Knock, Knock!
by: Estefania Juarez
You have got to be kidding me! Every time a teacher is in the middle of a lecture, some random student comes in and hands them a bunch of different colored papers. The teacher then pauses and distributes the papers as quickly as he or she can, handing back the ones who are absent. While they're doing this everyone's mind starts to wander. "Who are those for?" "Will I get one?" "Is that one for me?" The classroom fills with suspense and whispers. Not only does this interrupt the class, but the student that delivers the papers actually takes his or her time to say "Hi!" to their friends who, it just so happens, to be in that class. This happens at least once or twice every class, every period. It's equally frustrating for the students and the teacher.
After the student leaves, the teacher has to restart his lesson. He starts off kind of slow, and from the beginning we start taking notes. Then we start getting it, more and more, and our hand can’t stop writing. Finally, we are all on the same page. We, as a class, are about to learn something mentally challenging when, of course, someone opens the door and we automatically forget whatever we were about to learn. The student or ,“mailman”, as I like to call them, walks slowly into the room waving their hand around like it's some kind of parade, the first thing that comes to my mind is “ We've got mail!” Even when we are just working individually when this happens, or when we are talking about previous lessons, the classroom gets really loud and everyone starts talking. Suddenly it’s like they forget the teacher is even there and magically he becomes a delivery man.
As a student I think this is really frustrating, and I definitely think that it's indeed disrespectful. The thing is, most of the time these little papers are USELESS. For example, I was told that I needed to take credit recovery in adult school. So, the next day I filled out and signed all the paper that was required. I went to school the next day and I got three little papers in three different classes, and they all said the same thing, "Don’t forget to go to credit recovery, room 409.” At first, I thought that it was OK because it was my first day, but this kept happening and happening and happening. I’ve been going to credit recovery for a while now and have never been absent, and to this day I still get these little papers and usually in more than one class. I know I’m not the only one in this situation, but all I can say is that I hope these reminders are made from recycled paper.
Sometimes, we get big quarter pieces of papers that say, “Please release this student to the Counseling Center, or Nurses Office at teacher's convenience." Do they ever think it's convenient for the student to be missing class? Really, is there a need to send papers to students from Monday to Friday in every period just to let them know they have Saturday school? Yes, we students who are irresponsible we know, but it is not the obligation of the school to remind us what we already know. Just like we don’t forget when a teacher tells us two weeks in advance that Friday we are watching a movie. These reminders are what makes it easier for us to procrastinate. We are so used to people telling us what to do that we depend on reminders to do what we need to do.
As a student, I propose that classes stop getting interrupted by unnecessary things. The teachers are not delivery guys. If the school is dirty it's because we don’t take care of it, if the test scores are low, it's because we didn't study enough. If the school puts these responsibilities on us, then why do we need to be reminded constantly to go to Saturday School? I know I’m not only talking for myself when I say that we are tired of getting interrupted as a daily routine. I mean were told every morning, "You have the power to be your best,”but how can we do that if teachers can't even finish their lesson.
