I had the pleasure of subbing at a high school recently.  The first class I taught was Government and it was considered ‘special.’  In this instance, ‘special’ meant that the students in this class had either emotional or behavior issues and required a bit more attention from the teacher when it came to learning.  I discovered that there were only seven students in the class…all boys…and all my size or bigger.  The lesson plan left by the regular teacher actually included the following line:

If any student becomes confrontational, DON’T ENGAGE!  Call the office immediately for back up.

Back up?  I’d never felt more like a cop.  I momentarily pictured myself squatting underneath the desk, screaming into my walkie-talkie for back up as the classroom erupted into chaos behind me.  The lesson plan also read:

DO NOT, under any circumstance, let them move their desks and work together on the worksheets I have left for them to complete.

I had not even finished reading this line when I heard the metal desks being slid across the floor as the students were rearranging their seats to be able to talk more easily with one another.

“This is OK, right?” one student said.  I honestly couldn’t tell if he was asking or telling me.

“Of course it is!” I shot back with a nervous grin.

The students then settled in and started to fill in their worksheets.  This lasted for three minutes.

Then one of the them chucked his pencil across the room and it broke against the whiteboard.  “Why do we have to learn about the three branches of government anyway?” he asked.  “It’s not like any of us are going to be in congress one day?”

Looking to have a teachable moment, I responded with, “And what branch of government does congress fall under?”

Blank stares.  Awkward silence.

“Seriously,” the same student continued.  “Why do we have to learn about this kind of stuff (although he didn’t use the word ‘stuff’)?  Why can’t we learn about things that will actually help us?”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like how to get a job.”

“What’s there to learn about getting for a job?”

“Everything,” another student chimed in.  “Every job I’ve applied for…I don’t even understand how to fill out the application.”

“And if you get past the application, the interview is even worse,” another student interjected.

“What’s so hard about the application?” I asked.

“They’re too long for one thing.  And I had a guy laugh at mine one time.”

“Why would he do that?”

“For emergency contact, I wrote 911.  I guess that was the wrong answer.”

I know we’ve all heard that last line as a joke before, but this student was deadly serious.  He honestly thought that was the correct answer.  He was answering the questions as if it were a test instead of an application.

“And I got yelled at one time because I went to an interview with a dip in my mouth,” said another student.

“You didn’t actually go to the interview with a dip in your mouth?” I asked.

“Yeah I did.  What’s wrong with that?  I brought my spit cup in with me so I wouldn’t make a mess.”

This student honestly did not realize that having tobacco in your mouth during an interview was a no-no.  A few more classmates shared similar horror stories about applying and being rejected for jobs and the reasons were obvious.  One cussed during his interview.  Another wrote on his application that he only wanted to work long enough to save up $400.00 to fix his truck and then he’d quit.  Another answered his cell phone and had a brief conversation during his interview.  These types of stories continued for most of the class.

I did my best to explain to them what each student did wrong during his job application process.  I also explained to them that it was crucial they learned what they were being taught in Government along with all their other classes, because in the end, it didn’t matter if these folks knew the judicial branch from the legislative branch from the executive branch (I threw these in just so you’d know I knew them).  What mattered was that they learned how to learn.  And that is a skill set that we all continue to use every day of our lives.  We are all Still Learning.  (Yes…Still Learning is a shameless plug for my 2011 book that is currently selling like whatever the opposite of hotcakes are).

While it’s important that the schools teach our youth how to learn, and the teachers and faculty I know do a tremendous job of that, I would love to see classes offered for folks like I met that day…classes that teach social etiquette.  But I’m not officially in the school system and I know that teachers have enough of a workload with just getting students ready for SOLs.  But it’s food for thought.  With just a little bit of coaching, I know that every guy in the class that day could go out and get a job and make a difference in the world.

All they need…all any of us need…is a little preparation and encouragement.

And to not bring Skoal to a job interview.