teens

The Teenage Human as Observed in the Wild

… the “Wild” being a local junior high school, and the specimens under study being around fourteen years of age.

This list will be random and undoubtedly incomplete.

• Teenagers have a dysfunctional sense of auditory volume. No, I don’t mean they play their music too loud (because, well, so do I). They talk too loud when they don’t want the teacher to hear them and too soft when they do.

• They have an amazing capacity to disregard (or at least not notice) the needs of anyone other than themselves.

• They have an amazing capacity to assist with others’ needs with no prompting or incentive.

• They still say thank you.

• They leave messes just like they do at home.

• They clean up better than they do at home.

• Most of them can grade their own work on the honor system just fine.

• Many are happy to read with any spare moment in class.

• A few are Rubik’s Cube geniuses.

• Some broadcast their emotions from fifty feet away.

• Some have very non-emotive faces. You have to watch their eyes.

• They will surpass your expectations.

• They will live down to your expectations.

• They will smash your expectations.

• They see each other differently than we see them.

• They don’t mind geeky adults (as long as the geeky adults care).

• They laugh at dirty jokes.

• They laugh at clean jokes.

• They laugh at dumb jokes that have been retold since they were in first grade.

• They don’t know what to do when they’re angry.

• They don’t know what to do when they’re sad.

• They know exactly what to do.

• They don’t want to be treated like children.

• They don’t want to be treated like adults (not 100% full-time, at least).

• Some already have to act like adults.

• Some think they’re more on top of things than they are.

• Some think they’re less capable than they are.

• Even the quietest have distinctive, interesting personalities. “Mary Sue” and the bland, empty-beaker persona don’t exist … and if they appear to, you’re not looking hard enough.

Speak up:

5 comments

The Real Teens of YA County

Hopefully this is preaching to the choir. A lot of YA writers are great about having textured, nuanced teen characters. Still, sometimes the cast is filled with an overabundance of “the regulars.”

The jock. The cheerleader. The nerd. The nondescript average teen.

Wait, there’s no such thing as that last one. Never in all my classrooms have I come across one of those. They show up in novels, though. Weird, that. It got me thinking about what I have seen. Here’s a sampling of students I have taught or am teaching.

Students who weren’t supposed to live past the night they were born.

Students whose parent is world-famous.

Students whose entire family is deaf (and sometimes that student is the most hearing among them).

Students who excel in a sport and qualify as a “geek” in another area (math, music, theater, …).

Students with such a mix of half- and step-siblings, there are six or seven different last names in their household.

Students whose bodies could break all too easily.

Students with the most spectacular cases of ADHD.

Students who are in foster care because their parents are in jail.

Students who aren’t supposed to have much of a life expectancy.

Students who are quiet for a reason … and very NOT quiet when you get them going. (By the way, this group is never, EVER boring.)

I could go on if I let myself, but you get the idea.

Some of those I see in novels. Some not so much. (Of course, I’m not as super-wide-read in some genres of YA as I’d like to be.) Some only when it’s the “issue” of the story. Maybe some things could be incidental to the plot. The MC’s best friend is in a foster family, but that’s not the point of the story.

Or maybe that’s just me and my preferences. Maybe some people would read that and keep waiting and waiting for that fact to become relevant.

What do you think? Are there certain types of teens you’d like to see pop up more in YA literature?

Speak up:

2 comments

Learning the Hard Way

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how many times you tell someone that a surface is hot. They’re just going to have to touch it.

In my first math lesson with my new classes this week, I noticed a trend in my first couple of classes. As they worked on their homework near the end of class, several of them got to a particular problem and didn’t know what to do. It had three different variables and they were supposed to evaluate it.

Without exception, those who asked had neglected to read the instructions, where it gave a value for each variable.

I figured I’d save myself a little trouble and warn my remaining class periods. A part of the lesson had the exact same type of problem, so when we got to that, I mentioned the issue. I told them that other students got to those problems in the homework and didn’t know what to do because they didn’t read the directions.

Later, we get to homework time. I walk around the room, helping students when they get stuck.

Invariably, more than one raises their hand. “I don’t know what to do here.”

I point to a line in their textbook. “Did you see this?”

“No, I—oh! You totally warned us and I did it anyway!”

They felt like idiots. I assured them they weren’t the only one to do it, and made a little joke about how they’d never forget to read directions again, right?

I already know there’s only so much they can absorb at one time, and which parts stick depends on their own priorities.

Live and learn, kiddos.

