Sunday 2 November 2008

Life

This post was originally going to be a rant about school, entitled “Bails Over” however thinking about it I decided to combine this one and another article I had been planning about life in general. Although as I began to think about them both the more I began to realize that the arguments were entwined. Therefore (especially after the amount of time between this article and the last) you lucky people will receive a double article –and you thought you’d gotten rid of me, unlucky!!-.

From my point of view, however green and misguided, we have been given life and hopefully friends and family too. That is all that matters; our experiences, for all we know all we get on this earth is this time we are living and breathing now. Whatever you believe, immortal soul or not (etc.) what really matters to people is that they can actually LIVE. It is our experiences that colour everything and I feel that school has started to become a leech draining the colour from the paint I should be using on the tapestry of my life.

I DO NOT want to be spending my spare time doing CHEMISTRY. I DO NOT want to be doing ART until I am blue in the face. I DO NOT  want to be restricted from the act of living by the amount of REVISION I am burdened with. Therefore through this blog post, to you, I rebel. We are not tools to be worked until we are blunt. We need our free time to spend doing  what we wish, to at it’s BEST experience life for the sake of life! We spend five days a week at school to be burdened with homework, to which in my mind has no consequential effect on my education.  We WORK all DAY only to be sent home with work to fill our WEEKENDS and to keep us working WEEKNIGHTS until DUSK. Drastic changes need to occur rapidly to save others.

The matter of the fact is that even some teachers feel that the homework set is unnecessary and that we should be able to live, to actually develop ourselves as people rather than in knowledge which is not the be all and end all. However it is not in their hands as they must meet the targets set by the government or face the chop.

The government have a tendency to throw deadlines at people without studying the cases properly or so it would seem. Teachers must teach the whole curriculum and in some cases there is not even enough time allotted for teachers to do this, So they set homework to fulfill this, however wrong. Teachers should be there for the teaching of subjects not leaving topics to pupils to learn or what is the point of school? We might as well be handed books and left to our own devices. No but this is not the only reason for homework the government JUDGES school on the amount of homework they give! USE YOUR BRAIN ONCE IN A WHILE PLEASE!!! This should not be the aim of homework at all, this forces school into a position of giving unduly homework; working the students hard and thin over their work.

Another EXCUSE is ’practice’ why should we practice? Shouldn’t time be allotted for this in class? So then if we are making errors it can be addressed by the teacher on a personal level. I except revision as it is necessary so that we can be examined but how can we be expected, reasonably to revise when our work load fails to depreciate at that time. Different subjects fail to communicate as they selfishly think only of their own targets. Don’t they realize that unless they work together how can we possibly hope to satisfy their combined demands? Do they wish to sacrifice use for targets, leaving us as drones. I seriously hope not.

We NEED to be able to go and have fun, LAUGH and talk; the things children should be able to do without being harrowed by our immortal task master, school. Something, ANYTHING, needs to be done to change this. My only message is to enjoy Life as it is the essence of LIVING. Happiness is, in the end, all that matters and all we strive for. If you want to add your point of view, especially antagonistic ones please don’t hesitate to comment!

Live, Matthew.