What's Wrong with Middle School

I never imagined I would be saying this, but I think I like middle school kids the best. Well it's actually more like junior high here, since it is 7th, 8th and 9th grades. I don't know if I'd say the same in the U.S. - I've never even been in a true middle school - but so far that's the way I feel here. The kids in the middle school (gymnasio) are so eager to please. They volunteer. They have things to say. They do what you ask them to do. The kids in the high school, on the other hand, just might be vegetables. They stare at you like you are a martian or as if they've never heard English before. I don't think it would matter if I spoke to them in Greek. They'd probably still look at me as if they'd never heard it before.

I don't know if that's the way it is in America. I've tried to think about my own experience, but I can't see it objectively. I don't know what it must have looked like through my teachers' eyes. Are all high schoolers comatose? Does the school system here create such an atmosphere? For most students here, school is only the beginning. They spend hours and hours after school every day attending lessons which cover practically everything they already studied in school. Seniors in high school do hardly anything at school, because they are studying for massive national exams which are apparently the most important criteria for admission to Greek university. For being such a laid-back culture, the amount of stress put on students to succeed academically is out of this world.

So I don't really feel like I get much out of teaching the high school students here. I'm just filling up the hours they are required to spend at school. The middle schoolers, however, make me feel like I just might be doing something worthwhile. When I teach a class and it goes well, it's like a small victory. I like the feeling. But I don't know if I could maintain that feeling. I don't teach anywhere near full time, and I'm still pooped at the end of the day. Teaching, especially in America, is hard work. There is so much work to do. So little pay. So little recognition. So many battles to fight every single day. There's no way it all balances out. I think you might need to be more optimistic than I am to teach...at least to teach well.