Paper Street

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(In response to how our “Matchmaker” activity (which is a survey, and matches you with others at school, as a valentines spirit thing) got cancelled, because some questions “does not promote character development”.)

I’m not understanding my school’s administration. So the purpose of the administration’s actions are to do what is in the best interest of the entire school and the entire community. In this case, because this activity does “not promote character development”, this would ward an activity that is essentially “useless”.

But of course, that would make sense on an obvious scale. Not promoting character development = useless = doesn’t forward the school in terms of reputation towards the community and the board or anyone.

I think the administration is a bit too caught up with the technicalities of how everything makes them look (self-conscious? as in a bad developed character? oh the irony). I remember the time when the administration used to include the wants of the students in their decision making process, even if it is reasonable (which most things are). But nowadays students have no influence…. at least with our administration.

Now let’s compare this to an activity that DOES promote character development. Throw one up for example… how about the Leadership Conference (once known as Supernova)? Oh wait, that would be a horrible example, being that this program designed as a great way for promoting character development is… nonexistent. Let’s try another example… … hmm, can’t think of anything.

So how about hypothetically. Let’s say that there is some sort of day where character development is an event’s key purpose. How about if Student Council has a Spirit Day, called the “Perseverance Day!” or the “Optimism Day!”. Now as students, how do you feel this event will run? In all honesty, even if students ARE some how hyped up about these events (which is next to impossible), will it actually make a difference in terms of actually developing character? Are students going to become more optimistic with everything they do in life, because “Student Council tells them so”? Let’s think about that one.

Now what happens if we have events at school, for the sole purpose of just creating good, clean fun. Like Autumnfest for example! Does hitting each other with spirit sticks, or doughnut eating contest really do a difference on one’s character? No. But does it make a difference in school, where student mindsets are changed about how they see this standard boring institute? Maybe by giving students something besides standard academics, and boring “character development” exercises, they might actually enjoy school. And hey, students wanting to enjoy school wards many things! The most important thing for administration is positive image they’ve created. Hey, RHHS students love coming to school and learning, and being the top trained kids academically and have a great time at school! That looks good to me. And hey, if students are actually wanting to come to school everyday, doesn’t that sound a bit like optimism to you? Oh no, and isn’t optimism a “character” that matters? Oopsie daises, seems like school spirit accidentally promoted character development in a way that… works.

If the Matchmaker thing was actually still on, definitely I would have something to look forward to. I’ll actually want to come to school that day, regardless of what test / midterm / exam / eut / essay / etc I have to do.

It’s great to keep everything in line by treating school like a corporation, but even corporations have some sort of employee appreciation.

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Target audience: High School students getting the effects of Careers class (maybe only my school’s horrible careers program, maybe more)
Bias: Okay, I hate careers class because of my horrible teacher (you know me enough to know this isn’t simply a naive statement) and it is evident in this article. But nonetheless, that isn’t the purpose of the article… so still read on.

I have a problem with what we learn in our grade 10 careers class. This pretty much is where we are first introduced to “job interviews”, and what we are taught is “Be formal. Give them perfect responses. Give a good impression…” Ok these tips all have merit, but their vagueness and oversimplistic statements just so wrong. For an average student, here’s the response to these suggestions: “Ok, so to be formal I’ll be quiet and do exactly what the interviewer says. I’ll give perfect responses by bullshitting every answer and say what seems most ‘ideal’. A good impression would be a suck-up laugh to anything they say. A ha ha!”

You can see where it goes wrong, right?

I have to admit, I’ve even been suckered by this mindset as well. The opinions stated above of the “average student” were pretty good at representing me as well. But now that I’m looking for a job and this learned knowledge comes in to application; I’ve realised it’s gotten me nowhere.

Sure I’ve learned how to write a resume (a horrible resume nonetheless. They didn’t teach me how to properly make a skills based resume for a summer job, which my sister had to tutor) but in terms of interviews it didn’t do anything. It made me worse probably. So while asking my dad for tips regarding my resume and job interviews, he told me the reality of things:

• The purpose of an interview are for two things: to let the employer get to know who you are and if you’re what they need, and also for you to get to know the employer to see if you want to work for them.

Of course, how obvious was that? Yet we don’t learn these things.

