Chronic Complainer?

Morning, you lot.

Here's how I feel today:

Not sure what it is, but there's a bug inside me. Sucking the life out of me. Making me even more cynical and contemptuous. I actually had a really nice night last night; got a head and neck massage and then had friends over for dinner. I should be buzzing. But I'm feeling worse. I did all those things middle class people do - I made a nice vegan meal, showed my mates around my new house (they especially liked my office), we drank wine and bitched about our lives. Classic female, PMS-y behaviours. I had a chance to vent, to clear my thinky-space. But now, my head's in a thicker, much more London-like fog. The kind of fog that causes planes to reroute and land someplace sunny.....maybe that's it! Maybe I need to just get away from my rat race for a bit! Spain? Italy? France? I'll drink red wine until my lips become purple and gout sets in.

But before I do that, let's get down to it: you know that creepy video of the children "dancing" and dying off stage one-by-one? This is what I think is wrong with my career: kids are disappearing. I don't teach children anymore. I teach little mini-adult robots that try very hard to copy everything they see on youtube, twitter, insta-I-don't-give-a-fuck-gram. Their little souls aren't being fed by real stories of the past, they aren't being shown by their families how to appropriately put on makeup or how to cook a good meal.  They aren't playing on swing sets and eating mud pies with their friends.....Some stranger on the internet is showing them how to contour their faces and get to the next level on Gears of War.  Parents are sitting back and letting their kids grow up by "googling" it.  Look around! How many parents do you see on the bus or train or plane (on a phone) with kids on a tablet or smart phone or some kind of electronic device?  I once went to a fancy restaurant in Chamonix, France, right...I'm talking $130 for a meal for two type of nice.....and there was a family of four at the table next to me. THEY WERE ALL ON A TABLET. Every single one of them! I watched for nearly a half an hour in disgust. They played and tweeted whilst they ate, drank, etc. Less then 10 words shared amongst them!  I almost mounted my high horse, galloped over there and physically shook the shit out of those parents. That's no way to live. But alas, that's how most do.

That type of home life (or worse) is why I catch kids on snapchat or whatever the fuck it is they love wasting their lives on during EVERY lesson of EVERYDAY.  The generation of young people I teach are obsessed with being "plugged in" and having an "always on" feature. They probably don't know how to talk to their families and/or hate them and sit on their phones in their rooms all night, eat cheetos and drink vimto for dinner.  It's all they know.  That is what they love.  They probably can't make and/or keep friends in real life; their self-esteem is too low to be nice to themselves and others.  Their parents are blissfully unaware that they are creating anti-social, future mass-murderers. You cannot tell me that they haven't become dependent on their phones and social media.  You cannot tell me this isn't having an effect on their attention spans and their attitudes toward school.

 And here I am....with my "holier than thou" attitude about what should and shouldn't feature in a child's life, my demanding classroom routines, and bossy cow attitude toward learning....What's annoying is that I am the mad one here; I am the one telling them they don't need their phones, that what they are seeing is all bullshit, that they aren't experiencing real life.  I am telling these young people, most of whom are from very broken homes, that what they know, what they love, isn't necessary for life. But it is their life.  I'm fighting a losing battle against this generation.  It's like trying to climb K2 in a pair of M&S patent leather high heels.

Yours Truly,

Chronic Complainer