Gannon's English 99: Literacy in Ruins

This article was not painful to read, unlike some of the others I've had to endure. It was so well written. The writer had a contemporary voice that I was able to relate with. When he talked about how he was going to dress for work, "I bought a herringbone jacket. I couldn't find one with those leather elbow patches. I tried Men's Wearhouse. The sales guy told me they didn't make them anymore.," (Gannon 215) it honestly made me visualize the stereotypical, balding professor I was excited to see in college. Though the subtle humor was scattered throughout all of the article, there was still room for this article to quite possibly be the most depressing I've read since the semester began.
He spoke of the three categorizes of students in his class, "bored girls, jocks, and refugees," the categorizations themselves were depressing. Such a lack of excitement in a room three times a week would make me crazy, I could only imagine how this creative magazine writer must of felt. He was actually looking forward to changing these kids lives in some way. Then he continued on to talk about the writing that these students were developing and it made me cringe.
The bored girls were not so bad. I often here gossip as exciting as their writings about boys, boredom, and slushies. The jocks writing was typical. How much could you expect out of the good old fashioned jock, who cares more about partying and drinking than actually showing up to school each day. What a drag showing up to class must have been for those guys. But those two lame tales lead up to the uncomfortable writing of the refugees, whose stories were underdeveloped, however, were still developed enough to create an unsettling feeling in the reader's stomach. I don't know how a teacher could possibly deal with such sick,twisted, and real stories like that of the refugees for an entire semester. Reading about a friend's hand being blown off was not exactly apart of the job description. I felt bad for Gannon. His article's pessimistic tone and sarcasm were not hidden in all of the descriptions he was trying to display.
Gannon seemed more and more distressed as the essay went on. He started the essay sort of fun and sarcastic, talking about his fantasy of a student winning the Nobel Prize and a movie being made out of the tale. A "Stand and Deliver" of the ages. But by giving examples of the writings, the pessimism for the fate of this class became evident. He passed and failed and did not have hope for any of the students he left because he just did not want to deal with them for another semester. It is so sad to think that a person has to feel that way.
I know the job of a teacher is to educate no matter what the obstacles, but teachers are people too, and environments such as the one of that English 99 could put a real toll on a teacher's psyche. I was pretty happy when the article ended with Gannon getting released from the school, it was the first sign of real peace throughout that whole article.