Kids

I went off on a kid the other day. He'd stopped coming to my 2nd period US History class a few weeks before the end of last semester. He even skipped the final. The only time he's made class this semester was when Security dragged him in after the Attendance Office hunted him down.

A week later, I spotted him in the hall in front off Admin. When I confronted him, he said something smartassed and walked away. I chased him, yelling. He said he was on his way to counselling to drop my class, which I don't believe. I told him he was going to see a principal with me. I got him in the office, but he kept trying to get away, and I kept yelling. One secretary called Security while another got between us and told him to sit and me to write a referral. All the principals were off campus at a meeting, so he spent the afternoon in ISS.

I thanked the ladies later for keeping their heads while I lost mine. One said, "They really know how to push our buttons."

While I was in my alternative licensure program, a professor suggested we stop calling our pupils "kids." She thought "students" or "young people / men / women" was more appropriate. I tried, but it just doesn't fit. They're "kids." One of the problems for both them and us is them trying to be adults when they aren't. They're not ready for it educationally, emotionally, or physically. Even though they can do some things that adults do, they have little concept of the results or responsibilities of their actions.

This past fall semester, we had a slew of pregnant girls (not women) running around campus. (By my reckoning, it was one hell of a Prom.) They're gone now, but there are more starting to show.

My generation said that if we were old enough to fight and die in a war, we were old enough to vote. These kids say that if they're old enough to vote, they're old enough to drink. I tell them nobody's buying votes with drinks anymore, but if they feel that strongly about it, they should vote to change it. Of course, that would require time and work. Changing laws would require getting in the system and changing minds. That's a lot to ask from a group that can't see past next weekend.

As I said, they're "kids."