High School Students Astound Me

High school students crack me up. Today I learned exactly how out of touch I am with these bastions of solidarity.

I have the pleasure of substituting (for the next three days) for a class that is comprised mostly of seniors . And not only is this class made up of seniors (read: 17-18 year olds), it is a leadership class. That means that most of students are in some sort of "leadership" position, be it sports, grades, money, looks....whatever.

Apparently, several weeks ago, someone at the administrative level decided that they were going to "issue" Netbooks to every single senior student in this ISD. And from my observation today, it seems that the students were given carte blanche as far as usage is concerned. Oh, I'm quite sure that there were the token meetings and PowerPoint presentations about how to properly use their computers, how much security is on the computer and not to even try to download games and music, much less try to access to Facebook; and that the students not abuse the "relationship of trust" that the administration has so gallantly given them.

Oh, come on, who are we kidding?

Students nowadays are so much more computer savvy than us Paleolithic dinosaurs who are supposed to be responsible for the fragile young minds encased in their brain-pans. It's laughable when you think about it. At the moment I began taking notes for this blog, I was watching a class of 30+ high school seniors, who were supposed to be working on a multi-media presentation about the definition of leadership, play games and listen to music that they had downloaded onto these supposedly impenetrable, secure-from-all-things-that-might-damage-their-minds little Netbooks. There was all kinds of music sharing going on. Games that were being played were Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, and 007 Goldeneye, to name a few. I even watched a student multi-task: he/she surfed the Internet while he/she had their iPhone plugged into one ear, texted a message to a friend who obviously wasn't paying attention in another class, and talked about the new Megan Fox movie to another group of friends!

Yeek...

Now, I really have nothing against these students. I really don't. I tend to think of them as middle schoolers with slightly larger foreheads and longer legs. Granted, a lot of them tried to pull a fast one on me regarding the computers and what exactly they were allowed to do in class, but really? It hasn't been that long ago (and it hasn't been, naysayers!) since I tried those same tricks! And it's so funny to see their faces when you throw the BS flag on them...

I think it was an extremely noble idea to give these students a computer so that they would be able to "finish the assignments on time and email them to the teacher." Or "do Internet research that they might otherwise not be able to do at home or elsewhere." Alas, a noble idea does not always equate to a good one...

I have some ideas about what to do tomorrow. And Lord, after these next three days, I bet you anything I will have some outstanding fodder for future posts...!