The “I want” tantrum
Having taught teens for 7 years, I’ve had to deal with my fair share of misbehaviour.
One common problem is “not taking no for an answer”. This manifests in many different ways – like say teacher A says no, they go to teacher B instead, or they act up in hopes you’ll give in. But when your boundaries are firm and you resist, they eventually settle down. Most of them do anyway.
Which leaves the spoilt, recalcitrant ones who grew up with no boundaries at home, and bring that behaviour into the classroom. These are the “I want” kids who don’t know what “no” means.
Apparently, some of them never grew out of it because this juvenile mindset is what I’m seeing, shockingly, in the news. And it’s grown adults acting this way. With regard to Greenland, the US seems to acting like one of those “I want” kids. Greenlanders don’t want anything to do with the US? No matter - they’ll just buy them anyway. Everything is for sale, everything is there to be taken. I thought we were over this colonial land grab phase, but the current administration seems to revel in playing power games.
Even children can do better.