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"I'd like to take all these people and condemn them to spend a month with my seventh-graders. I'm not sure describing these kids as stupid is accurate, as some of them are really, really articulate, but they have their heads in a whole different world from the rest of us. Good dose of reality needed here.

I bet your students parents would LOVE to hear that comment. If teaching 7th graders is so horrible, why do you do it? Not that your attitude is any different than what I experienced when mine were in middle school. You see, kids at that age ARE NOT ADULTS. It's a brain chemistry/function thing.

"I bet your students parents would LOVE to hear that comment. If teaching 7th graders is so horrible, why do you do it? Not that your attitude is any different than what I experienced when mine were in middle school. You see, kids at that age ARE NOT ADULTS. It's a brain chemistry/function thing."

I intended to teach high school, not middle school. Also, this particular 7th grade class (at the school, not just in my room) is widely known as a bunch of little kids, who happen to be older than they ought to be for the way they act. I don't expect them to be adults, as I still (vaguely) remember being that age myself. I do expect them to exhibit brain function now and then, at least in my class. I'm seeing precious little of that, however. I replaced a teacher who left early in the fall, and my kids had to deal with subs and TAs for the rest of last year. They are supposed to already know something about our subject, but their test scores indicate that they spent all last fall somewhere else than in class. The good news is that after a month and a half as their teacher, I now have four students passing the class, instead of only one. 19 to go.

I also have four classes of 9th graders. They are much better behaved than the one class of 7th graders. I've spoken to the parents of several of my worst offenders, btw, and the parents tend to characterize them as "brain-dead."