I think I've figured out, at least partially, why I have been feeling all sorts of tension at school. It's not all that amazing a discovery. It's basically plain to see. But for me, at least, it was like I was looking at one of those magic eye pictures, and suddenly the 3D picture popped out.
The situations I see manifesting at school are all some form of the "us vs. them" mentality (UVTM). The idea that there is some group I'm in (the "us") and its fighting / disagreeing / competing with some group that I'm not in (the "them"). There are tons of these UVT situations taking place. But I'll just tackle one of them, the one that is probably bothering me the most.
As of late, you can hear me saying in school, jokingly, "I think all of the teachers hate me..." Of course I don't think that the teachers actually hate me. But in the past two weeks or so, I really have been feeling a building tension between "us" (the students) and "them" (the teachers). Actually, this hasn't been going on for only the past two weeks, it's almost been going on since the beginning of the year. It's just that now, it seems to be more present, with more teachers involved.
For example, all but one of my teachers (Ms. Shulman, who isn't really my teacher in the literal sense) have complained about all the school I, and others, have been missing. I can understand their case: we should be in school, learning. And then there is their "agenda": we should be in school, learning, so that they can get more 5s to their name on AP tests. But then I have my case: you don't have to be in school in order to "learn." As I've said, and heard others say, I often learn far more when I'm not in school. And, to be honest and blunt, school is incredibly boring. It, at least public school, is not designed for the upper quarter, or even the upper half, of the student body. I feel this way, and I think that many of my peers feel the same way.
Then there are the threats and / or insults. Teachers threatening us for leaving the school to go on academic trips / events seems incredibly contradictory. And then when we are told that programs like ESP are a waste of resources, what purpose does that statement serve? I don't think that very many of the teachers even know what ESP is about. I mean, it's only been around for a little over a year at the high school. And yet I'm being told it's a waste of time. Why?
And that's just the student / teacher manifestation of the UVTM. And I personally really dislike conflict. Not in the "I want everyone to think the same way as I do" totalitarian sort of way, but in the "wow, can't we reach some common ground and talk through this" democratic sort of way. Hah, I just realized this is the exact same thing going on in politics: the UVTM of Democrats vs. Republicans, red states vs. blue states. And I for one feel incredibly uncomfortable in such an environment.
I suppose the only way to resolve this is to take the "us" and the "them" and turn these two into a "we." And the only way to do that is to not retreat from the situation, as I would so like to, but to go forward in understanding and compassion.
Wow, and I think I'm going to be involved in civics in some way when I'm an adult? How will I deal with the "them" that disagrees with me then when I can't even deal with the "them" that only wants what they believe is the best thing for me now?
This certainly gives me something to chew on.
Namaste.
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2 comments:
Hey Dave. Now you can be a peacemaker or ambassador as well as a philosopher! Really though, the whole teachers angry at us thing is annoying. School is really boring, and I think one of the reasons for that is because some classes go so slow. One of the reasons kids are in ESP is because they aren't challenged by most of their regular curriculum classes. That's why we're able to leave class; we already know what's going on. Case in point: Mrs. Michael doesn't bat an eye when I tell her I have to leave Spanish. Why? Because she knows I know what I'm doing. The only teachers who I can understand them getting mad are Mr. Hagan and Mrs. Hanobeck, because such a large portion of the class is missing when we aren't there. Another problem is that most of our AP classes have people that really aren't AP material in them (I hope I'm not sounding elitist or anything) which slows them down sooo much, and makes school really boring. I don't think all public education is like this. Look at Garnet Valley, they have time to freakin' study Hi-Q some days during school! I guess Chichester just suffers from bad organization. On the other hand, are we, "us", being a little greedy by doing all these activities? Do we do too much? I know sometimes I feel like that, but I don't really know. Maybe it's college's fault. The increasing level of competitiveness when it comes to getting into college practically forces us to do all these activities, to make our transcripts look more shiny and beat "the other guy". If we dont have all these extra things, we might not get into to the college we want. So is it really our fault? Can the teachers blame us when there's a high-pressure college admissions system?
Wow, that was a long tangent. Did someone really say ESP was a waste of resources? Oh well. That was my comment, which was more like a question than a response. Now I just need a catchy thing to say at the end. Bye.
Wow, Brett made an appearance. But yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the UVT thing. Except with a slightly different approach. I just found it natural because people who are not alike have a natural instinct to keep apart or even quarrel over moot points. After all, that was what we were talking about at Matt's house, right? The whole "live in a hole" idea? I personally thought that was a good idea. I know you disagree but what the hell. It would be cool to hope that our future doesn't get quite that bad, but I find it unlikely. Oh yeah... I suppose we could disagree with that plan anyway because how would we reproduce? We would just die in a cave without anything to show for ourselves.
Interesting stuff! But yeah, I'll save that for a conversation some time. But about Brett's comment, it is obvious that getting a good working position in this world is getting increasingly difficult. That's because we only need a certain amount of people to do stuff. That certain amount is slightly growing, but the percentage of total people able to find job placement is going down because population increase rate is far exceeding the increasing job market. I don't doubt that unemployment will be in the 60% range before we die. Scary stuff.
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