Poor Teenagers

I couldn't wait to get out of high school. "You'll miss it," they said. "These are the best years of your life," they said. HUMPH! Good lord. If those were the best years of my life I would have been in a deep and dark down hill slide for the rest of it.

Subbing in high school reminds me even more how much I do not miss it. I'm sitting here now,  watching them: the teenagers. They are strange creatures. I used to be that strange creature and I don't miss it one bit. When I first started subbing I was terrified to sub in high school. Teenagers are cruel, snotty, judgmental, unpredictable beasts. How would I handle them? Will they respect me? Will they like me? But I have realized all teenagers have something in common; they're all insecure. They are the most insecure human beings on the planet. Insecurity is something I understand and I also understand they don't know who I am. To them, I am a teacher. I am in charge. I am smart and trying to ruin their social lives with class work. If I pretend to be assertive and in control then they will believe me. They don't know any better because they are so worried about what their friends think that nothing else matters. It's kind of like being in a play.

Of course not all teenagers are created equal. In fact, they are all really different and most of them are trying super hard to hide it. I recognize the same groups of kids from when I was in school: the pretty and chatty girls; the girls who are head of the pact and have an attitude; the nerdy, spotty faced boys; the quiet ones; the jocks; the teacher's pets; the emos; the know-it-alls, etc.

Luckily, nearly all of them respect us adults. But there is the dreaded teenager; the troubled, angry soul who hates you for no good reason. Every once in awhile that kid is in my class. They interrupt me when I talk, decline to work, challenge what I say, and other more disrespectful, disruptive behavior.  There isn't a lot, as a sub, you can do to help this kid. Instead of being angry I try to remember there is an underlying reason for the behavior and I feel sad for that.

So, again, I don't miss high school. I think a lot of people don't and I think it's because life gets so much better after. We come into ourselves. We figure out who we are, what we want, and what matters.Even the really smart and mature teenagers are out of their minds, worried over something.

Poor teenagers. Sucks to be them.