By Doug Mead
RAMBLINGS FROM THE classroom at Berean Christian High School in Walnut Creek:
Homecoming is in two weeks. Homecoming is one of the most exciting times around campus — not just the football game on Oct. 18 against St. Elizabeth of Oakland, but all the festivities surrounding the game. A king and queen will be named at halftime.
But the real action takes place in the classes and corridors between boys and girls. On Monday, amid class meetings, a large box was wheeled into the classroom. Suddenly, the top flew off and out popped a boy — like a Jack-in-the-box — with flowers in hand, asking a girl out. She said yes. How sweet.
Whatever happened to just calling up a girl and asking her if she wants to go? Almost every day, a boy comes into class with this elaborate scheme to ask a girl out to Homecoming. While I applaud their creativity, I just wish they would put that much effort into their studies.
If I had it my way, I would put a spending limit on flowers — five bucks. Here’s why: the girl feels a tremendous amount of pressure to say yes with $50 in flowers before her and classmates staring at her. Often, the girl goes back and declines the offer under a more reasonable setting. Girls don’t need that kind of pressure, and boys don’t need to spend that kind of money.
Or, he could just text her!
Every day, when the bell rings to end class, students file out and immediately grab their cell phones to text their friends. Cell phones are strictly forbidden during class time; if we see them, we confiscate them and give out 10 demerits (25 equals a one-day suspension).
Today’s kids’ entire social lives evolve around texting. They can’t spell a lick because everything is abbreviated on cell phones. They can’t do homework because they’re too busy texting. All that texting hurts their thumbs. The next cultural malady — carpal tunnel syndrome of the fingers and thumbs.
Kids get into accidents because they are texting their friends. The earpiece thingy for cell phones is meaningless to teenagers, because they text their friends while driving.
Which brings me to my next subject — cars. It is interesting to see the variety of cars in the Berean parking lot. Teachers mostly drive older used cars. It’s a big deal to get your driver’s license in high school, because it means freedom from Mom and Dad driving you to school every day — or worse, taking the bus.
I can always tell when a student gets his or her driver’s license. They suddenly become cool, because they can drive. It bugs me when I see an irresponsible student suddenly pull into the parking lot with a $30,000 car. The responsible students seem to be driving their parents’ old jalopies with 200,000 miles on them.
Note to parents: Stop buying the fancy wheels for your kids. You are teaching them that they don’t have to do anything to get nice toys. My wife and I have already decided that her son is getting her 1998 Honda Accord and not my 1996 Ford Mustang. One is conservative, one is racy.
Conservative is good for a teenager.
Doug Mead is a second-year teacher at Berean Christian High School in Walnut Creek, Calif. You can e-mail him at [email protected]
(c) 2008 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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