I’ve never really given any thought about who I would be. In fact, I honestly never thought I’d live to see 14. Deep down inside I’ve always felt confused about who I am and who I want to be. People say that you shouldn’t think so hard on the future at such a long age but I don’t want to waist anytime when the future really does come. I don’t want to be just getting out of high school and wondering what am I going to do with my life and then realize I didn’t prepare myself at anytime during my high school years. I also don’t want to wake up one day and realize I worked so hard on something at school and don’t do it or have all this meaningless stuff I did. Others say oh, just work on having fun in high school. Things I want to do, I cant do. Things that make me happy, I cant do that either. So what the hell am I suppose to do in high school? Oh yeah, that’s right, go get an education and prepare yourself. Prepare myself for what? What is school really for? All this time in school that I have spent no one has really helped us prepare for life! All they ever do is prepare s for the dang LEAP/iLeap! Those test are just about over now! So why would I think that they would prepare me for life in high school? We’re probably going to spend each year studying for the E.O.C(end of course exam, basically like the Leap test but usually on computers.) and then maybe some A.C.T practice. Yes, that’s nice. We spent all that time on that, but what if we fail, what if we didn’t succeed? Does that mean the teachers didn’t do their job or that we didn’t do ours? Does that mean that we are a failure? Four years spent preparing us for this and only this, and we don’t even do that well? Then what? Does our life stop there? It cant!
From the time I actually starting going to real school, all they ever did was try to teach us to pass the fourth grade Leap. Fifth grade all through middle school, focus on passing that 8th grade Leap everybody. But what about the test? Get a bad grade, “oh, well, I hope you do better on the Leap. This wont fly on the Leap.” That dreading, horrific acranim, I hate the LEAP! I think we should just get rid of it you know? We focus so much on it and its such a big deal, it freaks us all out! Teachers at some schools even risk their jobs and sneak giving the kids answers to the test so they could pass, its just that big of a deal and half the test doesn’t even make sense!
Yes, I am worrying a little about high school. Especially college. Even more so when I get an adult life. I cant even picture myself that far. I never really could have. My time limit of thinking of the future goes from Leap test to Leap test.
They never taught us social skills, it doesn’t help for them to force us never to talk in the halls from the day we were first enrolled all the way up to 8th grade. They never really taught us how to act. All they ever did was tell us that we were the worst this grade level has ever had. (Oh, I bet you tell that to all your students, but thanks.) They always say what we do is wrong, our grades aren’t high enough, our eating habits aren’t good enough our grammar is wrong, spelling wrong, this paper is wrong, the way we talk wrong, the way we treat each other is wrong, we don’t respect ourselves, we don’t know how to multitask, we didn’t do the paper right so no credit, your unorganized, blah, blah, blah, the list goes on and ON!
Teachers should teach us more than how to score high on the Leap because apparently, we cant do that either. I think that they should get rid of that useless computer class that teaches us crap on Microsoft Word from like what 93-2003 because uh hello, Today, WINDOWS ANYTHING LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THAT AND WORKS DIFFERENTLY! I think that instead of the 90 minute block for English/Language Arts and Math and the 45 for Science and Social Studies (which teaches us nothing on being Social really.) I think that we should have A and B days kind of like in high school were we have two of the core subjects and they are both really long periods of time like the first half of the day. That way we can focus more and learn more, plus, we can actually teach concepts and learn the concepts and most importantly understand the concepts. Especially in Language Arts so kids can know those were way two many ands in that last sentence. We all fail Science big time. Don’t just give us some crap that we don’t understand and expect us to automatically know what to do. Explain it! Maybe give us useful “exploratory classes” were we you know, can explore. Like a REAL interactive health class. Tell us why we should stay healthy instead of just to be healthy. Explain moderation instead of taking away the snacks we loved so much and needed because not all of us can eat the cafateria food. AND ST. CHARLES PARISH, NOT ALL OF US CAN EAT CHEESE AND THOES EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF IT IS UNHEALTHY AND FATTING! Then in P.E. make exercising and sports fun! If the kid doesn’t like sports or have bad nerves such as people like, uh, I don’t know myself, let them run around or jog at a nice pace around the school yard, gym, wherever you are at that moment with some friends. Its fun and healthy! We don’t respect or bodies and too many of middle schoolers are having sex, doing hand jobs, blow jobs, getting pregnant, etc. How about giving us a health class because these kids don’t use protection all the time, and probably don’t put the condoms on right. They also are not very well educated on STDs and sexual health. Its worst to have us be dumb and have sex. They should teach not force abstinence and then explain to them what can happen from sex and especially tell them that if you decide to have sex then how to be safe. Like I said, in every subject some teachers are beginning to force and not teach. And btw, teach kids that if they decide to have sex, the school’s bathroom is probably not the best place. Also, teach us about our bodies and the feelings that we have. There are things in the vagina and I never knew that they were there and I am sure that a lot of these kids don’t know everything about their body parts and I KNOW that they should! We have the right to know how things work down there.
Behavior, you always complain about it, but you never teach us how to deal with ourselves or how to behave and we are not going to be angels when you talk to us like demons. Stop treating us like we are in prison if you don’t want us to end up there. Maybe teach us proper etiquette and also teach us social skills. You’ll need that for college, for any type of interview. Don’t just force the kid from Spain, South America, Central America to learn English but teach us Americans how to speak Spanish too. Not all schools have that. Teach us more about how to respect ourself and others and learn what to say and not to say. I don’t mean brain wash us like they sometimes do but I mean teach them not to make random racial slurs or hurtful or just downright stupid things especially not to say them all out loud in public, yelling it. We all need a little anger management and you cant leave all this stuff up to the parents. They can only teach them so much. You maybe wondering how can we squeeze all this in a day well think about it.
A/B Days
Around 7:10 School starts
7:15-8:00 homeroom-social time, catch up on work study etc, that’s what it should be for
8(:05)-9:30 Math or Ela
9:30(:35)-11 Science or Social Studies
*you can switch the order of the core classes up too*
11-12 lunch/wind down, recess
12(:05)-1 exploratory-health, p/e, behavior studies
1(:05)-2 exploratory-music, anything else etc or switch the order around
See that’s like what six or seven hours of school and you can get all that accomplished. Its productive, stress free, gives you enough time to learn and just soak it all in and also to be social. Being social is a big part of life. Believe it or not, you actually need to know people and how to talk to them and how to behave with other human beings. Wow, and maybe you can throw in a extra hour for “LEAP” practice if it’s all that serious. So over the summer, may someone should check the lesson plans and I don’t know, add some real lessons so kids don’t loose their minds like me or later be among the large number of a adults who don’t know how to be adults and/or function in the real world because I’m confused even with my mommy there J.
