schoolyard subversion

2000-12-12 [< * >]

School Rules

"They" tell you to behave: to follow the rules, to do what they say, to be quiet and polite and kind. Don't listen to them. It's a scam.

It's school, right? What better place is there to experiment? School, while not exactly a playground, is supposed to be a safe place. It's somewhere that the consequences are small, but are there. Just enough to deter you, but not enough to hurt.

None of this was in my head as I hid out in the bathroom. These thoughts and justifications dind't come to mind as I slithered down the hallway. It wasn't there to console me as I was caught and dragged back down the hallway, onto the bus. The neurons didn't fire as I sat, in tears, through a bitter interrogation and reprimand by the principal. I never realized them as I scrubbed the desks and shelves during my Saturday detention. In fact, they didn't hit me with full force until several days ago -- a full year or so after the event took place.

In the mean time, other kids asked me what it was that made me do it. It seemed so silly, so pointless. I wasn't the kind of kid that did these things, they said. I always apologized, or mumbled, or tried to change the subject. The truth was I really didn't know what kind of kid I was.

Now, however, I have an answer for them. It was part of my education -- a more important part that Science or History could ever be. They were events that did more to flesh me out as a person, and build my character than all the boring lectures put together. And that's the way it should be.

That's the kind of thing that the big folks don't understand, or at least they often pretend not to. They deliver their harsh words with all the anger they can muster, and perhaps, they truly are angry. But some part of me can't help but wonder if deep inside they really understand. Somehow perhaps, they know that it's a test. A test meant to crush the self-confidence of children, and, in doing so, have it grow back even stronger.

If that's true, I want to tell them that there are easier ways. Ones that work not through hatred and pain, but through love. Ways that bring out the inner strength of those who are weak, and cultivate it in those that are stronger. Ways that teach all of us -- both the oppressor and the opressed -- that we're in this fight together. Instead of fighting each other, and sowing hatred that will last throughout our lives, why don't we work together to solve the problem, and share the love that we all want and need.

It seems like such a better solution. I'm a human, not some lab rat that needs to be rewarded and punished. I have reasons for what I do, you have reasons for what you want. Things between us can't be so different that we can't work them out eventually. You're probably thinking that this isn't just a good lesson for school, but a good lesson for life. And you'd be right. And if it's such a good lesson, how come we don't teach it through our actions? That's the way it seems to me at least. But I'm not the one who makes the rules.

Subscribe!

Like this entry? Subscribe to receive future updates by email: