Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Democracy is Dead


I am apparently a part of the greatest travesty of modern justice. For some reason, my students are under the impression that democracy extends itself into the hallowed halls of my classroom. I am not sure how, or why, this delusion has caught on. Nevertheless, I felt the need to squelch this line of thinking today.

In one class my students are taking a quiz. In another, they are addressing a writing prompt. No less than 4 times today have I heard some variation of, "How about we do______ instead," or, "Can't we_______?"

I think what kills me is the utter look of shock on their faces when I inform them that I didn't get bossed around by teenagers when I was a teenager, and they can go right ahead now and realize that I am not going to start now that I am 30.

"That sucks. Not fair."

"You're right, my dear. Not fair at all. Deal widdit."

Amazing. Did they think that was going to work?

3 comments:

Naomi said...

Clearly it has worked with some adult in their lives otherwise they wouldn't bother.

Maursupial said...

I know! When they do that I pull out the trusty ole' speech: "You are under the mistaken impression that this is a democracy. This is a benevolent dictatorship and I'm the dictator. Now get to work before I lose the benevolent part." That shuts them up, at least for awhile until they have time to look up all them long words.

Jillian said...

I told them I don't negotiate with terrorists.

They didn't like that much. Go figure.