trendymatt's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kids these days..

I have spent the last few days in high school classrooms observing teachers while they teach my program's HIV education curriculum. Apparently, I spent four years fighting desperately to escape high school only to return after college. Thus, I have determined that deep inside me is a masochist that has been fighting to get out for years.

In the past week I have gained quite a lot of respect for teachers and what they have to deal with every day. One can only stand listening to the same lesson so many times in one day before going completely insane, much less repeating the same lesson throughout a class day. Since I am not a teacher and do not have the patience these people must have, I have started keeping little notes on a scratch pad to maintain my sanity. These are my observations on high school life in 2003:

• "'My name is Milk. I do a body good.' One student's example of a cheesy pick-up line. I was never that creative in 10th grade!" -From one of the ice-breaker activities in the first lesson of the curriculum.
  
• "New job annoyance: faking my way through conversations on Kentucky football." -One of the hazards of working exclusively with high school Health/P.E. teachers.
  
• "Funniest thing EVER: a high school football coach explaining what douche is."
  
• "HAHAHHA EWWWWWW... every class has the exact same reaction when anal sex is mentioned."
  
• "These kids really love the bling-bling. Liberace would be proud." -Apparently the big fashion for Kentucky ghetto boys these days are HUGE cubic zirconia stud earrings.
  
• "Oral sex = today's equivalent of the goodnight kiss on the first date!" -Was this the case when I was in high school? I don't recall it.
  
• "I am NOT that big!" -One girl's reaction when the teacher demonstrated how to use the female condom, which admittedly looks big enough to use as an air conditioning duct.
  
• "Yeah, but I am." -A male classmate's witty retort.

This is but a sampling of the stuff I saw in one day of observation. I have a feeling I'm in for a long ride. I also think I'm going to learn a lot from this group of rag-tag high school sophomores.

8:47 am - 10.24.03

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next