In the same day last week, I made two very different observations about kids and how they behave in public. Last Tuesday morning, I ran in to a bunch of my HC grade 8s at Tim Horton's. Now for the most part, they seemed vaguely embarrassed to see a teacher outside of school, but they still said hello and were polite. One of them even asked me a question, initiating actual conversation. Even in a pack, they weren't loud or disruptive in the store, they waited for their orders patiently, etc. I was proud of my kids!

On the way home on the bus that afternoon, I saw a couple of other kids. They looked to be in about grade 9. One of them had his cell phone going as an MP3 player, just playing in the bus (no headphones). The music wasn't the most pleasant I'd ever heard. An adult asked the kid to please turn it down. The kid looked up, didn't even look at the man, then looked down again, not even acknowledging what was said to him. And the music just kept going.

When at HC, I'm often unimpressed by the grade 8s, but I have to say that from seeing different kids and how they all behave out in public, they are a pretty good group.