"Put Your Head Down"

This one's a bit more personal than the rest. At the moment, I'm pretty sure most if not all of my readers are my schoolmates. This post is all about the school we have so generously pledged our allegiance to.

I'd like to start by saying that I used to like our school. It was fairly liberal, and the students were treated fairly well. Mind, I'm talking before we came to the school. Students actually got MORE than other schools. Can you believe it? Then the infamous principal arrived. And from there, restrictions increased, liberations decreased, and we got stuck in a rut of uniform checks and higher workloads. Before we knew it, we were up to our necks in pointless bullshit.

There are a number of things I could focus on and rant about with this school, which I so fucking sorely want to name. But one in particular is the one that has us all riled at the moment. In fact, I started writing this post as I sat down and tried to do the homework for this topic. THE HEADSTART PROGRAM. Granted, all schools have this. And yes, it's a nice way for us to get a headstart on the vast workload of year 11. But I mean, 6 days is a bit excessive, don't you think?

And I don't know what the flying fuck this school was thinking when they organised this week. Here's essentially what happened. We've worked all year through year 10, we did our exams - that's 7 exams crammed into 4 days. And without even a day's break, we were thrown head-first into year 11. It's seriously like, "OK, do year 10, finish your exams, and start on year 11 NOW." Fuck off. And fuck this school. They're getting gradually more and more comfortable with fucking us over because we're the students and they're the staff. The education system is not built on education, it's built on establishing authority. Think about it. In those assemblies we sit through, what do they focus more on? Their authority, or our education? Even when it is about education, they pull our their baton of authority. They can fuck right off with that bullshit.

Now I don't deny that there needs to be authority. The proof is the people we're surrounded by. But I feel like there's far too much emphasis placed on following rules and putting your head down. There's less help for students than there is punishment, and it's fucked up. They've forgotten the fact that a student is a human being, and whatever they may spit, it's tougher than being up with them. Sure, they have more responsibilities and shit. But are we going to punish them if they fuck up? When a teacher enters the room and says "shit, I forgot this", it's offhand. Like it barely matters. And it doesn't. Same teacher, same classroom. A student raises his hand and asks if he can run outside and grab a book from his locker. Next second, it's the third degree for not being organised.

This double standard is fucking ridiculous. But I'll get back on topic. Headstart. I'd be alright if they'd given us that Friday after exams off. Is it really that much to ask for a day to rest after 4 days of 7 exams? Not to mention, you know, year 10. I would also be more comfortable with Headstart if it was more of an introduction. You know, ease us into it. Instead, it's been 4 days and I'm scared as fuck. I'm stressed about my ATAR (2 years away), and I already have 3 fucking assessments for the summer holidays.

Which brings me to my next point. Assessments. That first assembly we had, you all heard the co-ordinator's and staff members' speeches about how insanely important these assessments are and how we have absolutely zero room for error. First day of year 11, less than 24 hours after our last year 10 exam, and we had a fear of VCE implanted in our brains. A lot of people I talked to told me the same thing, they're genuinely stressed and scared. What the fuck kind of start to year 11 is that? To immediately scare the shit out of us about it? 

IT DOESN'T FUCKING WORK THAT WAY YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS. YOU CAN'T SCARE GOOD MARKS OUT OF A FUCKING STUDENT.

That's what they expect. That telling us all this shit about how one fuck-up will lead to life in the gutters of Cranbourne, will scare us into working harder. Yeah, how about you beat a kid to stop it from crying? How are we going to work to the best of our ability if we have failure breathing down our necks? 

This is all a complete mess of bullshit. There are at least 4 things the school has done to fuck us over here, and that's just in the context of this last week. As a student at this school, I say we're getting dangerously close to outright contextual totalitarianism. They don't listen to us, our complaints are met with "well that's how it is, no use complaining": a phrase I can guarantee you've all heard on a regular basis. We're only treated as human beings with conscious thought when it would incriminate us. We're human beings, and if anything, we should get more lenience than them, not the other way around. The old idea that older people should be respected more by younger people is a load of bollocks. All being older means is you've made more mistakes in life. Being more experienced doesn't count for shit. I can think of plenty of young people who are fifty times more respectable than any older people. Same can be said at our school. Our English teacher this year is much less respectable than most of my close friends.

So, to summarise: fuck the school. Fuck their need to control us. Fuck their refusal to treat us as real people in a community. Fuck their policies of punishment over assistance. Fuck it all.