The straight skinny

My students know that if I see them passing notes, I will confiscate them, and most likely read them. During my credential program, I remember one of my textbooks addressed note passing, and admonished us teacher candidates to not take students' notes because it is their private business and the note wasn't meant for me to read. Uhhhhh, no. First, during class, their business is my business. Second, of course the note isn't meant for me to read! Isn't that entirely the point of the note? The students know that writing and passing notes is not what they are supposed to be doing in class, and my confiscating notes is part of the risk they run when they attempt to do it in my classroom.

I have no problem sharing the juicier notes I confiscate with you, my dear readers. I have found that one of the best ways to get past the filter and find out the straight skinny of what is going on with the students I teach is to read their notes; and believe me, some of what I have read has literally taken my breath away. Many a parent has gotten a juicy quote from their darling child read to them over the phone by me. I wonder how a parent would feel if she got to hear what this student wrote in a note I confiscated last week during a final exam. As usual, I have typed this note as it is written, with all the misspellings and symbols, and yes, bad language, left as is:

DEAR Shaquille,
I dont know why da fuck you want Me to Fight Some Bitch over you, but if she wanna fight me then the Bitch could fight me, But if we do fight, i aint finna waist my time Fighting over you. But Fuck dat, wat u doing? Me? Mad @t yo ass, but i want 2 let you Know how I feel, even if you don't care. I Know dat you don't care about me, and you don't have feeling 4 me, but to keep it real wit you i do... I Knew along time ago that if i go out wit u, then We would have to brake up someday, and I never wanted that 2 happen. First of all, I never broke up wit u, And if anything you broke up wit me! I never wanted us 2 brake up to tell the truth, cuz wit you I feel a feeling I never felt with none of da niggaz i went out wit. I told all da....

And that is as far as she got before I took the note and put it in my pocket. I read something like this and then shake my head in disbelief. Do these kids have any shame at all? I have to admit, I couldn't write something like this if I tried. It defies imagination.

Tomorrow is my last day of the school year. I am chaperoning the 6th/7th grade trip to a local water park, then we teachers will blow off some steam at the home of one of our fellow pedagogues. I have already brought home the expensive items from my classroom that I could easily see being stolen over the break, the grades have been computed and entered, and today was my last day of dealing with that 3rd period class that just about sent me over the edge. Too bad that they were 7th graders, and chances are good that I will be seeing many of them again in August.

But until then, it is time to spend some quality moments with the people who matter most, and that would be my own children, rather than someone else's. And yes, of course, my wife too. C'mon now, she is in a category all her own!

Good Day to You, Sir, and let the summer begin!