today i got caught by my chinese teacher for doing a certain something in class. i shan't elaborate since most of you all should know. i'll just hint about it when i write the bulk of this block post later.
this incident made me think about contending about school rules. not that i hate the school rules, are am a hard out rebel, but i'll just attempt to give an analysis about these issues.
there are a few essential rules i'd like to contend with. firstly about ankle socks, which have been rather controversial in our school, since it is apparent that many other schools do allow ankle socks.
a couple of justifications given by the school were: 1) We should continue our pioneering attitude and set trends for others to follow, instead of following others, and 2) Socks are meant to protect our feet.
when put simply, the first argument actually sounds pretty ridiculous. we should ban short socks and promote "acceptable" length socks, and this may just prompt other schools to follow us? and then we cannot follow others because we would cease to be a "pioneer", and we would appear to be "weak"? Well to ask a question would other schools even look to us? By what standards are socks of acceptable length? and allowing people to wear short socks is not going to make us come across as "followers"; in fact this entire is irrelevant! This is about the freedom to wear things we want, not about what image we portray to others!
Then there was once a teacher tried to "intelligently" point out a reason as to why we should not wear ankle socks. basically he showed us a picture of someone who had a plaster around his ankle area, and was wearing ankle socks. he pointed out that socks were meant to protect our feet, and chuckled. apparently he was pointing out that since socks were meant to protect our feet then why are there still injuries? hence we should all wear long all i can say: full of fallacies. firstly socks are meant to provide protection but that doesn't mean it guarantees protection? then since socks are meant to protect our feet from injury then why must it be long? can't it be below ankle length? and then its not as if those who wore ankle socks have more injuries? if you look around most people in singapore wear ankle socks - do we see them constantly injured?
it is not true that I always wear ankle socks - in fact I don't. its just that i am confused by the reason behind this.
and then the next rule i want to contend with - eating of sweets in class. well this has something to do with the incident that happened today. this rule - does it exist at all? and the justification behind its existence? we set a rule or a ban because we follow a criteria. the sporting world has its own criteria. the marketing industry has its own. since we claim ourselves to be an "institution", we should then adhere tightly to our own constitution! we ban something when it does direct harm. does the sweet do any harm? any third party harm, considering that no one would have known that i was eating a sweet, had they not seen me taking it? what harm it done? does it distract us? well then i must tell you why not ban sweets altogether?! 99% of the time when we are eating a sweet we are doing something - homework, project, etc. does it then distract us? why not ban sweets entirely? sweets have been recommended as a breath freshener, as something to perk yourself up...
apparently the school doesn't provide adequate justification as to why they set down certain rules. these two are just 2 of them. since we're so proud to call ourselves an institution, why do we still set down "martial" laws? the only good argument i can think of for the school is that this sets a dangerous precedence - the slippery slope argument. well even then i can tell you it is very unlikely to happen. quite a number of people in our school still wear ankle socks despite the very rule - and its not as if others are influenced. they still continue wearing beautiful long socks to school. and the sweets issue - why i'm so surprised is because its been carrying on for so long. well on the first level it didn't spark off any revolution to call for more radical rights or anything of the sort, nor have students been taking to explicitly eating food in class.
already we are subconsciously submitting to a lot of societal ideals, such as pink = feminine and homosexuality when worn on males, etc., and we don't need more.
don't get me wrong - i'm not being a coward by not submitting a proper proposal in.
because i know it won't work.
[edit: i have already apologized to my chinese teacher for what i've done in class, and i'm really remorseful if she did feel any offense from my act. i understand fully that my actions apparently do not conform to her definition of respect or anything else, and so i recognize my mistake. but i must still speak out about certain school rules.
also, i'm not against the setting of rules to maintain civilization.
i'm just... unhappy that there are rules that are set that apparently do not fulfil its main aim - to maintain civilization.]
Hmm. You posts are like great! Only one comment.
ReplyDeleteI think the reson why they banned sweets in school is because the school does not want us to start eating in class just because they allow sweets. Just think, if the school allowed sweets to be comsumed in class, then sonner or later someone will want to eat stuff like chicken wings, fries etc. in class. That would be a problem. Its pretty obvious. The smell may distract the other students, some food might be dropped on the floor etc. This is what happens when sweets are allowed to be comsumed in class. It will make the students think that it is accpetable to eat anything is class and they will press for the school rules to change. Then more and more problems will manifest for the school to deal with.
That is the justification behind no comsumption of food (be it minor things like sweets) in class.
Jun Xian
I agree with you regarding the issue of ankle socks and that their reasoning is flawed and lack sense. But for the the issue about sweets, you can never argue your way out. School rules are not just about DONts. Most rules are stated down in the rule book probably because of common offenses, as such there will naturally be a need to stop this behavior. Other then school rules, many situation will allow exceptions. Your teacher would had most probably allow you to take a sweet if you had bad breathe and had informed her prior to doing so. Most of these rules such as eating sweets are rather specific and can never be listed in rule book. What I am trying to say is that some things are known to be disallowed in school and it is indeed near impossible to list them one by one ( Eg. No tickling of your friend, No playing with files). School roles are more about 'Dos' if you ask me, where you have a set of routine things to do, well, if you felt like popping a sweet, with regards to such exceptions, you definitely have to ask your teacher. Failing to inform her/him, will result in punishment.
ReplyDelete