Why do we teach?

Well I haven't been very good with posting a blog everyday, but today I am very annoyed and need to vent a little, so bear with me.

First of all, why are people so inconsiderate and rude???? Riding public transportation is a huge bit of relief from having to drive, but dealing with others on public transportation is as annoying as driving sometimes. Pet peeves on the train: people who take up two seats during rush hour; people who plop down in a seat in between two people, practically sit on one of the people, and never say "excuse me" as if they are entitled to sit on people as they please; people who listen to ipods or portable cd players and have the music so loud that everyone in the car can hear their music (especially the people sitting right next to them); people who lean on the poles during rush hour as if no one has to hold on to the pole; people who read the paper or a magazine, and totally monopolize your personal space while reading; people who put their shit in a seat and refuse to move it when so many people are standing up; people who don't know train etiquette like letting people get OFF the train before they try to get on the train (p.s. there may be more seats available if you just wait for everyone to get off the fucking train). I think that's it for now.

The real reason I'm writing this blog is to ask teachers "why are we teaching?" There are a few teachers at my school who obviously do not want to teach at our school, and who may not want to teach at all. If you do not like children, do not value education/learning, and do not want to see certain groups of children succeed, why in the hell are you a teacher? Today I took in two students during one of my prep periods because their teacher refused to let them in the classroom because they arrived maybe 2 minutes late to class. Now I don't condone tardiness at all, but how can you refuse to let students enter a 90 minute class when they are a few minutes late? More specifically, how can you let some late students into the classroom, but block others from entering. This is what happened today. I watched this teacher let 3/5 late students enter her class, while she told the other two they needed a pass to enter late. This is the third day in a row that she has done this to the same students. Apparently, she deems these kids as "troublemakers" so before they even have an opportunity to make any sort of trouble, she denies them entry. Does she not realize that in doing this she is not addressing the problem? Perhaps ask why they are consistently late, AND why they are making trouble in your class. Maybe they are bored b/c they are more advanced than the other students; perhaps they have a learning disability that is causing them to be disruptive because they can't "keep up" with everyone else in the class. When you work in an inner city school where the children are already the victims of poor or no resources, unqualified teachers, poverty, hunger, and a shit load of other problems, how can you as a person, rather as a teacher deny these students their RIGHT to an education? Do you want to see the fucked up system continue to thrive, or do you really want to foster an appreciation of learning in your classroom? Leave your biases at home, better yet, leave the profession if you cannot be unbiased around children. It is so upsetting to see adults feed into the inevitable immaturity of children. Be the adult...try to find out what the problem is, try to fix it (if possible), and do what the fuck you are supposed to do. If you can't do that, stop wasting your time, and stop withholding a basic human right from our children.

(By "you" I of course mean the teacher that is guilty of this today).