.:By Brock Sutton Allen:.
Written September 3, 2008
Kids. Parents are more than happy to send us to school. To get rid of us. To try to make something of us. We aren’t smart enough these days, so they have to train professionals to take care of us. To guide us to adulthood. Because if weren’t this way, surely anarchy would ensue. Kids are uncontrollable animals. All they want to do is party and have fun. Luckily, adults know better. We aren’t anybody’s children anymore these days, now we’re only students. But us students, we’re an ungrateful lot, we like to question why things are the way they are. Like, why do spend more time preparing for state sponsored tests (ie: WASL) than actually learning the subject.
Ungrateful little punk, asks too many questions. Kids… They’re all alike.
But did you, with your outdated psychology, ever take a look behind the eyes of the student? Did you ever wonder what made him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?
I am a student, enter my world…
Mine is a world that begins and ends with school… I’m smarter than most of the other kids, this stuff they teach us bores me…
Underachievers… They’re all alike.
I’m in junior high or high school. I’ve listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. “No, Ms. Smith, I didn’t show my work. I did it in my head…”
Kids… Probably copied it. They’re all alike.
You better believe, we’re all alike… we’ve been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak… the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We’ve been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert.
This is our world now… we exist in two reality that of the flesh and that of the electron. We will listen to our iPods and Zunes. Why? Because our music is nicer sounding than the caffeine fuelled sermons you call a lesson. We will text in class. Because our future is future centered on communication, and besides, our friends provide more supportive than you ever could hope to be. We will rate your performance online. Because in the 21st Century, those who fail to reach the standard (sound familiar?) will be punished. We will question everything you say. Because this is an era of openness. Political Correctness will be opposed. Because in the real world, feelings will get hurt.
As stated in the Old Student Manifesto:
“It is the right of each student to be free of administrative, faculty, and governmental oppression.
It is the right of each student to have propaganda-free classes.
It is the duty of each student to picket and embarrass any professor who is guilty of political indoctrination in class.
A truly Free Student makes certain that all subjects are open to discussion.
Political Correctness leads to closed minds and is the greatest evil in America today. It must be opposed at all costs.
Everything is open to question. EVERYTHING. There are no taboos…
Schools are places of discontent, chaos, and mental explosions based on research, feelings, and general adolescent rebellion.
It is the absolute duty of each student to stir the pot in his or her educational institution, to get other students to come alive, to think, to question, to rebel against authority.”
Go ahead, call me what you want but my crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for.
I am a Student, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual, but you can’t stop us all… after all, we’re all alike.
