Hello again, our lovely marketed audience of people ages 12-18, let’s talk about school. I’d presume most of us attend a school, or have at some point in our lives. We all know the dance; new kids, cafeterias, which vice principal is having an affair and which will give you detention for just about anything. Seeing as we’re all familiar with the reason we wake up before the sun, let’s look closer.
From probably second or third grade, I can remember girls carrying purses around school with them, especially the older kids. I don’t know how popular that is among private schools, but it was odd to me to see fellow eight year olds walking in with baby blue clutches and maroon cross-bodies. Then fourth grade came, and I switched schools. I was lucky, I joined a program that meant I was with a class full of new kids, but there was a big shift from being one of the neighborhood kids and one of the GT kids (neighborhood means you attend the school you were zoned to, GT is the gifted program that moved kids to this school). The time I spent at that school was pretty awesome, but it was notably weird what a big dynamic there was between the two groups of us - the fact that there were two distinct ‘groups’ was weird as is. Being on our own turf versus other’s was a pretty big deal. Less so in middle school, because there were just so many more people.
Middle school brought a lot of prejudice. There were the kids with phones and the latest edition AirPods. And the social groups broke down even more; we now had the preppy kids, the nerds, the queer kids, the jocks, the theater kids, the band kids, just to name a few. And good luck to you if you weren’t a jock, or a popular kid, because bullying also ramped up with the creation of more and more social boxes. Personally, middle school was also a big awakening for me in a few ways, my home elementary school was mixed fairly well in terms of both race and socioeconomic statuses, so there were always people to turn to to talk to, whereas in middle school I was surrounded by predominantly rich and white kids, which threw me a bit out of my element. I was insecure in my biraciality and found myself clinging to my group of Indian friends. I was on financial aid, and it quickly became obvious that financial aid kids didn’t really talk about financial aid unless it was with someone on their mental list of other people (a habit that still exists and makes me uncomfortable to this day).
Now in high school, every fall juniors will come sleepwalking in on Monday mornings, complaining about how little sleep they got after flying back home from their trip to tour Harvard, or Yale, or Brown. It’s funny how willing people are to talk about their tour of Harvard, or GW, but not of our state schools, or really any school that doesn’t have an impressive repertoire. Maybe that’s just my case, I go to a private school that caters to a high percentage of wealthy families who can afford flying out to colleges every couple weekends, or applying early to a dream school. But that’s a pretty stilted example, so let’s take a step down, not all of us are in the college search, but all of us will make occasional weekend plans with our friends. Maybe it’s going to the weekly football game on Friday with your friends, maybe it’s going to the mall and walking around.
Even regardless of us students, ever notice who gets the academic awards, which teachers get recognized each year? How many of them look the same? Ever pay attention to who serves lunch, who waxes the floor of the gym? How many of them look the same? And if you have no idea who waxes the floors, why is that? Are most of your teachers fresh out of college, bound to move to another school in a year or two, or are they middle aged professors with dozens of years of experience under their belt? Are your lesson plans half-done, or were they carefully thought out each summer by the group of teachers? How many tables or sets of desks on seating charts are composed of kids who look the same?
School, as much as it is a place where we grow, is often a place where we learn a lot of bad habits and prejudices. The classroom is where we learn many things, but not all of what we learn sets us up for success. Take a second the next morning you stumble into homeroom half awake, and observe what’s really going on behind the scenes. Tell us what you learn, it’ll most likely be an eye-opening experience (unless you’re half asleep, in which case, it might not be).
Wow! Great writing!