Recycled teenager

This morning, I had the distinct pleasure (note the tinge of sarcasm) of volunteering at my son's middle school to help with Spring Picture Day. While I outwardly claim NOT to like other people's children, most middle school kids really are perfectly tolerable for short periods of time. OK, I'll be honest and confess that I've always been pleasantly surprised when I've volunteered for things at school before, and I was pleasantly surprised today as well. On the whole, the students were respectful and well behaved, and although many of them are really tall, I managed to be taller than most, which made me feel better (I was the shortest kid in my class until eighth grade, so I'm sensitive about such things...)
At one point in the morning, a student referred to her teacher, a woman in her 40s, as a "recycled teenager." Presumably, this was to have been a compliment.
Ugh.
I don't know that I could do the whole teenage year thing over again. In fact, it's one strong vote from me AGAINST the concept of reincarnation. I'd rather take my one life, thank you very much, rather than having to go through middle school and high school again. The awkwardness, the uncertainty, the hormones--it's a lot to go through, all at the same time figuring out your future path. And things are tougher for kids now. By middle school, choices you make about electives can have a strong bearing on high school and college options down the road. It's imperative to belong to at least one extracurricular club or activity, and not only do kids have to worry about grades, now they have this ridiculous "No Child Left Behind" junk to work through with countless standardized tests. Teachers are more stressed, creativity is put on the back burner in order to crank up those test scores. What are we doing to our kids!?!?!
But again, at the end of the day, humans are resilient, and many children are thriving under the pressure. But would I want to be a recycled teenager? Not on your life!