I cannot believe that a small seventh grader sassed me today. I was having such an excellent time, going over Part One of To Kill a Mockingbird, finishing up with the last group of kids, a smaller, more incisive bunch, and I got to go out to lunch with my huz, and all would have been well except for this one kid who determined he had to take a photo with his cell phone five minutes before school was out.

I asked for his phone, and that set him off, and he demanded to see my copy of the student handbook where it said a teacher could take away a student's phone. It was so stupid. He started the year so sweetly, but there is a powerful lot of anger in this boy.

Why does it surprise me so much when students act out like this? I really do not expect it, and am almost shocked when I realize that they mean it, that they are mad, and they are wanting me to be mad with them. It certainly doesn't happen often, or else I wouldn't be teaching. But you almost feel like a customer service rep at the DMV.

Still, it reminds me of my first days teaching when I had a particularly obstreperous 12th grader on my hands who was pissed off that she had me as her English teacher... Talk about trial by snarky muttered comments. She even admitted to me that she had been "a bitch" to me all year at her graduation, almost like she was slightly bemused by the whole thing.

This kid's parents have a reputation for buttonholing teachers on the front steps first thing in the morning, so I'll keep an eye out tomorrow. Why do we even have to go through this kind of thing?