An English teacher at East Meadow High School made the ultimate desperate attempt to learn what is cool by asking to eat lunch with his students.
“Mind if I join you?”
A nerd asking the cool kids if he could sit with them…it was like Mr. Gomez’s own experience in high school 25 years ago. The students shot each other panicked glances.
“I’ll buy,” he chuckled.
Not wanting to be mean or having saying “no” affect their grade, the students reluctantly agreed.
Mr. Gomez is being praised by administration for his “ability to build rapport with his students and forge positive relationships that will turn his classroom into supportive spaces in which students can engage in academically and socially productive ways.”
Yeah sure, but this dude is just wondering what shows he should be watching on Netflix.
The teacher is also willing to be branded as a tryhard by his fellow teachers all in the name of finding some cool new artists on Spotify.
The teacher is also willing to be branded as a tryhard by his fellow teachers all in the name of finding some cool new artists on Spotify.
After purchasing the entire table pizza and a round of chocolate milks, he awkwardly sat in an open spot, which just happened to be vacant because Justin got busted for vaping during Math class.
“So, what’s everybody got going on these days?” he led.
Aside from the normal day-to-day drama and complaints about “too much homework,” the students didn’t offer him much.
“You guys enjoying Gatsby?
A few shrugged and agreed it wasn’t the worst thing they ever read. But mostly, the students ate quietly and talked about benign topics like an annoying upcoming project or the benefits of the upcoming college fair.
Mr. Gomez was getting frustrated. He just spent 40$ on milk and pizza, he was going to find out what is cool these days, dammit!
During a quick pause in their conversation, he risked it all…
“So is Beyonce still cool?” he asked, maybe a little too loudly.
The kids all quickly looked at each other, a few smirking. They seemed to default to their group leader, Amanda.
“Yeah, sure. Our parents listen to her mainly, but she still has some good songs.”
“And is like How I Met Your Mother a show you guys watch?
They weren’t sure what that was, but they all agreed it sounded dumb. They mentioned a show called Outer Banks and another one that he thinks is a vampire show.
He had a sudden urge to take out a notebook and start writing things down but he decided that might be too much.
“And ladies, I noticed the oversized sweatshirts and platform sneakers are back. I also noticed someone wearing a bucket hat a few days ago…”
It wasn’t so much of a question as an observation.
“So those are okay?”
“What do you mean?” Amanda wondered.
He stammered.“Well, that just seems like clothes that me and my friends wore in high school in the 90’s is all. I have a bunch of clothes in a bin in my attic and just wanted to know if it was cool to bust that stuff out again.”
“Yeah, whatever, Mister. You do you,” a student named Tony said, almost sarcastically. God, he hated Tony.
He changed the subject to social media.
“And for the socials, mostly still Instagram and Snapchat?”
A student named Christy who is almost failing his class thought she would get some brownie points by helping out. “Instagram, yes, Snapchat not so much anymore. A lot of us got busted drinking last year because of someone screenshotted us. But most of us use Tik Tok, though.”
All he really knew about Tik Tok was that the news was saying China was using it to spy on us, but he decided to not mention that.
He glanced at the clock—the bell was almost going to ring. He quickly doubled back to music showing his cards that this little luncheon was more than just about socializing with his students.
“So, Spotify obviously. Who are you listening to?”
They rattled off a bunch of names that sounded just like students in his class. No real band names. There was a little bit more country than he was expecting. Some of these he was not going to know how to spell or remember.
Tony stepped in.
“I’ll send you a playlist, Mister.”
“You will? Wow, thanks Tony.”
“I got you,” and Tony gave him a fistbump.
Tony might have just been being a dick but for the first time in a while, Mr. Gomez felt cool.