Hello, friends!
Summer vacation is winding down. This coming week I’ll have two professional development days and who knows how much extra time I’ll be there setting up a new space, co-writing a new curriculum, and generally preparing for next week, when vacation is officially over.
This week also marks my last week of being 47. What a time!
This week’s essay came pouring out of me. Nearly 900 words in about 40 minutes or so, maybe less. I’m a little frightened by it but I think that’s what makes good art. It was easier to write things like this week’s essay when I was younger because I was less involved with the outside world. Now, though, it seems especially important and so this is something that popped up and flowed from my fingertips. It’s meant to be funny but pointed at the same time. I guess we’ll see if I hit the mark.
Welcome to the 135th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and dealing with the lack of etiquette, empathy, and ethics. If you’re a reader who subscribes via Substack, my website, or Patreon, your encouragement helps motivate me. I’m not breaking any records but I’m thankful to have any audience.
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I got through 39 pages revising Project: Amusement Park. Tightening, deleting, revising…it’s all good.
This week’s work on Project: Moons brought nearly 2,000 new words to the party, bringing the word count up to 33,000 now and 137 pages.
Work on both projects felt pretty good. Things flowed well. My biggest problem was lack of time because there was a lot of life responsibilities that needed attending to. That’s part of it, though. It makes creating that much sweeter.
I mentioned potential good news last week and I’m still waiting on the paperwork. Again, it happens.
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Here we are in mid-August and in some places in the (not-so-) United States are already going back to school. Here in Massachusetts, kids and teachers will be returning very soon. As a teacher, this coming week will bring two professional development days before the real school year starts next week. As a teacher, as well as an (I think) ethical person, I implore parents to not allow their kids to be assholes.
It’s probably not good that I’m saying this. There may be some who think that a teacher referring to students as assholes isn’t nice or proper or some bullshit because those people don’t get sarcasm and satire. I understand. As a parent myself, I wouldn’t like my daughters to be thought of as assholes by their teachers, though I admit that at least one of my daughters was an asshole to some of her teachers. I know because I was one of her teachers. And some people are just born-assholes. Look at me. I don’t think this was learned behavior. It’s kinda how I came out of the womb. The doctor pulled me out of Mom kicking and screaming and said, “Mrs. Gauthier, look at this asshole!” But a lot of what I’m seeing, in my professional opinion, is learned.
When students come to school as new students, their first time in high school, and they’re already walking around like they own the place, that’s an issue. When they’re giving teachers behavioral issues before we even get to know them, that’s an issue. When they refuse to follow simple directions that’s modeled, noted, and repeated, that’s an issue. Having one student like that happens. Again, born-asshole (like the author). When there’s a lot of students like that, that’s learned.
And I know it’s not just me witnessing this. On teacher social media, there are many accounts that share stories of teachers dealing with students who are unruly, rude, entitled, and…well…assholes.
Where did the asshole epidemic begin? Well, see, after the year 2000, things changed. Technology took the place of social functions. Who needs friends when you have the internet? With high-speed internet and wi-fi, people didn’t have to leave their tech at home.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks also helped the rise of assholism. The post-9/11 false patriotism led people to be more unkind with each other. If you don’t stand for the pledge you’re a terrorist. If you look differently or speak differently or behave differently, you’re a terrorist. As rights like habeas corpus were being stripped in the name of protection, and local police became militarized, the idea of Us vs. Them grew stronger. It also fed into the anti-political correctness movement.
As the internet enlightened more and more younger people to the horrors and evils of systemic racism, homophobia, and other social wrongs, those who steadfastly held against the turn against the white patriarchy were not just talking about it behind closed doors but spouting it on the same internet that was enlightening people, causing a backlash that convinced people they were a majority, even using Ronald Reagan’s old idea of the “silent majority” to say that everyone really feels this way but are too afraid to speak their mind.
Those being enlightened and doing the enlightening didn’t help matters by making it more and more difficult to help make change because when the loudest people are looking for any little mistake so that they may undo someone’s reputation, people are going to fight back. Even if they come from a place of agreeing with you, they’ll eventually feel betrayed.
Of course, the oligarchal move against Barrack Obama didn’t help anything. Inviting Sarah Palin into the conversation as an alternate voice created the Tea Party movement that led to MAGA, which is, in its essence, assholes cheering on assholes. And now nearly a decade of Make Americans Giant Assholes has made—I’m checking my measurements and weights—a metric shit-ton of assholes. Most of them adults.
That said, if you’ve got assholes raising children in a world where children no longer go outside and learn to rebel as proper children should, then you’re going to have children who are assholes like their parents. So when the parents feel entitled to park in spots reserved for not them—whether it’s because of disabilities or because you’re being rewarded for helping the environment by owning electric vehicles—or cutting in line or having privileges for their mere existence, the children see this and replicate the behavior. If your first inclination is to be angry at your child’s teacher for a grade they earned, then that’s learned behavior.
That comes into the classroom. And that stops other children, who aren’t assholes, from learning. It stops teachers—even they’re a natural asshole like me—from being able to be professional and teach and inspire their students.
Please, as the 2025-2026 school year begins, show grace and allow for mistakes to happen. Teach your kids manners. Explain to them what’s appropriate and inappropriate. Teach them etiquette, empathy, and ethics. And if you can’t—or won’t—then don’t be surprised or angry when your child’s teacher acts like an asshole. Because it’s more than likely that they’re giving back what they’re receiving.
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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