Paper Street

I once heard it said that science is just business research.

Chris Wheeler

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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 Readers: High Schoolers

A little bit more on being politically correct.

Why is there always a need to be politically correct with everything? Of course there are things to sensor subject such as the differences of race (i.e. how racism is bad)… but how come it’s starting to become applied to smaller things in life?

An example is when someone poses an interest in a certain topic or subject, and it’s something unusual… what most people do is they think lowly of them and insult them. Like if someone has interest in computers… kudos to him/her. If that’s what their passion is, then all respect to them. But because having interest in computers doesn’t seem to be so entirely “mainstream”, what most people do is shut them down and label them as “geeks”. So what, having interest in clothes, or interests in spending time with friends is suddenly entirely different?

A specific example pertaining to me personally, is how everybody calls me “gay”. For the record, no I am not homosexual. But I can see where the thoughts are coming from, because I do tend to be more artistic then the regular person, I tend to care more about my hair and clothes then most guys, I have spurts of energy and am more hyper of a person… but now does this some how determine my sexual orientation? Absolutely not. I have an interest in these things: art, clothes, hair.. being hyper…… Why can’t that be respected instead? I have numerous friends who are very accepting of these traits, and they take it to their benefit being that I’m an interesting guy with a fashion sense. But there are those people who’re out there who still think I’m gay…

Recently I was thinking about what to wear for a performance I was doing for school. There were to be 3 people up there, and I was trying to decide what we should wear to reflect the song and just have a good appearance. But then I was shot down by one of the band members saying (paraphrased:) “Why do you care?! I’m supposed to be the ‘girl’ in the band, why are you fussing over this?”. Well I’m sorry if I’m wishing to put more effort like that into this performance. Visuals are complimentary to the performance too. It does matter. But suddenly because I’m a guy I’m now not allowed to care about clothes and how one looks.

Now, how does this relate to Politcal Correctness? Being politically correct means to say/do things without offending the largest possible audience. In the highs chool setting, the largest audience would be the students. So because someone has interest in a topic/hobby that the rest of students don’t, it some how makes it wrong. “Unacceptable”.

“Don’t make fun of me for my hobbies; I don’t make fun of you for being an asshole…” – Garden State

What we need to be able to do is embrace these interests. Accept them. Just insulting another and saying they’re wrong won’t do anything besides crush them emotionally. It’s really easy to tell someone they’re wrong. And at the same time, it’s surprisingly (although it shouldn’t be surprising) useless. Do you honestly think that saying “HAhAHa, you’re such a loser for liking ketchup so much” is gonna make them suddenly change themselves to be a perfect person and more like you? No. No it wont. Learn to embrace other’s interests. Learn to be more sensitive to others. Hey, maybe… just MAYBE… you aren’t a perfect person either. People are different.

“If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” – Maya Angelou