As I have been reading The Things They Carried, there have been so many instances where I realize how hard it is for people to stand up for themselves against someone with more power or experience. While the consequences of not self-advocating in the novel are pretty extreme, hello, going to war and possibly dying, the stories have made me realize how little students actually go and confront a teacher with issues they are having in class. This is the most prominent example that I have observed.
While this is just my experience, I think it is pretty applicable. Everyday, you hear peers complaining about how little sleep they got and how much homework they have. Why are we just blindly accepting these assignments? In The Things They Carried, the soldiers are often stating that they never wanted to be in the war, they only did it because they were told to. Similarly, students do the homework they are given and do not talk to teachers about issues with the amount because of fear for repercussions, myself included. Everyone knows that a person can't change a situation until they begin doing something about it, so why do we stand idle by? I have realized that adults respect a teenager or student a lot more and are more compliant with the request if a young person advocates for themselves. I strongly believe that if instead of complaining, people worked to make things better and put in the effort, they wouldn't have to complain anymore. We need to be responsible for the way we use our time in life.
I agree that we as a student body should feel more comfortable with discussing issues with teachers, but I think that teachers also already understand the workload of the students. It's not just a matter of teachers decreasing the amount of work. The issue is in the amount of time we have for each class each day, the amount of days we go to school, how breaks are distributed, how teachers need to use class time. But yeah, your original argument that students should be more comfortable discussing issues with teachers I completely agree with
ReplyDeleteI agree. As students we tend to just accept the things we are told to do without questioning them. I wonder how much of a difference it would make if everyone spoke up?
ReplyDeleteI really like this post, and I completely agree. I think that there a lot of things wrong with our education system, and the environment we are in for so long everyday. I agree that a big part of what makes school hard is that things are never put up for discussion, and if we disagree with something, it almost always goes unsaid. We should try to find a platform where teachers and students can speak up and have more conversations about what the students feel.
ReplyDeletethis post was spot on. I really liked your point about how the students need to stop complaining and actually try to figure out a way to solve the problem of not getting enough sleep. Although I agree with you that students need to take action, I also think that some adults don't value the opinions of teenagers, and it can be extremely intimidating to talk to an adult.
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