Generation Gap

As it is the last "official" week of school (June 8th & 9th don't really count what with water park trips, yearbooks, and 48 hours of utter INSANITY), my students are being treated to a movie. And not just any movie, but this little gem:

I, personally, love this movie. It gets me all nostalgic and has always managed to make me giggle. I got it from the roommate on my birthday. I was certain I was, like, only the coolest English teacher ever by letting my 9th graders watch it for our Narrative Unit "final".

And do you know what they did?

"Oh NO! Not this!" (accompanied by an eye roll)

"Are you freakin' KIDDING me? I HATE this movie." (and another eye roll)

"This is SO LAME." (as a twist, the cross-eyed eye roll)

My sweet, baby-faced, scared little freshmen have officially made the transition to obnoxious "We're-no-longer-the-babies-of-the-school-we're-now-pompous-little-freshmen-hating-sophomores". I can't stand that kind of student. Almost as much as I cringe when seniors become the (equally obnoxious) "We're-no-longer-children-we're-now-pompous-and-lazy-little-about-to-graduate-and-become-'adults'" type.

What is wrong with the kids these days? Do they not appreciate culture? Do they not recognize a classic cinema masterpiece (with a tiny Fred Savage) when they see it? Teenagers!

Needless to say I generously layered on threats of the alternative (and quite possibly unwritten) final if the whining did not stop. Also needless to say (but I'm saying it nonetheless): the end of the school year could not come soon enough.

And in other job-ish news, I'm moving three and a half years worth of school CRAP (and trust me, it is a daunting and powerful quantity of CRAP) to a new classroom over the next week and a half.

Threats will probably be a theme with me this week.