Today was the first Sunday School class of 2012. I'm not teaching the same class. This time I'm teaching thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen year olds. I have nine kids in my class; five of them were in my class. As far as I can tell, there is no logical explanation for how the Sunday school classes are divided up. Officially, I am teaching the fourteen/fifteen year old Sunday school class, but that's two children, so they added the older class, and three kids from the younger class.
You may think that they took those three random kids out of my old class because my old class was so huge (fourteen teenagers) and no one wants to teach a class that big, but you would be wrong. For reasons I cannot fathom, they took five kids out of my old class and moved them up, and then they combined that class with the younger class, making that class include twenty kids ages eleven to fourteen.
TWENTY. And I thought fourteen was out of control. I am so glad I am not teaching that class.
Wow. gives you some sympathy for school teachers, right?
ReplyDeleteWow. I never had classes with more than 6! That seems especially large since you're not even in Utah!
ReplyDeleteIf the students are out of control it's for two reasons: 1) they weren't taught reverence and respect at home, and/or 2) the teacher needs to ramp up their skills. Gospel Doctrine classes are large and there isn't a problem with crowd control. Why do we allow our teens to be disruptive and disrespectful. Students will rise to the level of the teacher's expectations.
ReplyDeleteAh-buh-wha?
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of teens.
Rozy Lass raises an interesting good point, but it should also be noted that teens are far, far more susceptible to imagined peer pressure, which can cause them to act rowdy in an attempt to seek the admiration of their peers, who will in turn encourage the behavior in an effort to join part of the clique. Adults have less need to act in such a manner, so they are much easier to control in greater numbers.
They are more mature than most people will assume, but they aren't just mini-adults.