*Gotta Love 'Em

For over thirty years I've been around them or should I say: They've been all over me? A type of allergy, perhaps. It seems like all my waking hours I'm stuck in this one position...like a flawed CD with a skip that keeps playing the same notes over and over. You know how the lyrics go..."Why do we have to do this, it's boring?" "Does spelling count?" And my all time favorite: "I know you hate me!"

Yeah, you guessed it. I'm a Junior High teacher and have been one for what seems like most of my life. Hey, look, I know more twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year-olds than I know adults. How sad is that?

Okay, sure I love 'em, but I do get a bit annoyed with some of their idiosyncrasies. You know adolescent things like sarcasm, teasing, rudeness, affected boredom, and the worst of all: drama queenmanship.

Nothing stokes an already established headache more than a coven of early-teen girls verbally jousting over things like: "She said I was fat;" or "She called me ugly;" or "Someone said that someone else overheard someone say that I was a...skank!...And do you know what that is?" This banter continues to buzz beneath the classroom surface for the entire day. It is maddening. It is migraine fodder.

Now don't get me wrong. It isn't only the girls who can get under my skin. The boys have their own method of causing me a mental rash. They can hit, punch, shove, bash, and trip their fellow classmates, inflicting injuries, bruises, and wounds just this side of permanent disfigurement. And then the very next day, the former combatants are best of friends, hanging on each other like blood brothers. Go figure.

Am I annoyed? Sure. Am I entertained? You bet I am. So I guess I'll have to accept my situation and live with them and all their weirdnesses. Frankly, it could be a whole lot worse. I could be in Kindergarten where they spill, drip, drool, and piddle; where they pick their noses and...but that would be way too gross and upsetting even for a Junior High teacher.


*I wrote this years ago and I thought it would be an appropriate post for the beginning of another school year. I do miss those adolescents and their unique behavior. And I do wish the very best to all my post-adolescent students wherever you are.