102) School Reform

Talked with 2 teachers recently about a terrible problem plaguing American high school classrooms.  Young students cannot seem to exist within their school environment without earbuds dangling from the ear holes.  Teachers demand they take them out and the student will reply, "but teacher, I don't even have music on?  Why must I take them out!"

Obviously high school kids are annoying.  But are they more annoying now than we were growing up?  I am trying to think back on the things we did that annoyed the adults during our generation.  Here is what  I came up with:

• Wore hats backward.  Not sure when this became a thing, but I remember my dad getting mad when I wore my hat backward.  He argued that the bill was designed to keep the sun out of your eyes, and by wearing the thing backwards you were making it useless.
• Wearing hats in school in general.  Not sure if students today are allowed to wear hats at school, but I remember we were not, and so often we tried to get away with wearing them when we were not supposed to.
• Jams.  We wore jams and my parents thought the loud, colorful, loose fitting shorts looked completely stupid and unprofessional.  I am sad that jams have not made a comeback.  I would totally wear them now.
• In elementary school there was a 2-3 year period where all kids wore the plastic bracelets that could be interwoven together to form different shapes.  This was pretty much in direct response to Madonna, if I remember correctly.
• I did not do this, but I remember several groups of students who wore their jeans inside out, causing their pockets to flop around at their sides.  Also, several kids wore their jackets backwards (thanks to Criss Cross).  
• We said "sike" all the time to negate anything said just before.  This was our way of being tricky and ultimately led to never being able to believe anything we say, because you just waited for "sike" to be included at the end.  For instance, a kid might say, "Yeah, I talked to her about you and she says she likes you, man. Sike!"
• This was not a thing with our generation, but it was something that me, Chris and Dugat enjoyed.  We bought 25 cent fake tattoos from CiCi's pizza and would wear them on our fore arm.  They were the different looney tune characters.  If you were lucky enough to pull a Daffy Duck, you pretty much had the coolest fake tattoo for the next two weeks.
• Craig and his group of friends shaved their heads (I think it was an athlete thing, but I am not certain of this).  All the parents HATED it, and if I remember correctly, Craig had a shaved head for several years in high school.  
• While Craig was shaving his head, the rest of us were trying to grow our hair out long.  This is not a generational thing, as it has and probably always will be a thing.  Looking back at old pictures makes me laugh because we did not look good with long hair.  
• I grew up in the time of the scrunchy.  Pretty much all girls wore scrunchies.  I sometimes hear girls joke about scrunchies nowadays and laugh at how many scrunchies they once owned.  I thought they looked good back then and I am pretty sure they would look good now.  I got no problem with the scrunchy.
• Jean shorts were big when I was in high school.  I did not like them, but I was definitely in the minority.
• Doc Martens were also popular when I was growing up.  I had two pair, one black and one brown.  I didn't wear them with shorts like a lot of kids did.  I still have the brown pair and will wear them occasionally.  They are one of the most comfortable pair of shoes I got.
• While in junior high, most of the boys played the "2 for flinching" game.  Does that game still exist?  Pretty sure no game was responsible for more fights in Junior High than "2 for Flinching".
• Again, not really a thing, but I bought fuzzy dice for all my friends when they turned 16.  Chris did not like them because they impeded his vision.  He was the only smart one of our group.