We behaved like teenagers because we were teenagers

In the wake of leaving high school and reminiscing about what actually happened, the lingering question has always been, why?

Why did our teachers treat us as they did? While the drama program as a whole was lacking, some grade levels seemed to get more time, love, attention, and money than others. Meanwhile, our class seemed to have been hated like no class was before or since.

The most common explanation we've been told is that we misbehaved and were lazy. We talked, we complained, we whined, we wouldn't pay attention, and we wouldn't put in effort. Even Ms. Mxdxxxx has confided this to certain students. We were horrible, sarcastic, jaded, out of control, and obnoxious. Our teachers grew so exasperated with us that they just gave up.

You could say that we acted like teenagers. And that was because we WERE teenagers.

Seriously, I'm perplexed by teachers who seem surprised that their students like to talk in class... just like EVERY OTHER CLASS THEY'VE EVER HAD. Why are teachers horrified when a class full of teens acts exactly like the class full of teens did the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that?

Just because a class doesn't behave themselves, it shouldn't mean that a teacher is off the hook from teaching the subject. It doesn't matter how unruly the class is: if you're the teacher, you need to be the bigger person and lead the assignments anyway. Punish individual students if you need to, or don't cast those with bad conduct in leading roles. Maybe you take away some of the extracurricular activities or benefits. But you don't just get to decide that an entire class of students who have chosen to enroll in a particular program don't get to experience said program for four years just because they talk too much. Anyway, that's just my opinion.

Can you imagine if teachers of other subjects adopted this practice? A math class fools around so much that the teacher says that's it — there won't be any work or homework for the rest of the year, and that everyone gets As by default? Of course, that'd be patently ridiculous. Why is it acceptable for an arts course?

Another common theory was that we just... sucked. We were just so untalented that our teachers felt there was nothing they could do for us. All they could do was hide us away until the four years were up.

While I actually agree that we mostly sucked, I still don't think this explains everything. After all, the teachers were the ones who accepted us into the program. They must've had some clue about what they were getting. We were also, again, teenagers. It was a HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM. It wasn't Broadway. It wasn't Juilliard. When we auditioned and they accepted us, that was like signing a four-year contract. If they wanted someone else, they should've accepted someone else.

Plus, it's not like our laziness and lack of talent led to our teachers shutting down our activities altogether. We still had a few showcases, performance assignments, and even a couple of mainstage shows — they just sucked. The teachers still had to do all the work of managing the production, but for a smaller audience and less program money. They still had to direct us, but with our spirits even lower than if it had been a rewarding show. The most frustrating part of this whole thing was that Mxdxxxx hated us, we knew she hated us, she knew we knew she hated us, and yet she would still walk around with this huge, fake smile on her face as if it was all good while she continuously found reasons to deny us an education and then turn around and blame it on us.  ❒

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