What We’re Dealing With


Overheard in past years from teachers in public high schools:

Female, Choir and Drill Team: “I haven’t read a book since I left college.”

Male, Sophomore English: “I just start the record playing (Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”) and then I leave the room.”

Female, Sophomore English: “I have them write a lot and just throw their papers in the round file.”

Male, Advanced senior English: “ . . . just tell Doug or I.”

Female, Sophomore English: “They grade their own papers.”

Male, Junior English: “I never assign homework.“

Male, Senior Government: “Aw, they read the daily newspaper in my classes. Thirty copies.”

Female, Sophomore Biology: “I switched from English to science because I just didn’t want to do all that reading.”

Male, Sophomore English: “They’d get just as much out of the movie and it takes less time than reading it does.”

Female, Junior English: “We registered for the conference, to get paid, but then we went shopping.”

Female, young Counselor: “I’m quitting after this year. I can’t stand all these bells ringing.”

Female, Sophomore English: “I get my own reading done while they’re writing.”