalante and the film 'Stand and Deliver' - the GREATEST teacher movie based on a true person and true story that has ever been made. His tecniques for teaching minority students is one I have had much success with.

Chase March said...

I've never seen that movie. I think I will have to see if I can find a copy now. Thanks!

Kal said...

Chase, I so envy you watching this one for the first time. It's really a great movie about a great man. Edward James Olmos and Lou Diamond Phillips are golden.