So we were, like, at the neighborhood pool today

or the neverhood pool Will prefers to call it. It was pretty quiet-- two couples with preschoolers, an older couple, us and two teenage girls. I was seriously not trying to eavesdrop on the teenagers, but they were talking so loud I couldn't help but overhear them. I'm pretty sure they said the word like at about 200 times per minute. Most of their conversation was fairly vapid. A lot of prom preparation talk punctuated by the occasional text  message break. I had no idea there were so many pros and cons of a spray on tan vs. a tanning bed tan. They both appeared to my untrained eye to be tanning pretty well by laying out by the pool, but what do I know? I'm practically a dinosaur.

What really caught my attention was when they started talking about foreign policy they were learning about in their history class (Which brings me to the point of what were they doing at the pool in the middle of a school day?) The conversation they had goes as follows:

Teenager 1 "That Stalin guy was, like, pretty cool. He had some, like, good ideas."
Teenager 2 "Yeah, I like him and that Lenin guy." (At this point I'm wondering what their opinion is on that, like, Hitler dude)>
Teenager 1 "But I just can get into Chairperson Tao guy(sic)"
Teenager 2 "Asian stuff is, like, pretty boring"
Teenager 1 "Yeah, I mean like why do they even make us study the Vietnam War?"

I, personally, associate Chairman Mao with the cultural revolution in China. Maybe Chairperson Tao started the Vietnam War? Who am I to question history?

People, these kids are seniors in high school. The will be of voting age by the next election.
Be afraid, be very afraid.

<3
Wendy

Comments

[Pat]

OMG...I'm, like, practically roaring. The two girls, are, like, friends with Elizabeth, and, like, they were out of skewl b/c of exams.

[Ted]

I'm mean, that Stalin guy only deported some 3 million people to Siberia and only about half of them ended up dying. I mean like, those are some pretty good ideas, right?

[Stephanie]

Like fer sure dude!
Scary scary scary, public school is producing morons!

[Wendy Fairfull]

I didn't realize it was already exam time! At least they weren't truants. I suppose I shouldn't have been so cruel. I was once an 18 year old girl myself.

[Gene Smith]

This is how we can end up with an Obama, who is essentially a Stalin without the body count. And why are they SENIORS just now learning about these things?

[Pat]

You guys will be encouraged even more to know that these two are amongst the top in their class, and are about to receive the International Baccalaureate diploma, a highly prestigious honor that is recognized world wide.

[Ted]

I give them credit for even knowing the difference between Lenin and Stalin. That's farther along than I ever was in HS. I was really only being a little tongue and cheek. They've got years to figure out that the world and its leaders are more complicated than we ever thought back in HS.

[Shawna Lee]

I totally like that Lennon guy, too. I mean, like, he was all about, like, "All we need is love," and like imagining all the people and stuff. Dude, he was so rockin'!