Dear Friends,
Whenever I sub I think back to my years as a young student. There was always a class clown and perhaps another child or two who were regular troublemakers. The rare days when a substitute entered the classroom, we might not work as hard, but we didn’t act out. We listened without requiring numerous ultimatums to do what we knew was right (at least in school). Today, something is different.
I’ve been thinking about Hair, and the generation this musical represented. The Sixties was a time of ‘fighting’ for the concept of freedom and what that freedom meant individually. In this generation there were hippies, beatniks, flower children, nudists, love ins…right or wrong this generation was authentic.
Today’s children see and hear adult fare and emulate what they don’t understand. They latch onto wearing Bob Marley shirts without knowing what the man and his music represented, etc.. Often times when I sub, I remind students that education is the first thing taken away when others want control of their precious freedom. So, they might want to pay attention once in a while…
HAIR
(lyrics: The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In)
We starve-look
At one another
Short of breath
Walking proudly in our winter coats
Wearing smells from laboratories
Facing a dying nation
Of moving paper fantasy
Listening for the new told lies
With supreme visions of lonely tunes
Somewhere
Inside something there is a rush of
Greatness
Who knows what stands in front of
Our lives
I fashion my future on films in space
Silence
Tells me secretly
Everything
Everything
Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in…
Thank you and goodnight. May you dream dreams of bright futures…
(I rendered the Eagle in Prisma pencil on school-grade construction paper)
Amen, AnnMarie. I teach at the college level, and over the years I’ve witnessed this change of which you speak.
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You probably grew up in a better neighborhood. We (the boys in the back row) were not nasty, but we did have fun at the expense of the subs. We just never thought it through.
One was a local minister picking up some spare cash, and his son was in my class. We picked on him worse that the others for some reason. Maybe because he seemed so utterly naif like. Teens smell weakness and attack. I’m not proud of it. But our pranks were more pathetic than evil.
I remember us sitting back there one long day, and shooting practically a half-ream of paper wads, chewed up and shot through straws, onto the ceiling over our heads. He never noticed. Was it clever? No. It just was.
I still feel a little guilty about it. But then I giggle again.
And my dad was the superintendent. If he’d ever found out…. /rolls eyes
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Aha, you were part of it, but you turned out okay ;-).
These kiddies, don’t only behave this way with subs – I’ve witnessed plenty of ‘behavior,’ with their teachers too…I believe that’s the difference.
I know my sub sign has a bullseye on it 😉
AnnMarie 🙂
And your lucky your dad never found out, wise guy!
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Thanks. Glad to have happened on your blog. Lots to explore. Regards from Thom at the immortal jukebox (give it a spin!).
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Thanks so much for stopping by – I appreciate it.
AnnMarie 🙂
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