Chapeau!
To anyone who ever suffered in high school, felt like a freak, an outsider, unknown, and to anyone who ever bullied someone for being different, may I recommend that you read Challenge Day, by Ana Bolling (PDF, but small).
Mighty fine.
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Comment
- You have a great title for your online diary. Real cool. :D
— Heather Feather Jun 30, 9:59am # - Wow, merci bien!
I teach high school and I’m sending this to the principal, counselors, superintendent and members of the school board. Hope we can impliment it too.
Last year we had a whole series of events lumped under the heading, “the tolerance project,” and this would be a perfect next step. The teenage years are so fraught with angst and fragility, but if we can help them be open, loving, compassionate human beings, isn’t that really the most important life skill?
— susan Bein Jun 30, 1:07pm # - Doesn’t it sound brilliant?
You have all my admiration for the work you do, and I’d love to hear what sort of things you’ve done in your “tolerance project.”
In our village school they have a book of grievance (and praise), where the kids can write down anonymous comments about their fellows, which are then discussed in a weekly class meeting.
Aside from that exception, thanks to a marvellous teacher, I’m angered that school, which is so geared to creating social beings, offers so little discusson of tolerance and what makes a “healthy” society.
I’ve often wondered what sort of society we’d have if we’d all been taught in school to think for ourselves?
— gail Jun 30, 2:46pm # - While attempting to change students for the better so that they are basically “better” people is a laudable goal, I can’t help but think that such a goal is too ambitious for an institution so rife with mediocrity and apathy. Even the “best and brightest” at my high school were just there to get good grades: the goal was to get in to the best college while learning the least amount possible. It drove me insane.
I don’t know, it might work in European schools, but at my school (in southern California in the U.S.) I know something like “Challenge Day” would have failed.
— Warren Jun 30, 3:04pm # - The “Challenge Day” idea, I must say, sounds exceptionally trite in the horrible New-Ageish I-must-feel-special sort of way. I honestly hope it doesn’t spread even further.
— A. Jun 30, 9:28pm # - I’ve often wondered what sort of society we’d have if we’d all been taught in school to think for ourselves?
I went to a diverse series of schools, and generally found that the ones which put most emphasis on teaching pupils to think for themselves were the ones that were least interested in socialisation.
— JH Jul 1, 3:29am # - While I agree that it may at first seem like the sort of thing that teenagers filled with ennui and cynicism might automatically deride, and feel squeamish about, I believe that if done well, it would help plant some seeds in their minds about tolerance and respect, and let them see that they’re not alone in their angst.
There is nothing “new ageish” about it; that’s a facile label. The
emphasis is not on making people feel special (in a syrupy group hug, oh, I love you man, hitting each other with Nerf bats, sort of way) but rather on forcing recognition of a shared humanity and on the danger of snap judgments and herd mentalities.
Socialisation appears to mean only promoting that herd mentality, the fear of being ostracized, and that’s wonderful for crowd control, I’ll admit. Those who want to be different will really have to fight to maintain their self-respect.
Or, they can always climb up a water tower and start shooting.
— gail Jul 1, 5:30am # - Very nice. Sounds like many a drama workshop and forced “teambuilding” exercise I’ve attended.
I am not interested in communing with strangers about my private trials, or ripping open my heart except for a select few people. Not now, not in high school.
And, as with those drama exercises and workshops I’ve mentioned, I’m quite sure that most people attending don’t have transformative experiences, or share anything truly meaningful. They pick and choose, find something suitably bland to reveal to the world, and go away feeling faintly superior to those who actually break down and expose their pale, tender interiors.
Sorry, it does seem syrupy to me, and rather improper. I am with Miss Manners; it is not, in fact, necessary to share all one’s intimate details in order to respect those of others.
— CompassRose Jul 2, 12:00pm #
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