Fade to black

Hitting Rock Bottom

This morning in discussing managing stress, the subject of using alcohol as a way to do so came up. I introduced this idea as a very bad way to handle stress, as it is just one of many slippery slopes leading to alcoholism. I was surprised to hear a student, a 14 year old girl, say something to the effect "nah, getting faded is the way to go when you have worries."

This shocked me to the extent that I would have been less surprised if she volunteered that she had been born a zebra. First, she said this aloud to the class and to me. Second, apparently she is so familiar with getting "faded" that it has lost any semblance of a stigma to her, and finally, she is practicing exactly what I am warning against.

Now I'm not so naive to think that kids don't drink or smoke marijuana, I know they do. However, it's one thing to do it furtively, and another thing to declare this past-time out loud in front of classmates and your health teacher. Was she trying to be funny? Maybe, but my hunch is no. Was she that much of a stoner that she doesn't care what others think? Actually, while "Ceci" isn't an A student, she has a 2.4 GPA and has very good attendance.

---- 24 hours later---- at 7:25 am-- period 1

"Hi Ceci, do you have another shocking reference to getting faded?"

"Oh Mister, at New Years I was so drunk I fell asleep right next to the toilet and ..."

"And your mother knew about this?"

"She was drunk too!"

A few posts ago -- January 15- The Divine Cheeto-- I subtitled it "Can't blame the schools for this one"-- and it was about the parents sending (some of ) their kids to school without any food and how an empty stomach affects the ability to concentrate. Being hungry and tired is one thing but how many of our students don't even make it to their first period (or more) due to a hangover - of alcohol or in some cases, a 11pm-3:00am overdose of video games.

"Uhhhhh mom, I don't feel very good.... no, I don't have a test today... can I stay..."

In the case of Ceci, I have to report this to a special counseling program on campus called IMPACT - an acronym that I can't recall the words it stands for.

There is a pattern here in LAUSD that is repeated in many shapes and forms. It is a lack of consequences. I know people are motivated by the promise of reward or by the fear of punishment. If you remove rewards and punishments, you are basically left with 14 year old kids with intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation. At 14, they are as rare as an Alaskan governor who is for birth control education and knows her way around a world map. However the few that are self motivated didn't learn that from any teacher-- 99% of the time it's how they are raised. Sure, we as teachers can motivate, but in fighting MTV, i-tunes, Grand Theft Auto games where you can beat up on a "ho", it's a tough battle. I get them 5 hours a week, the world with it's declining values, gets them the rest of the time--- oh, 60-70 hours of free unstructured time in far too many households.

Students in LA (and we are by no means the only ones) have learned that when they fail in middle school, they still get moved ahead to the next grade. It's only in high school where if they fail they have to keep repeating the class. They can be 16 years old and still in 9th grade. But since they have never had consequences like that before-- like being 14 and still making up 6th grade classes, it seems like it is a false threat. I never got in trouble before for bad grades, why start worrying about it now?

I don't want Ceci to hit rock bottom before she learns there are some potentially grave consequences to teen drinking, including fatal car accidents, date rape, murder, suicide and more. In a way it's good that she has a "loose mouth" and that she told me about it-- so some intervention can be done and then possibly a change in behavior and a different fate. However, most kids using marijuana or alcohol don't go bragging about it school in front of adults. For them the intervention may come too late, after tragedy.