do you think teenagers are boring?

Given the choice I would probably spend my entire life out of doors. I feel comfortable outside, whereas my time spent indoors is normally marked by twitchiness and irritability. It makes teaching difficult, and sometimes I have no choice but to relocate my classes outside for the whole week.

This past winter was hard. The long stretches of cold were not conducive to outdoor excursions and I finished off the season paler and crankier than usual.

But now spring is truly here. True, this is Alberta and winter is likely to rear it's head a time or two before July, but I don't really mind: now that the days are longer the world has become more pleasant and a bit of snow and cold is less likely to slow me down.

Which puts me in interesting contrast to my students. The last couple of times that I took my classes outside were met with hostility and whining - it's seems that the sunlight makes the screens of their laptops more difficult to read.

Not, of course, that they're actually working on their computers - for the most part they're trying to email the kid sitting next to them. Truth be told, I don't get all that upset if I take them outside and they don't work - I resist the attitude that every minute of the school day should be filled with work - but couldn't they be a little more creative about it?

I was one of those kids that liked school: I did well, I think my teachers liked me, and I had classes that I looked forward to. But looking back a big part of what I learned came out of being a teenager with time on his hands.

I'll admit, when I was in junior high and high school I was what some people may call a "nerd," and I was a pretty straight laced one at that - I didn't go to bush parties or sneak off to Memorial Park to buy drugs and have sex in the school parking lot. For the most part my friends were in the same category as me. But when we had free time we used it to joust with rolling office chairs and brooms or to smuggle slurpees through the french classroom window. Once we stole a classroom door. It was fun, but we had to think to pull it all off.

I don't want to sound crotchety and old before my time (and yes, dear reader, I do realize that that's exactly what I sound like) but how boring have kids gotten that the best they can do is spend their time trying to text their buddy across the room?

Maybe, in some way, it can be construed as an improvement in society - some would suggest that it shows the violence, prejudice, sexism, etc that marked a lot of the school shenanigans of the past have disappeared. But you can't tell me that the kids have gotten nicer, that bullying has disappeared, or that respect is more widespread.

To say such a thing is horse shit. Kids are nastier, bully harder, and have less respect that I remember and others will tell you the same. Through the widespread introduction of technology into society we have simply added another dimension of alienation to already alienated youth.

I could rant and rave for hours about this. I don't want to.

One day I will have kids of my own. I look forward to meeting them. I hope they'll be good people.

And when the time comes (although I'll probably think differently by then) I hope they get themselves into some trouble.

Because if they don't life could get pretty damn boring.