The Play's the Thing

I'm not allowed to give homework for the next three weeks. Can someone tell me how I can get anything done in my classroom when I can't ask the students to read their assignments at home? I have to give them class time to work on their essays, but then they can't get them done because it's too distracting with all of the noise in the hallways.

It's the play. The students, no, the school is obsessed with this play. They start planning it at the beginning of the year and now it's crunch time. Their nights, and often their afternoons are filled with play practice. The next two Fridays are play days, meaning I'm not teaching those days. Two other days, the students get out early. I see the value of the whole theater and creative experience for these kids, so call me selfish when I say I don't like teaching like this. English class is a joke right now. Their lives are the play, and the school encourages this. Even my most ingenious, stimulating activities can't compete for their attention. And as they're all at at practice until late every night, they don't have the energy for them anyway.

Why even go through the motions of having regular classes? They should just cancel all classes for a couple of weeks and let the kids work on the play all day, every day. Why make the teachers pretend to conduct meaningful classes when we're forbidden to compromise the students' focus on the the play in any way?

Yesterday, in celebration of the play I'm assuming, the students had an all-night party at the school. They decorated the classrooms like a shopping mall. My room, which doubles as a science classroom, was The Discovery Store. Most of the desks were strewn with "sale items" such as microscopes and goggles. The next day in class, the kids were exhausted and slap-happy. Having no place for them to sit and considering that most of them were either sleeping or singing loudly, I didn't even attempt to teach them anything. I took pictures instead, since they all happened to have their cameras with them.

I'm glad they had fun, but I wish I didn't have to play the role of chaperone. I want to teach them. That's why I'm there. I didn't start this gig because I enjoy hanging out with teenagers. Does any adult enjoy that? I got it because I'm passionate about literature and I want to watch them grow into strong writers and readers and thinkers. This reminds me of the day when I was student teaching last year that I had to postpone my whole lesson on The Aeneid and the pieces my creative writing students were working on. Why? Because some genius decided it would be more valuable for them to sit through a seminar about identity theft put on by a local bank. Yes, these students who can barely read and write and barely have any money to their names, who are lucky if they even make it to graduation, really should make it top priority to worry about someone stealing the credit cards that they don't even have.

I don't get it, as usual.