Speak up:

3 comments

"Thank You" Isn’t Dead

I’m finishing out the first week of school. It’s been a busy week, in an uneventful way. More students to teach than I’ve had in the last six years combined. Using my voice all the time (and trying to restrict my hand movements).

I remember one thing that struck me back when I started at my last school, working with deaf kids. A lot of them would say thank you when I was handing out papers. Part of me wanted to say, “I just gave you a calculus test—what are you thanking me for?” Really, though, I appreciated it.

Yet this week, it struck me again. Kids getting up to leave at the end of class, several of them thanking me as they walk out.

Teenagers, mind you. Around fourteen years old, most of them.

Yes, teenagers can be cynical. Teenagers can be rude.

They can also be awesome.

Pretty much like the rest of us.

Speak up:

3 comments

The Addict’s Scorn

Since my students often borrow books from me (particularly books that the school library doesn’t have), they also share their opinions on those books. Sometimes it’s just a quick, “Yes, this was good!” or, “Eh, it was okay,” when they return it. They know that if I haven’t read it yet, I don’t want to know details. If I have read it, we’ll chat a little more about what they liked or didn’t.

Yesterday, one of my students walked in and declared, “I hate this book!”

I spotted the bookmark. She’s halfway through. And she’s still reading.

If she really loathed it, she’d have quit earlier and traded for another book. They do that all the time. Since it’s one I haven’t gotten to yet, she didn’t get specific. But from what I can gather, she’s frustrated with something about the course of the plot. And/or it’s not giving her what she wants when she wants it.

This particular book is part of a series. The same student has been very vocal in her opinions (both positive and negative) on earlier books in the series. Overall, she likes it. But that didn’t stop her from passing through my room on the way to lunch and shouting, “I hate the book even more now!”

There’s another series the same student has read. That one, she really hates for very particular reasons. But she’s said, “Will they just finish the stupid series so I know how the stupid thing ends?”

She hates it, but she’ll still finish it.

In both cases, the author has her hooked. She’s addicted, and she can’t let the stories go until she knows how they end. There’s a difference, though.

When the author of Series 1 begins a new series, my student will probably buy in and get hooked on that one, too. With Series 2, I don’t think my student will give that author more opportunities to torture her.

They have something in common—they’re both addictive.

They’re polar opposites—one makes you revel in the addiction while the other makes you curse the person who got you hooked.

I wish I could put my finger on the key to that addictive quality. I’d bottle it up and pour copious amounts on my manuscripts. My best guess is it’s some bit of magic balancing characters that feel real and a compelling plot.

So where do the two series diverge? I think it’s a matter of those qualities slipping away as the series goes on. The authenticity of characters is weakened when they make unrealistically stupid choices for the sake of plot. Consequently, the plot may start to feel obnoxious and contrived.

With Series 1, my student may not like some turns the characters and plot are taking, but those turns must still feel authentic. She still believes.

What do you think makes some novels so addictive? What pitfalls have you noted that make an initially addictive novel fall flat?

Speak up:

4 comments

A Birthday Resolution

No, it’s not my birthday. That was last month. Did you miss it? That’s okay. I really don’t mind.

Fact is, it’s been years since I made a big deal of my birthday. I can’t remember the last time it was a big deal. Well, three years ago I brought an amazing friend with me on a birthday visit to my family. She made cakes, and the experience was pretty memorable.

Cake with Gaping Flesh Wound

But really, we could have—and probably would have—done it without it being my birthday.

I’m not so different from a lot of other people. Birthdays remind me that I’m getting older. Then I delve into thoughts of, “Am I where I thought I’d be or wanted to be by this age?” In some ways, no. Cue disappointment, depression, and general malaise. In other ways, I’ve done some very positive things I never imagined five years ago.

Still. Birthdays. Meh.

At least, that’s how I felt until something made me think about it the other night.

I have pretty awesome students. You might have heard me mention it before. Even the ones who drive me bonkers find ways to make me glad I work with them now and then. Earlier this week, I attended an award ceremony for top seniors around the city, including one of my students, whom I’d nominated.

I’ve taught this student for the past five years, from Algebra 1 all the way to Calculus. I’ve chatted with her mom several times, and did again this particular night. This student has a few health issues, no surprise there, but her mom mentioned something I didn’t know before.

When she was born, no one expected her to make it. They came in and told her mom—a first-time mother—that her baby would not make it through the night.

As her mom says now, though, her daughter is a regular donkey with the stubbornness. And here we are, eighteen years later. Eighteen years longer than the doctors expected. Alive and lively.

I’m not going to gripe about my birthdays and getting older anymore.

Happy Birthday, Paige!

Speak up:

2 comments