Today is Picture Day at my school. I hate pictures, I always look horrible in them. So this year, I’m not buying any. I think my parents can get better pictures of me playing with my little brother or eating ice cream. Let’s just face it-school pictures look like mugshots. Since you can only see the person’s face, it looks horrible. Yuck. I absolutely dread it. If I have to miss any of my favorite classes for this crap, I’ll be really ticked off.

I recently saw a news story about a school in Arizona in which they use only laptops-no books, notebooks, binders, paper, or pencils. Unlike what you read about in sci-fi stories, all the other elements of school were still there-students sitting side by side, a teacher in front of them. They just used the laptops for everything and even did homework and tests over the internet. How wonderful it would be to put only a laptop and my lunch into my bookbag each morning! But no.

I have way too much stuff for school. I have 4 books, 3 binders, a folder, and a notebook, plus my lunch, flute, reading book(s), and pens/pencils/calculator/etc. Well, and I have a purse. This is ridiculous. And there’s nothing I can do about it. Here’s something that teachers and principals need to know: there’s a limit to how much the human body can carry.

Several years ago, my friend weighed her bookbag after school. It weighed more than 20 pounds. And that was just the stuff she had taken home that night. And it was still middle school.

This topic has made me want to rip my hair out since I was in 3rd grade. My opinion on this can be summarized in four words: collective punishment is wrong. Wrong. In this post, I will attempt to refute all and any arguements that can be made for it.

Arguement 1: It teaches kids that life’s not fair.
We all know that life’s not fair. It doesn’t need to be taught in school. And besides, people aren’t using this as a reason to use collective punishment. They’re using it as an excuse. This is wrong. Just because life is unfair, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help those who are being treated unfairly. If you don’t care about students who supposedly pretend to suffer much more than they actually do, here’s an example that may apply to you more: what if, after 9-11, Bush had refused to do anything to help victims and said, “Suck it up! Life’s not fair!”. But that’s what teachers are saying. Who wants the next generation to be cold and impassionate because they believe that unfairness is a normal part of life and nothing should be done about it? You know, there was a time when people took every misfortune and unfairness as a given. For a thousand years, they did nothing about the cruelties of the world. We’re studying that in History right now. It was called the Middle Ages.

Arguement 2: It teaches kids social responsibility.
OK, face it. Collective punishment does nothing. Most of the time, the bystanders who get punished will not confront the person who got them punished. Teens don’t do that. And in most cases, neither do children. We don’t do that because we don’t like upsetting the status quo. I don’t need a group of students hounding me in school and making fun of me, because I insulted one of them by asking them to stop causing trouble. I’ve also heard of cases where the troublemaker was ganged up on by the other people punished. That is not good.

Arguement 3: It prepares kids for real life.
In real life, if you’re driving with someone who gets pulled over by a cop and marijuana is found in the car, you are arrested as well. Some educators think that collective punishment in the classroom prepares students for challenges such as that in the real world. Actually, that’s not true. While I can be responsible and not drive with people who have marijuana (which I should find out first), I cannot physically shut up a student who is talking when he/she shouldn’t be. All that this prepares students for is the military. Most people do not join the military. Maybe that’s not always good, but it still doesn’t make sense to teach as if everyone will join the army.

Arguement 4: Sometimes the teacher can’t determine who’s at fault.
Um…And who’s problem is that? I’m not the teacher, so I’m not in charge of discipline in the classroom. If the teacher really can’t determine it, why doesn’t he/she make an example out of people known to have been doing it. Or else, just leave me and my rule-observing peers out of it, please.

Arguement 5: Kids should teach each other.
What I mean by this is, the teacher is counting on me and other innocent bystanders to act as tools in order to teach the troublemakers how to behave. That’s great and all, but that’s not what I go to school for. I go to school to learn. To educate myself. Not the guy sitting in the row next to mine. I do not spend 7+ hours a day at school to serve as a prop in the teacher’s plans. This will not prepare me for college. Another thing. Remember tattling on someone in kindergarten? What did you get told? Usually, it was something along the lines of this: “You are responsible only for yourself.” So…why am I being punished for someone else then?

Arguement 6: It gets people mad at the student causing the trouble, which helps prevent it.
In my opinion, this is by far the worst arguement in this case. What they’re saying is, if they get everyone to hate the student responsible, it will stop that student from misbehaving again. Since when were we using hate to teach? Anyone ever seen the movie Star Wars? In that movie, hate is what is responsible for most of the conflicts. In all 6 movies. And this is true in real life. Kids who are hated today, grow to hate everyone tomorrow. Those guys who gunned down students and teachers at Columbine and other schools were mostly loners, hated by everyone.

Arguement 7: It will make kids want to be good because of peer pressure.
Now, I understand this topic, because I experience peer pressure every day. Peer pressure influences people to act cool. Being good is not cool. Because I personally don’t think that drinking and doing drugs is cool, that type of peer pressure doesn’t influence me. Since most people don’t think being good is cool, it will not influence them either.

I guess I’ve negated all these arguements. I trust this is sufficient to prove my point?

I created this blog to rant about school. Let’s face it: most public schools are horrible. The teaching methods are bad, the curriculum itself is bad, etc. etc.

I hoped that it would be better once I started high school, but actually, it isn’t that much better. Of course, some improvements are evident.

My major pet peeve about school is when teachers try to make learning “fun”. Learning is not fun, it has never been fun, and it will never be fun. Doing cut-and-paste projects in 7th and 8th grade is ridiculous.

However, I find that I’m usually on the losing end of arguements like this, because many people today believe in “modern” teaching styles or whatever.