Why I Love Junior High Kids

Today I subbed for junior high English class, and while I was there and the kids were working quietly on their homework, all I could think was "Oh my gosh, they look like picture perfect children!"

Now I will tell you a story.  When I was in junior high, my English/Literature teacher told our class that oftentimes when she told people that she taught junior high, they told her that they could never do it and thought she was crazy.  And my classmates and I were outraged and confused as to how anyone could find us difficult or overwhelming.

Then I grew up.

And I learned that junior high kids are weirdos that border on being a different species (as told to my mother by her college nun science teacher).

But I do really love them.  I can't help it!  And here's the reasons why:

1. Junior high kids are their real selves.  Junior high kids aren't emotionally advanced enough to have the skills to help them cover up their feelings and personality, so they're always their real selves, all the time.  It's very refreshing.

2. Junior high kids think I'm a genius.  Junior high kids are still naive enough to think that adults know everything.  Today someone asked me if I knew what an angiosperm is.  How cute is that?!  Of course I don't, but it's precious that you have the confidence in me to think that I would know.  Another day I helped a girl with her math homework while subbing for literature and she told her friends I was a genius.  A genius!  Naturally I did not dispute that.

3. Junior high kids are weird looking.  Every single kid is a strange shape and size, and while that's obviously totally normal for the life stage they're at, it's still funny to see.  Kids are tall, short, wide, narrow, any and everything.  And they all accessorize with the trendiest things out right now, to the point of being gaudy. 

4. Junior high kids are enthusiastic about learning.  Today during indoor recess I taught the kids Irish words.  I think the only thing that could have made them more excited was to tell them that they were going to Disney World. 

5. Junior high kids have kid faces.  This is it, the last time they look like kids.  High schoolers look like weird, misshapen adults but junior high kids, despite their strange body shapes, still have the faces of kids.  Many are round and pudgy with baby fat and gigantic eyes.  And when they're sitting quietly in their little uniforms, each writing on their assignment and shaping their little minds, the kids are truthfully nothing short of the cutest thing you've ever seen.  But then they talk and it's ruined.  It's ok though, I enjoyed it while it lasted.