Middle School…Because’s
WORDS FROM W.W. May 4, 2019
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It’s a big word in middle school, overused and misunderstood!
Because!
It arrives at the crossroads of question and answer or, better yet, confusion and illogical reason.
This week it made more appearances at our middle school than UPS. The packages were in different sizes and forms.
For example, yesterday a student was completing a math test. One of the problems had him deciding which choice was better…if you bought 10 oranges for $4.00 or 17 oranges for $6.49…and then to explain why you decided on your choice? The student chose the right answer, but he hadn’t given an explanation. I said to him, “Buddy (not his actual name)! You need to give an explanation.”
He looked at me with an expression of disbelief about my request and then placed the pencil lead on the paper and wrote. His words lay as flat on the page as his reason.
“Because it is!” That’s what he had written. “Because it is!”
“Buddy, that’s not an explanation. Because it is…that doesn’t explain anything!” He focused his eyes on me through the lens of his eyeglasses. “Why do you wear glasses? Because you do…is that the reason?”
He nodded yes. “No, you wear them to help you see. Because isn’t an explanation, it’s an excuse.”
He looked back at his paper and erased…the right answer and the explanation, replaced them with the wrong answer and the explanation, “Who needs 17 oranges anyway!”
Earlier in the week a student in one of my classes had been caught playing video games on his cell phone in the midst of class, a no-no for seventh graders! I had him take his phone to the office, but then he never came back to class. Later on the security person found him hiding in the library. During lunch he came back into the classroom to get something. His quick look towards me conveyed irritation and anger. I had probably interfered with a career high in his game score.
I asked him why he hadn’t come back to class after taking his phone to the office. His eyes were doing bodily harm to me as he answered, “Because I didn’t want to!” There it was! The pathway to understanding…the word that our parents used on us followed by the tail ending of “I said so! And that’s the only reason you need!”
If an educator begins a question with the word “Why” there is a good chance the student will answer with a “because” statement. The probability of “because” increases as the end of the school year approaches.
“Why did you set off firecrackers in the cafeteria right by the nacho bar?”
“Because!”
“Why did you think it was okay to wear a tee shirt with the middle finger prominently displayed on it?”
“Because…the shirt was clean!”
“Why did you throw his shoe on top of the building?”
“Because I wanted to see if I could do it!”
Of course, why do 12, 13, and 14 year olds do a lot of the things that they do? And, in a few years new ages will be inserted into that statement! And then many times in the years following it will be said again about adults…adults at tailgate parties, adults speeding down turnpikes, adults trying to cheat on tax returns and/or their spouses.
Because becomes the answer to the unexplainable and actions that have not wisely been thought through. And why is that?
As Buddy would say, because it is!
Explore posts in the same categories: children, Grace, Humor, Parenting, Story, Uncategorized, YouthTags: bad choices, because, Because I said so, explanations, logic, math class, middle school, middle school boys, middle school girls, middle school students, middle school teachers, middle schoolers, sixth grade, substitute teacher, substitute teaching
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