Seriously?

Many times the attitudes of high school students astound me. Sometimes it is in respect for their maturity, sometimes it is in shock at their immaturity. Either way, there is rarely a dull day.

Today's vocab word was "compensate". The sentence they had to agree/disagree with was: "People should work for fun, not compensation." That lead to a lively discussion on wages, jobs, etc. I said that I think people should love the job they do, and it doesn't necessarily matter how much you get paid. (thanks Dad for teaching me that lesson.)

One kid looked at me like I had three heads. He said, "So, let's say you could make $10 a hour teaching, and $45 a hour shoveling horse poop out of a barn. Which would you pick?"

I replied: "In a heartbeat I would keep teaching. It doesn't matter the pay; I love high school kids, teaching, the people I work with, and so on. I have no desire to be in a stinky barn with horse poop, probably by myself all day, no matter how much money I would be paid."

Then he looked at me like I had about 10 heads, 20 eyes, and green snakes coming out my head. "Seriously?"

"Seriously, Jesse."

Other students agreed with me, but this one student just couldn't get over the fact that I was willing to be paid less to do something I want to do. It's young people like him that concern me--to him, it's all about getting ahead, getting more money, and not enjoying the time we have here on earth.