Where fore art thou Common Sense?

My Ode to Common Sense:

Riddle me this, riddle me that, whatever happened to dat common sense?? IDK

This the question that perplexed me to the point of rage yesterday/today!! Yeah sometimes its funny the things that come out of this generations mouths, other times not so funny, and other times down right agitating!! Yesterday in my biology classes we started an activity that was not meant to be in any way taxing, or even frustrating. It was merely an attempt at solidifying the structure of a nucleotide with the overall structure of DNA...WITH PAPER!! I had given them five different colored pieces of paper, each with a different shape on them to represent the various parts of a nucleotide. We have been going over what a nucleotide is and its shape and how it relates to the structure of DNA...for DAYS!! Now all I was asking them to do was cut out the shapes, label them, and glue them together to make a small segment of DNA. Yesterday was rough, but it was NOTHING compared with today. You see yesterday after school, Ben picked me up (wait have I mentioned that we are a one car family...hmmm...) and the whole way home he had to listen to me rant about the absolute LACK of common sense in the heads of the students I spend my days with...how we as an educational system have created a host of "test-takers" that can't see past the end of their noses...I have worked plenty HARD to fight against this current but yesterday and today I have about met my MAX!! Today, approximately 7:52 am, a student of mine starts in with me, "I don't see why we even have to learn biology!" "Girlfriend, do you really want to do this right now?" "Yeah, well I just don't see why I have to be in this class." Thus began a HEATED discussion revolving around how the study of LIFE is actually the study of HOW NOT TO DIE!!! So if you want to live you will learn BIO-logy!! And every retort that came from her mouth and the mouths of her peers were riddled with a lack of common sense...the questions were absurd, the arguments were absurd...and thus began a second HEATED discussion about the LACK of COMMON SENSE in this generation!! I told them that, "When I was in your seats, in your position, I was drowning in common sense, my lungs were so full of common sense I was suffocating, I could not breath a breath without it being saturated in common sense...so what the JUNK has happened?!?! RIDDLE ME THAT!!" There were few to NO retorts at this point. Thus began the continuation of yesterday's paper DNA. Today they were to finish cutting out the pieces and then glue them together. The instructions for the day went something like this, "Today you are going to get to a point where you have nothing more to cut out, you will be faced with the temptation to ask me how to put the pieces together...don't fall into this trap...for I will tell you nothing but 'use your own brain, find your own common sense, use your school supplied textbook, use your teacher supplied notes.' Whatever you do, do NOT waste the breath to ask me that question, keep the oxygen flowing to your brain, it will be more useful and less harmful if you just keep it to yourself!" Then I released the hounds! It truly is amazing that after instructions like those I still had students committing common sense sins. However, they were getting more creative with their questioning...but I could see right through their deception! For your own personal enjoyment, here are some comments from throughout the day: 1. I am getting so mad and Mrs. Kunz won't even be nice and help me! 2. It really doesn't matter if we get it wrong, so long as we all do it wrong. It will just be a chain reaction failure and she can't get us for that. 3. You made this too hard, [Jane] doesn't even get it and she's smart! 4. You go seduce her with your powers and see if you can get the answer from her. 5. Can you be racist toward blond people? Yeah that last one...had nothing to do with the DNA models...but everything to do with a lack of common sense...and yes I was asked that question today!! Speaking of a lack of common sense, Boy #3 drew me a picture and wrote me a poem on the back of his bell work today. The picture is that of a turtle with a top hat on and the poem goes like this:
O ye turtle,
Where ye will by harchen in they shell
A spoiled egg I will eat
For someday scrambled,
scrambled
Ye will burn in Helsinski, Germany
.
You are very welcome for that loss of a brain cell after reading that!