this is the highschool piece that sammy eluded to on his blog. we were given the prompt "the thing about high school is..." and had to continue, adding in two "what i really mean to say is..."s. so yeah, here's what i cam up with, and read for all the parents, etc
The thing about high school is, that I'm done with it. And yet still I sit there, blandly doodling on my papers, as I waste my day jammed in a desk that slowly siphons the energy from my body. I endure pointless, bias discussions, sit through hours of teacher's digressions on topics more familiar to them-- their lives. The day is not a day of learning.
I know that I have chosen these classes in my own right, it is my choice to be there. That's what we're told, anyway, when we complain about our workload, or the faults we find in our classes. The thing is, in this rat-race they call the education system, with this do-anything-to-get-ahead mentality that has imbued the minds of students and parents alike to the point where cheating is condoned and cheaters allowed to speak at my graduation, if I step aside I am just as quickly cast aside.
At least this time around the social drama of past years has taken a back-seat to the bond we seniors share over our common situation. What I really mean to write, is that it's like we're together, in on this big ruse--"real life" sits, there, beyond a few letters of acceptance and financial aid, beyond a certain Friday night in June. Friday the thirteenth, no less. With that promise hanging over our heads we wake up while it's dark out, drive on empty to school, and walk through the halls to occupy space in a classroom while our minds rest elsewhere. What I really mean to say is, it is not that that I oppose learning and education, much to the opposite, I can't imagine life without it. The point is, I cannot respond to this force-fed, bulimic curriculum- we only need to know the material well enough to throw it up for a test. I want to actually learn, I want to experience the world and decide what I need to learn. Twelve years is far too long to be corralled together with nothing more in common than a hometown.
The thing about high school is that they cut off funding for a program like the Midcoast Arts--the only arts related extra curricular program I know of-- while the campaign to build a costly so-called Tree Arboretum --a shield of trees around our high school to protect it from the housing complex to the left-- reigns supreme.
There have been the good days, the good teachers, the good books... I just wish they comprised a higher percent.
Maybe it seems worse, now that it's nearly over... Maybe better. High school has turned into a pool of stagnancy where I tread on... But I do have hope for the future.
