Homework #39, School.

Questioning School- It definitely needs to be done.

Part A:

Interesting Questions:
1. Why is school like a prison?
2. Why are we not all learning the same things?
3. Why would they bother to name a school "School of the Future"?
4. Why don't we have art class anymore?
5. Why don't we have at least one free period?

Fascinating Questions:
1. Why do we have to study the same things over and over again until we're sick of them? Like having to study the egyptians every year in middle school.
2. When are we ever going to have to apply at least half of the things that we learn in school in the real world?
3. Why do schools insist on making us read Shakespeare? Why can't they find a newer writer than Shakespeare that students actually want to read?
4. What is a good reason for studying ancient civilizations? Like the ancient greeks, romans, and egyptians..
5. Why is it that the moment after teachers let us have some fun in school, -and participate themselves,- they all of a sudden turn on us and try and punish us?

Powerful Questions:
1. Why do the people that say the most typical, predictable, knee-jerk things get to speak the most?
2. For adults: name three skills that you learned in school that you use as an adult.
3. Why do we have a principal, a school dean (well, we did), security guards, and teachers to keep us students in our place? What are they so afraid of?
4. Why do we have to go to school from 8:30am to 3:10pm, and then the minute school is over we're ushered as far away from school as they can possibly get us?

Ideas:
1. School is like a stage where we can all go to and perform.
2. Teachers like to take over and have all of the power, or so they think they do.
3. High school is something no one can make sense of, so they make movies and books to try and understand school more.

Part B:
Why do the people that say the most typical, predictable, knee-jerk things get to speak the most?

The people that speak up the most feel like everything that they say is so brilliant, and has to be shared. They have a role that they feel they must play, as the person who has to speak up constantly for what they believe in. This sounds like a positive thing, yet after a while it becomes so predictable that the people who have to listen to them know when they are going to speak up. And the moments after these students speak that are filled with silence, not because they are blown away by what the person has said, but bored by the typical response that this person has said.

There are those quiet students in every class that want to speak up or are to shy, and there are also the people that just don't want to talk, so they all sit there quietly rolling their eyes or doodling in their notebooks. Some people just don't feel like speaking up in class no matter what, because they don't feel compelled to share what's on their minds. The people that always share their ideas are expected to speak in class, so if they didn't share their ideas one day people might think something was wrong.

Also:
Why do we have a principal, a school dean (well, we did), security guards, and teachers to keep us students in our place? What are they so afraid of?

If there was no one there to enforce the rules of school, then school would be like a play ground. People would get hurt. There would be parties in the hallways. Students would dance on the tables and lay on the floor. There would be couples hanging out in the bathrooms all day. More people would cut class and hang out in gym, or in the locker room. There would be even more trash on the floor and graffiti on the walls.

Everybody wants to lean on someone else, just like the song by Bill Withers says "Lean on me, when you're not strong,
and I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on." The teachers like to complain to the principal about their students that are misbehaving. The security guards are there prowling the halls to butt into other people's business and make sure the students are in their classes. After school the security guards also have another job to do- they have to make sure that the kids don't stand outside of school. It's all about protecting the school's 'face'. There are occasionally fights that happen outside of school, or near school. If someone that doesn't go to the school sees the students fighting, the school is going to get a bad reputation.

So.. The principal is the top dog, the school dean is in charge of coming up with punishments as well and to make sure kids sign in on the late book in the morning -now the principal has to do that though-, the security guards are like sheepdogs that have to make sure we are in class, and the teachers have to teach us something. What do we students have to do? Take notes, participate in class, and listen to the teachers. If there wasn't this whole power structure of authority figures backing up each other, then the students would revolt and run the schools.