This post will be particularly hypocritical since I can be a bit of a control freak at times, but for now, let's talk about the control freaks with actual power in this world, therefore excluding myself.
Let me preface this rant by stating that I do believe that for the most part, the education system in America is declining at an alarming rate. Much like control freak-ish governments, the school systems believe that with just one more regulation or rule, everything will be right as rain and all of the problems will be solved. It's as if they've never even heard of thinking outside the box. Sorry to break it to them, but you can't fix motivation levels of students with simplistic incentives. People even tried money and regarding long-term results, it was mostly unsuccessful. I digress.
We, as human beings, tend to like freedom. We enjoy it in this wonderful country of ours, and we tend to get just a little bit upset when that freedom is threatened. Much like the country as a whole, freedom within high school is valued by many, but at this point, there are so many rules and regulations that it's impossible for the administration to even enforce most of it because they don't know what those rules are. The lack of logic in these situations can lead to inconsistent punishments, which can even lead to more discrimination within the school's disciplinary system. There was once a study done by one of the AP Statistics students: random students of various genders and races walk loops around the hallways without a pass to see how many times they're stopped by a hall monitor. It was pretty mind-boggling how many times the black students were stopped compared with the white students or Asian students. Apparently my school is racist after all.
So what is the point of the hall monitors anyway? They are, after all, supposed to stop everyone without a pass in the hallway. If they can't get that straight, what else could go wrong? Every time there's a reminder that there's a dress code, I get very confused. So they're enforcing it now? *walks two feet outside of the classroom* Whoops, I guess not.
Just recently, NY state created a new rule so that students can't enter a testing area with any electronic device on them with huge fines that come with violations of this new rule. The one reason this rule made me laugh was because it includes headphones when they say electronic devices. So I could potentially walk in a testing room with headphones in my pocket and nothing else and get fined thousands of dollars. "Uh, sorry sir, I didn't realize I could get in so much trouble for listening to... oh right, nothing, because headphones don't produce sound." Now, this rule doesn't really make me too upset because there are so many other ridiculous ones, but if I started naming the ones that really get on my nerves, we'd be here much too long.
If you went to high school here in the U.S., most likely you've heard of senior skip day. It's an age-old tradition that's right up there with senior pranks, and I am sad to say I did not participate because I'm paranoid about everything. But see, that's my entire point. There are schools out there that don't let seniors walk at graduation if they participate in senior skip day. I cannot express in words how pointless that is. Yes, you're encouraging your kids to go to school just one more day. Great. Question. What do seniors do in class in the last few weeks of school? Oh, right, NOTHING. Teachers give quizzes and tests on skip day to make sure their kids are in class. They haven't given quizzes in weeks! The entire premise behind these silly little stress-makers is one thing along: control. These people think that it's better to have the tightest grip possible on others so that they're the ones in power. On my list of things that annoy me, this is right up there with young adults who treat me like a two-year-old. Ughhhh. Rantrantrant.
Everybody likes freedom. And adults wonder why teenagers can be so rebellious.
P.S. I apologize for such negativity; I'll try to make my next post about rainbows and unicorns and puppies.
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