We’re misguided with the idea from careers class that the point of an interview is strictly for the interviewer to see if you have the right answers. No. Absolutely not, there is more depth in an interview. The main purpose is for the interviewer to see who you are as a person, and how can he or she do so when all your responses are “ideal” and “bullshit” answers?

Your bullshit isn’t worth the little treasures it may hold.

Don’t be afraid to let them know who you are. Of course you should be more formal and more polite than when you are talking to friends, but at the same time you need to be as honest and as comfortable for them to even begin wanting to hire you. You’re getting to know the interviewer for your job as much as he or she is getting to know you.

Now I could go on “bullshitting” about how careers class may be worthy of a class… but HA I wont. I wouldn’t bullshit like that, because unlike what they taught us, I’d rather be honest and like myself. I honestly think that my careers class has ruined it for many students who were victims of it (that would be everyone at my school grade 10+). Thanks.

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I’ve been wondering to myself in English class, “how can one analyze the subject of love and sexuality in poems and stories, if most of us do not actually understand it first hand?” We discuss in class how characters in stories do things for love, feels certain ways, do certain things etc. but how can anyone fully grasp a concept without experiencing it in life?

Anyways, let me explain more specifically the discussion in class. Today my teacher brought up some notices and such about sexual innuendos in a poem we read that no one was able to detect; something about a guy telling a girl not to become a nun, because it’s like a rose who ends up simply dying instead of being plucked and living forever as potpourri (in vague terms: she should lose her virginity to live a useful life). I thought this was beautiful, but could also tell that many of the females in my class only took it in as simply a literature analysis statement.

What I’m trying to get at is, as children we are taught that sex is a forbidden topic. We grow up being hesitant even to mention the word “sex”. Sex education nowadays teaches us the negative aspects of sex in our world, including the consequences such as STDs, and unwanted pregnancies. Of course this is really important to us as a society, because the consequences of sexual intercourse can really damage a life and a future… however this is an automatic assumption that is put upon us as teenagers that we’re all going out to parties every weekend getting drunk and having casual unprotected sex. Of course this applies to a portion of us in the world, but what happens to the young innocent girls who you know would never throw their lives away to risk something such as this?

These type of girls are brought up being taught that sex is absolutely wrong, and forbidden. There is no right to it, and it shouldn’t even be considered. What this does to them, is it creates this concept in their head where they’re forced to see only the negative aspects of sex, sexual desire, practice, etc. By doing this, they never end up understanding what sex is, and at the same time they don’t want to. While the government is keen on educating the youth and allowing the nation to be more knowledgeable in subject such as the consequences of sexual activity, of course it may work for a part of the population, but it actually ends up sheltering girls who are falsely accused for something they’d never do. The government wants us to be more knowledgeable, but people twist the concepts in their head that they learn as kids and automatically assume that sex and anything having to do with it, is wrong.

Once in a while, the topic of sex comes up with friends and while sometimes it’s just a pure joking “guyish” conversion, other times it actually gets interesting to hear the views of others. With the guys, obviously the discussion revolves around the same “guyish” idea; after all we grow up together and experience puberty similarly as well are significantly more open to discussion on embarrassing personal subjects (which is why this article is about young females, which may sound biased but really isn’t. Yes, guys learn about sex differently). However with girls, it is much more different and actually very interesting to hear the views since they can vary extremely from person to person. I remember hearing the strangest things such as “girls only have sex when they’re feel sad…” and “‘sex’ is something two people share [strictly] for the purpose of advancing relationship.” Hmm, interesting. As for most of those who aren’t sexually active, their concepts generally believe that sex has absolutely nothing to do with anything physically, and is all just an emotional “step” in life.

Ok I’m not writing this article for the purpose of sex education, and I’m not going to preach my views on sex and what it is. However I’m just trying to make the point that we live in a world where our so-called “education” on sex ends up being detrimental instead of providing the benefits from it’s intentions. It has good intentions, and I understand how difficult it is for them to target their audience… but I’m just bringing up a point where what is happening, is happening.

