Not the Iraq thing, although that continues as well. But I’m talking about the war between me and a certain rude, nasty class.

Today I met for the fourth time with the Xth-Grade Class at Crossroad Christian Academy. This is the class I wrote about a few weeks ago. This is the class that has discouraged and harassed many staff members over the years, and the class that may cause me to burst a blood vessel in my brain.

Our first week, the battle was on. I already wrote about that, and with more than a little cockiness, I assured my readers that I was going to win this fight.

Our 2nd & 3rd week, they mellowed a little, I think. At least that’s what their homeroom teacher tried to convince me of. If they were any better, it was kind of like measuring the change in a glacier – not really visible to the naked eye.

Today, the gloves were off. It’s like they used weeks 2 & 3 to rest and regroup, and they came at me with full force today. That is, I HOPE this was full force because the level of disrespect and outright rudeness was appalling and unbelievable. I’d hate to think they have even more.

**Note – today I had them writing stuff for me, and they were all using clipboards. When they left and I was putting the clipboards way, I noticed that one of the clipboards now contains the words “F*** Mr. Miller.” I’m pretty sure that wasn’t one of the things I asked them to write.

One of the other teachers who deals with them is like an ABC Afterschool Special kind of teacher – he’s a really nice guy, and certainly a very good, experienced teacher. But in my opinion, he puts up with way too much crap from these guys, in an effort to “develop them into better people.” I’m sure that if I were their parents, I’d really appreciate that a lot. But I’m not their parents, thank God. So my tolerance for their crap is much lower. And having said “crap” twice in the above paragraph, you know I mean it.

**Note #2 – this “develop them into better people” idea may be a good one. Maybe the school can have several tuition prices – one price just to learn stuff, and an additional fee  if you need your kid to be developed into a better person. It could be an option; if the kid is already an OK person, they don’t have to pay it. On the other hand, if the kid is in my Xth-grade class, those parents can pay an additional “better person” fee, which will be given directly to the teachers. What can I say – becoming a better person has a price.

Time for me to step it up even more. This class is not going to like music for a while. My other classes have fun, but still learn a lot. This class however, isn’t going to have any fun. That only seems fair; I’m not having fun with them, either.

**Note #3 – the Lovely Miss Courtney has generously offered to come in and “beat the crap out of them.” I may let her. (oops, there’s the c-word again).

But the sun will come out tomorrow – in the form of a bunch of kindergartners next door to me, who I see every Tuesday, who all think I’m the best thing since sliced bread. So far, none of them has written anything about me on a clipboard.