The world is full of trolls. And let's face it: That's often a bad thing—but not always.
Some teens are (playfully) dragging their teachers. Now, the teachers are taking to the Internet to share some of their students' hottest takes, and it's exactly the type of humor we need right now.
High school teacher Jessica Kirkland, who posts as @jkirk___ on Twitter, got the ball rolling with a tweet earlier this week.
“High school kids will really make fun of you for anything,” Kirkland tweeted. “I have a new student who saw my almost-empty water bottle, and he goes, ‘Damn, miss, you were thirsty,’ and the other kids laughed…how do you get clowned for drinking water?”
The tweet has gone viral, with 32.4K retweets and 508.6K likes and counting. There are also tons of comments from other teachers who divulged some of their students' best zingers.
One had a similar experience as Kirkland but with a piece of fruit.
“I was eating an apple—an apple—and a girl said, ‘Damn, mister, you hungry?’ And her whole group laughed. Yeah, I was hungry,” the teacher replied.
Isn't it standard for teachers to have a apples on their desks? Maybe it's not for decoration after all. Elsewhere, things recently got a little hairy in one teacher's classroom.
“I shaved my head over the weekend. A student told me that I looked so bald that if anyone rubbed my head, they would see their future,” responded one person.
Also, memo to teachers: Try not to be too basic when getting dressed in the morning.
Same warning when choosing not to wear makeup.
“A student once asked me where I got the sweater I was wearing, and before I could answer, she said, ‘The Dad Store?'” another said.
“I showed up in a jumpsuit to my student-teaching class, and they asked me why I wore my PJs to school,” revealed a teacher.
One student took some liberties with the classroom question box.
“I have a box for questions (in case we have spare time at the end of class and the kids want to ask random stuff within the subject I teach). Today, I pulled a question from the box: ‘Are the houseplants in the classroom supposed to look dead like this?’ I teach ethics,” the teacher tweeted.
D’oh. To be fair, she’s probably busy being a teacher in 2022.
One high school football coach offered some advice for fellow teachers and staffers on the receiving end of these playful barbs.
“You gotta clown them back—but proportionately. I do that to my players. My going thing is, ‘That’s funny. You know my rule you aren’t allowed to make jokes unless your GPA is higher than gas prices.’ They start doing math and realize they should chill,” he said.
This piece of advice is definitely a know your crowd thing. Some kids may be hurt by comments, whereas others consider it a joke and funny comeback.
Sometimes trolling is a sign of affection. As long as everyone is genuinely laughing and having a good time, these punchlines can be a fun way to inject some humor and normalcy into what's been a difficult time for kids and teachers.
