You just want to blame someone else!

I hear this charge often. It's always the same old line, "Oh you teachers....you just want to point fingers and make it be someone else's fault." Well, but if it is someone else's fault, or if they are at least partially responsible, then....shouldn't we? Isn't it our duty to say, "Hey...wait a minute. You know, all of this is not the result of just my actions." I don't see how that is an attempt to "shift blame." When I think of people who try to "shift blame," I think of unwarranted actions in which there really is no one else to blame. For example, if I am out in a row boat, and my dumb ass grabs a gun and tries to move it out of my way and it goes off, then I, and only I, am to blame for the water that is now rushing in through the hole in the bottom of my boat. But, if in that same row boat is another person, and they move the gun and it goes off, then it is my fault for telling him to grab the gun, and it is also his fault for f***ing up and putting a hole in my damn boat! That's not "shifting blame,"....that's what's known as "describing what actually happened." So, when I tell people, "Look...it really is quite disturbing, but there is an entirely generational shift of students who stand and say, 'I ain't gonna do it and you can't make me!" When I say that, I am not trying to "shift blame." I am stating a matter of fact. Here is a recent occurrence whereupon I was confronted by some especially poor scores on an assessment. I was puzzled. I stated clear learning objectives based on state standards. I taught these objectives to students using different learning styles, media, and group activities. They took traditional notes, they made vocabulary "boxes" for each main word of the chapter. We generated our own hypotheses in a hands-on lab opportunity....and on and on and on. Trust me, I'm no worksheet king or queen. I thought, as I often do, "What did I do wrong?" I think any good teacher has that as his first thought. So, since it seemed as though I had done at least a decent job of teaching (I even asked the kids, "Be honest...really...is it me??") I polled the students by having them anonymously writing on a post-it, the reasons why they received the grade they did. I gave the students two choices since they all said it wasn't me, they liked the lesson, it was fun, etc. Their two choices were, as you see below: did you need more teaching? Explaining? Or....did you just fail to properly study/prepare? The question was, "I got the grade I got because __________" You see the results....now go out and reform that. Base teacher merit pay on that.