I had three sections of students: 1) ninth graders, 2) seniors, and 3) AP seniors. As you can probably expect, I had the most trouble with the ninth graders, because (duh) they're ninth graders, but also because they had the harpie teacher, while the older kids had the curmudgeon. The seniors were actually pretty fun, but I was so distracted I couldn't enjoy them. The AP seniors took care of themselves, so I all but ignored them.

I've blocked a lot of this experience out of my memory, but here are some things that stand out:

1) The best kids are the kids who are the most troubled. They eat up all your attention, and you feel bad for them. My favorite student was a stoner girl who never came to class, but instead smoked dope every day in the drainage tunnel underneath Central Entrance.

2) The worst kids are universally bad. If you are a student teacher, and you have a horrible kid, find out that kid's schedule, and talk to all of his/her teachers. They will all say that that kid is the spawn of the devil. It's not your fault.

3) On my last day of class, I told my AP class, which I had ignored, that I was through. They gave me a standing ovation. I was all like, WTF?, I barely know your names.

4) Once, I had a student who was habitually late. I called her aside privately and asked her about it. In tears, she told me about how she was being bullied, and how these kids would hold her against her locker and make her late. They also would do other things to her to humiliate her and generally make her life awful. I offered to confront them, but she insisted that they would beat her up more if I did, which is probably true. I talked to the harpie master teacher about it, and she said something to the effect of, "Yeah, that happens." But I could never get an answer out of her about what to do about it, aside from keep marking the girl tardy. I never marked her tardy again. Now, I know what I would do about it, but I was just a kid myself then and I took the passive route. I feel really guilty for this. I hope that girl turned out to have a good life in spite of that.

5) One of my seniors was very popular, very charming, and got horrible grades. It was my opinion, as well as the opinion of several other teachers, that he had a learning disability. He was a hard worker, but he just didn't do well. I suggested that he get screened for LD, but he wouldn't do it. It took all of my discipline to keep from saying, "You know, if you are trying your hardest, and you don't have a learning disability, and you are still doing poorly, that means you are just plain stupid." Nowadays, I would probably say that.

6) I take it back. My favorite student was this guy who had just gotten out of prison. In prison, he had read and read and read. He made all the other kids look like idiots.

7) One day, all of the senior cheerleaders came in wearing those nylon running pants, and as they sat down, they all dropped trow. I had to force them all to pull up their pants.

8) The worst people to deal with in order: 1) Parents 2) Fellow Teachers 3) Students.

In sum, I had a lot of great students, but I could tell that if I spent any significant amount of time in this environment, with these people, I would go insane. Good teachers burn out fast, and the rest just go through the motions. I think I would have burned out in about six months.

Stil, I'm tempted to go back and give it a try again. I know I could do 1000% better than I did back then. Then again, I get paid a lot more than a teacher does, and all I have to do is lift really heavy objects, operate the Linear Integrated Parcel Sorter, and swear prolifically. Sounds like a good deal to me.