Contrasts

Sometimes the contrasts we run across in life are like night and day. Such was the case of Krissy Beecher’s class at North Davis Junior High. The first thing that came to my mind when the job came up was her name. You don’t run across that many adults named ‘Krissy.’ Second was her last name which was featured in an old Freddie Cannon song, "Miss Abigail Beecher, Our History Teacher." So I sang ‘Miss Krissy Beecher, our English Teacher’ all the way to school that morning.

During the first three periods we watched scenes 4 and 5 from "Romeo and Juliette." It was not particularly well acted, however I

rewound the tape a bit too far for second period that included part of a bedroom scene. So the kids got quite an eye full when Romeo hopped out of the sack. But by the third viewing I was getting more than a little bored.

After lunch the seventh grader’s pulled up a desk for English and we got to watch part of ‘Flubber.’ WOW, what a contrast to

‘Romeo and Juliette!’ I hate to say it, but ‘Flubber’ was more interesting.

I sometimes forget how creative kids can be when it comes to avoiding subjects they don’t like. During the last screening of the

play I caught two boys playing checkers on a quickly made checker board made from an 81/2 by 11 sheet of paper and pieces made from smaller note book paper. It was cute, but I had to make them stop.

Another item teachers in the old days did not have to contend with is text messaging and MP3 players. The kids are pretty slick when it comes to texting. They hold it under the desk where you can’t see it. But it is not that hard to catch them at it. My grand daughter can do it with the phone in her pocket and that would be hard to catch. That may become an Olympic event some day. They may have special thin-type pants to get the feel of the keys or something.

The last couple of days I’ve spent at West Point Junior High. It is a small school just up the road. The kids are well behaved as a rule and they don’t have a lot of hardware hanging off their lips, ears, and who-knowswhere-else. They try and text message too. However I’m on to them and I have been there often enough so they know me. However they do have a backup plan.

They have actually taken up writing notes back and forth. I catch them at that too. The last time I told them what used to happen when we would do that in class. That’s right, the teacher would read them out loud! You never saw a bunch of notes get put away so fast in your life. It was like watching cockroaches scamper under the doors. I guess somethings never change.

In the schools around here they have some pretty strict dress codes. The parents usually prevent the kids from dressing inappropriately. However the school jumps in where the parent leave off in some cases. So you don’t see bare midriffs and underwear hanging out. The can’t just wear anything they want with writing on it either. One teacher in the local high school sent a kid to the office for wearing a ‘Hooter’s’ T-Shirt because he found it offensive. Just try that in California and there would be a lawsuit right quick. I saw one girl get sent home for wearing one of the shortest skirts I have seen since the ‘Hot Pants Days’ in the 70s. It was 7 or 8 inches above the knee. This week I’m taking it a little easier.

I’m getting way behind in my projects because of working too much. Plus school is only out from Dec. 24 though Jan. 2 for the Christmas break. What ever happened to two weeks off?