Don't Desire to be Young Again

If you see the future in a child's eyes, please ... put on some shades.  If you think children are an inspiration, you're not thinking right. 

In my extensive training as an educator, I have heard many fellow teachers say: "I just love children, they are so innocent."  But the high school students I see on a daily basis are very NOT innocent.  Today’s kids can be caffeinated bundles of emotional negativity.

I subbed this week for library.  Library!  High school teens don’t even like the library, and there are no classes in the library fulltime.  And yet, the mimicking, talking back, and disrespect infiltrated this talk-free zone.  One child did a mocking “impression” of me.  Apparently when I talk I move my hands like a sugar loaded squirrel.  I mean I had to stand back and wonder if that is what I really looked like.  Could this little shit of an impressionist have a future on the stage?  You know, I’m not sure what is in store for some of the evil teens I see on a daily basis, but I am sure, children are my inspiration to age with dignity.  Don't desire to be young again - it's a harder world than we remember.

Do they know I make less than 90 dollars a day?

Because it’s easier to wax your own pits than find a teaching job these days … I am a licensed educator working as a lowly substitute teacher.  And did you know, substitute teachers are “the help” of public school society?

Really, I hear it all!  Their struggles, their triumphs, and yes, even their sex life – kids talk so freely around me it would make your head spin.  Last week I heard why an average hormonal young man really wears “I heart Boobies” bracelets. I heard about shop-lifted shoes and who’s really on the pill.

I sub in a rural American school district – somewhere between nowhere and the Atlantic Ocean.  This school is pretty typical of small town Americana, which makes me wonder: are American teens trusting, are they brave or do they just know I make less than 90 dollars a day and figure they can buy me off if I ever talk?  … I’ll keep you posted.