Much respect for the middle school educator

No offense to eighth- graders (I was one myself — physically from 1981-82; mentally from 1981-present), but eighth-graders are the worst behaved people on the planet.

I base this indisputable statement on the following scie ntific evidence: During my eighth grade year, my class prompted not one, but two different teachers to have nervous breakdowns during class. Both subsequently went on some type of hiatus/vacation/sabbatical/ hospitalization, and weren’t seen or heard from again until the next school term, after we safely graduated to ninth grade.

But two teachers that year didn’t seem to be affected by our eighth- grader buffoonery — our math teacher, Mrs. Harris, and our history teacher, Mr. Shirk.