Wit's End

I didn't exactly lose it today, but my Honors class brought up an interesting request that showed some thought on their part, but in the end it was just an attempt to foist their rules on the adult and continue to ignore the adult's rules.

There is one boy in the class who is especially difficult. He goes out of his way to flout the simplest rules, ignore appeals to stop and if directly asked to cut it out will defy me to my face, complain he is being picked on, and try to cast blame on others. Last week he repeatedly ate candy in my room - on one day he did it twice in the same period after having had to spit out the first piece. This resulted in a phone call to his mother. Two days ago, similar situation - constant talking until I have to call him by name and have a talk with him. This time he turned his back on me, deliberately. When I asked him to turn around, he did so grudgingly. Then proceeded to shut his eyes.

So today we had a long discussion about respect, and things that show a lack of respect. He talked to his neighbors through the whole discussion, but kept an eye on me to see if I would say anything to him. Twice I asked the entire class to stop the side talking. He and his friends didn't. Later he was humming or singing (which seems to be a cultural loophole, as many kids claim it doesn't count as "talking") and I directly asked students in his area to stop. He started again a few minutes later, and vehemently protested that he wasn't talking (loophole) and stopped talking when I asked the class, and never hummed or sang. In other words, my eyes and ears don't work, and I should take the word of an argumentative boy as to what he does or doesn't do.

When talking to the boy, the rest of the class was very loud, so I announced that because they couldn't let me have a private conversation, it would be public. This followed his mother's advice that he doesn't like to be made an example. Several students agreed that he had been talking and disrespectful, and naturally he claimed to have only heard voices that agreed with him. When I asked for hands to show who had heard him, suddenly memories were lost, and several students decided to back the boy - the same students who earlier had requested that I show the class more respect by not making jokes when I correct their errant behavior (What are you chewing? "nothing" Well you are chewing like a cow over there, it is hard to believe you don't have anything in your mouth - - this was deemed to be potentially upsetting to the chewing student).

Long story short, most of this class ate their lunch in my classroom. It was supposed to be a silent lunch, but again many would not be silent, and several continued to argue about the discipline and consequences of their actions. Tomorrow should be interesting, because I will be enforcing the letter of the law with no warnings.