My Current Struggle

Bet I caught your attention with that line, eh? Well I happen to teach government to high school seniors at a semi-local high school. Said high school is supposed to produce the "cream of the crop" if you will, and these students are the ones who are going to lead us to a better tomorrow. If that's the case then I'm genuinely scared for that tomorrow and I highly recommend that you all go out to your local hardware store and buy the necessary supplies to build a bunker to settle in for the long-haul. Either I was blessed with some real stupids or these kids are just trying their best to make my eyes bleed and make my life difficult.

We recently finished a section on the Civil Rights that included some landmark Supreme Court cases so I assigned a simple 2-page paper that was to encompass the entirety of the Civil Rights Movement--no big deal right? You'd think I had asked them to single-handedly save the world in 20 minutes. Over the course of a week I graded 120 CRAP papers and I thought I would regale you with some of the more *choice* sentences. I promise these are not taken out of context to make them sound worse. They are taken directly as I found them in the papers--grammar and spelling intact. Enjoy!

“When he was arrested and brought to court with Judge John Ferguson, he was made segregated. Even when he brought it to the Supreme Court they too ruled him segregated because he was 1/8 black.”

“This football team changed more than just the players lives it changed the countries lives in ways they probably never thought they would.”

“…they won that season all of their games.”

“Homer Plessy helped ignite a flame already burning through the African American community over separate but equal.”

“The reason that the schools were put together started with Plessy vs. Ferguson when they weren’t given any rights and then with Brown vs. the Board of Education where they were considered “separate but equal” but had to go to different schools.”

“Restaurants, theaters, restrooms, and public schools.”

“It was there that the question of ‘does Louisiana law violate the equal protection clause of the 14 amendment?’.”
“Shooting off of the Plessy case, comes the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955.”

“…in his home town of Louisiana…”

“During the time, hardly any blacks and whites communed with each other, because they didn’t want to.”

“The first scene of the school you see people protesting against the incorporation of the blacks, when the white football player introduced his white girl friend to the black teammate and she would not shake his hand, and arguments and disaster everywhere.”

“Although on paper the ruling made it illegal, at heart people were still segregated.”

“The origin of Civil Rights movement.”

“Not only did this Civil Rights Act prohibit segregation towards blacks, but many other things as well, such as no job discriminations towards anyone, no matter how old they may be, women’s rights, equal opportunity, responsibility, and/or pay.”

“Not only had their been segregation, but colors were denied their rights as well.”

“School, hospitals, bathrooms, drinking fountains, and even white people would never touch a Bible that a black man had touched.”

“Some children were asked between two dolls, one white and one black, which was better, smarter, or maybe even prettier. These children mostly answered with the white dolls. Other children had to walk at least 5 miles to get to the bus station or even the school.”

“The Plessy v. Ferguson case was a man Homer Plessy who was 7/8 black and 1/8 white.”

“The civil rights are the people that gave the blacks their freedom to be just like the whites.”

“With the ruling of the Plessy vs. Ferguson separate is equal school boards became separate.”

“One week after that tragedy the president signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and in 1991 Bush signs another Civil Rights Act strengthening the laws against discrimination.”

“The separate but equal ideas.”

“Integration in schools were a major thing during this.”

“The Brown vs. BOE Topeka, Ks, which show us the unfairness of times, back then.”

-S.