Leading Horses

Today was so unbelievably frustrating for me. The kids are doing a project, and it is so dumbed down that I can't dumb it down any further and still they complain and whine about every little thing. I am also working on grades and have realized that about 80% of my kids are currently failing. The thing that frustrates me the most is that they understand the information, but they don't care enough to do anything about it. They will not turn things in no matter how much you ask. It makes me think of the old saying, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." I can spoon feed them what I want them to learn and I can dumb down their work, we can do more activities or whatever but it comes down to the fact that they have to turn it in. I have had parents tell me that "you must have made a mistake, I watched my son work on that assignment for 2 hours last night." Well that's great, but your son/daughter didn't give me that thing that they worked on so hard, so how am I supposed to grade it? That comes down to your child's problem with responsibility, not me. It is such a simple process of steps - put your hand in your bag, grasp the paper, walk three steps to my desk, release your grip on the paper, and DONE. but Noooooooooooooooo. ARGH!!!!!!!!