Junior High students are interesting. When I tell people I teach Junior High, most often the response I get is something along the lines of ,”wow…I couldn’t do that.” I have my ideas about why people think that.

I was a teenager once upon a time, as were many of you. I wasn’t the cool kid or the popular kid. I was the kid who hid in the bathroom or library during lunch. I read an incredible amount of books during those years. At one point, I started my own card catalog of books I had read. I wrote the title, author, brief synopsis, and a rating; 1-5 for each book. I wish I would have kept up with that…

Believe it or not, I had a few students now who are total book nerds, but they are also mean girls. It is a strange combination. They read like crazy, but they are also very outgoing, confident, and kind of mean. I love them, in spite of that. They have pledged their love to me by cutting locks of their hair and making art on my desk, but I won’t let them wear pink on Wednesday.

Even though I haven’t been in Junior High myself for many years, I still see all the archetypes present even today. In addition to the booky-mean girls, we also have the computer geeks, jocks, bullies, quiet kids, and the cowboys. Oh, the cowboys.

When I was in my teen years, the cowboys were the worst. They were shunned almost as much as the dorks. You couldn’t have paid me money to listen to a single country song. I would not have been caught dead or alive in cowboy boots. Those tight wrangler jeans were a fate worst than death.

I had a friend who was very into country music. She tried so hard to get me to listen to it but I was afraid it would damage me in some way.

It is so weird because I have no idea why country music was such a taboo for me. This was years before Taylor Swift and others made country rock emerge. Back then, the music was twangy and filled with dust and tipped hats. It was not cool in any way.

As I have matured, I have come to like a lot of country music. I say that, but I still probably mean ‘soft country’. I still can’t bring myself to like the old country.

Why do I bring up all this stuff about country music when I started out talking about Junior High students? Well, I’ll tell ‘ya.

Out of all the boys at our junior high, there is one that has impressed me the most. He happens to be a cowboy. He’s got the aloofness, the drawl, the absolute love of Garth Brooks, and the desire to be kicked off a bull daily. He seemed like the grumpiest kid on campus till I got to know him. What I once took as a really bad attitude, has evolved into a very low tolerance for stupidity.

Stupidity can be found in abundance when surrounded by adolescents. There is no shortage of bad choices, questionable actions, and things that make adults shake their heads. This kid, somehow sees it for what it is worth.

He’s not a perfect kid, by any means. He’s told me stories that would ‘shock yer mama’ for sure, but he’s learned from his mistakes. More than just learning, he’s tried to help others learn from his mistakes. Talking to him gives me hope for the future of our world, and more immediately, the future of the kids I’m attempting to teach. They can learn, because he did. They can make good choices, because he does. They can emerge from their selfish ignorance and see beyond themselves, because he did.

Maybe all this effort really will pay off.

Cause I said so.

photo credit: http://www.torange.biz