"You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan, and the next five years trying to be with your friends again." ~lcd soundsystem

There was an article on page 2 of the New York Post today that mentioned my school and principal.

I cannot express how ready I am for Christmas break to begin. Two more days. I really hope I can make it without throwing a kid out the window. Don't worry, I'm kidding. Sort of.
In the past two days I've had two interesting conversations with them that further demonstrate why my job is so difficult. We just have such different ideologies. Yesterday I had the following conversation with one particularly difficult student, who thinks she can talk (loudly) all the time, even when I'm talking (that's only one of the problems I have with her):
Student: It's a free country.
Me: That doesn't mean you can do whatever you want.
S: Yes it does!
M: No, it doesn't.
S: Well then what does it mean?
M: It means that people have certain rights. And that all people have the same rights.
S (talking over me): No, it means you can't tell me what to do.
M: There are laws that control how people can act, and a school is allowed to have its own rules.
S: No, sorry, it's a free country. You can't tell me what to do.
I didn't want to waste more time on that debate because she wasn't even listening to me, so I moved on and kept trying to teach my lesson (not very successfully).

Here's a conversation I had after school today with one of the boys whom I was keeping for detention. I was trying to explain why it's not okay to hurt someone or destroy their property, even if they do something wrong towards you:
Student: Ms. B., you don't understand. You were raised differently. Where were you raised? Were you raised in Orange County? (He was totally serious when he asked that, btw.)
Me: I was raised in N.J. But that's not what this is about.
S: No, you don't get it. You weren't raised like us. It's different here.
M: In the classroom, that kind of behavior is not allowed, no matter what. If you have a problem with someone, you come tell me and I'll deal with it. You'll just get yourself into trouble if you try to fight back.
S: But that's just the way we do things. You can't change that.
M: Well, I'm in charge of this classroom, so I make the rules here.
S: If someone slapped you, wouldn't you be upset?
M: Yes, but I wouldn't slap them back. That would just make the fight continue.
The conversation kept going, with neither side making any progress. And this student is very perceptive, because he's right. We were raised differently. They've grown up thinking that you have to be tough and defend yourself. And that way of thinking is not something I can change, because it's ingrained in them. It's part of who they are.

I really needed to unwind when I got home today, so I watched one of my favorite movies, Junebug. Amy Adams is the main reason it's such a good movie. She's absolutely charming and hilarious and just altogether awesome. I really wanted her to win the Oscar that year (she got beat by Rachel Weisz, whom I'll admit was very good in The Constant Gardener). I'm glad Ms. Adams is now becoming more well-known thanks to her performance in Enchanted. Ben McKenzie is also great in Junebug. The character he plays is pretty different from the role he's best known for (Ryan on The O.C.), and he demonstrates his versatility as an actor. Here are some of my favorite quotes from Junebug:

"God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way."

"Where would I be if I was a screwdriver?" (opens fridge)

"I was born in Japan."
"You were not!"

"I even bite my toenails."
"You do not!"

"It's better than Christmas!"

"I don't want your water breaking, I just had that upholstery cleaned."

"You wouldn't put a baby girl in a brown cradle. You just, you just wouldn't."

"Well, she's got...lovely hands. I'll give her that."

I'll leave you with a song I can't stop listening to right now, quoted at the beginning of this post. Except the version I'm posting is Franz Ferdinand's cover.