Students today are busy.  They are stressed.  They lack the time management skills to balance all of this and the down-time to learn to be bored.  

Have you noticed this about your students?

Depending on the area in which you teach, it may vary.  I currently teach in a suburb where I grew up, but is now so wealthy I couldn’t move closer to my school unless I win the PowerBall lottery. A fixer-upper starter home starts at $1.2 Million around my school. The condos in my complex–four miles from my school–have more than doubled in price in the last 14 years.  The struggling students’ families in my school still make significantly more than my previous districts’ students where I taught near the foreclosure center of my city.  

Money comes with opportunities.  To ignore this is to ignore some of the discrepancies in education today.  My students are taking three or four AP classes at a time.  They are in service learning clubs–including my own–volunteering, have part-time jobs, and are constantly in outside organizations.  They don’t know what to do with a free night or two just to do homework.  If you take away their phones for an entire class period, while they do get used to it, makes them anxious.  If they want to answer calls from their parents in the middle of class and I say no they are distraught.  If it’s important, they will leave a voicemail.  Seriously.  It’s ok to not answer IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS.  

So, how to we combat this? Talk to them.  Develop those relationships.  Let them know it’s ok to not be busy.  More importantly, listen.  Sometimes, they don’t determine their schedules.  In short, I don’t have a magic answer.  It is not one of the things that we can control as teachers.  However, we can look at our own expectations in our classes and remember that it is not the only class our students have. I understand we are all under a time crunch.  How can we look at what we do and prioritize what needs to be done outside of class?  Sometimes, one person can make a difference.  Be that person.  All it takes is one cup.