And I’m by no means saying vaguely that “party animals should not have sex, and introverted shy girls should go out insane!” Absolutely not. What I’m saying is those girls who’ve been imposed on the negative concepts of sex in this world are shut off to something that needs to be understood and embraced. Sexual activity isn’t simply “something dirty, that you’d only do when you’re married”. It’s a whole lot more than that, and there are numerous reasons for someone to make a life decision and begin a sexually active life. There are also numerous reasons for someone to choose not to be active. But all that matters is if it’s done for the proper reason and the concequences are properly thought out… along side with the benefits.

Sexuality isn’t bad people. Sex for the wrong reasons, like social acceptance, peer pressure, uncontrollable desires… is wrong. But eventually, in our lives as we mature, what needs to be realised is sexuality is part of us as humans, and is more than just something emotional.

Does one really believe that during mating season for animals, animals are simply “programmed” to randomly mate and have offsprings? There’s actually aspects of sexual attraction and it’s not just the next “programmed step” in life. Surprise surprise, animals have feelings.

Now there obviously isn’t a solution to this whole detriments of sex education. The purpose of this article wasn’t to be an advocate against sex education, it was just to inform people that this is an issue that should be thought about. We hear weird comments going around that are clearly a misinterpretation of sex, and if you think about it all roots from a misconception of what we are being taught. So basically if you are one of these “girls” with similar ideas expressed in this article, just realise that sex isn’t simply “the next emotional step in life”, and is more an aspect of one’s life that shouldn’t be judged with simple conclusions. It can’t be simply judged as “bad” because theres so much more to it to put a single label and assume correctness.

It’s an aspect of life as a human being that should be explored. Just get the whole picture before judging something as simply bad or wrong, and open your mind to the world.

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In the age of universal education, a new problem has appeared before us. With so many students, and so much pressure from parents and teachers, students have been driven to competition like never before. The focus in the classroom has shifted from learning to ‘getting high marks’. So much so that in fact, students no longer absorb information for the sake of learning, but pound it into their brains to get that coveted “perfect” on the next test, quiz, or exam.

Don’t believe me? What are the first words uttered by your friends beside you after getting a test handed back to you? Of course, being bombarded by a series of “What’d you get?“’s is not quite that pleasant, especially if the mark wasn’t all that stellar. When the teacher posts ‘anonymous’ mark updates, the first thing everyone does is crowd around to guess who’s who on the mark lists.

The problem goes beyond simple curiosity in the classroom – in fact, the problem wouldn’t be a problem if people merely wanted to find out how they are doing compared to others. The problem comes when friends start conspiring against other students with higher marks. This is all too common in the AP classes. Groupwork is no longer done with friends to have a good and friendly atmosphere; groups are now formed well in advance when people make ‘deals’ with each other in order to achieve the highest marks. What’s the deal with that? It has never failed to amaze me every time I see it happen.

Even in grade 10 and 11, when marks don’t matter for university or college (exception to the rare student who wishes to go to the States), I see people getting all moody and upset over tests, and even resorting to begging the teacher for better marks (no, I’m not talking about marking mistakes, but real errors that are argued extensively over) – though the people who do this are generally not the ones who need it.

Of course, a little competition will never hurt in the motivation of oneself, but not at the level that I am seeing it at right now. A few people I know (I won’t mention any names) always start a conversation with “What did you get in the last test?” or “I had a XX in that course, can you beat me?” I find this extremely annoying, and is becoming one of my pet peeves. In my opinion, I know what I know, and I know that I don’t need marks to prove myself so, I don’t need to flaunt them in front of people to feel better.

Our schools are now measured by inept benchmarks that nobody except the principal and the government take seriously. Why must they keep comparing schools with one another, and use numbers to represent something as complicated as education? One only needs to pop their head into an AP classroom to see how learning takes a backseat to marks. Universal testing is a waste of time and effort that yields no useful results, and should be scrapped. It’s not like there’s been any positive change from the testing. If anything, the disparity between the ‘upper academic class’ and the ‘lower academic class’ (read: AP and Applied) is growing. The nonchalant attitude in the applied/college and even academic/university classes is a huge contrast to the constant pressure of the AP classes. In a way, we (as in gifted/AP students) have something to learn about school – marks are not the be all and end all of our lives. There are so many more things to do while we’re still young than worry so much about having to ‘beat’ everyone else. Take the stress out of school and learn while you can, enjoy the rest of your time while you aren’t.