I was always one of those people that went through our public eduction system “spitting and cursing”, so to speak. Granted I had my troubles behaving, and I was a class clown of sorts, but more than either of these I was a rabble-rouser. I very early on found myself wanting to challenge the system (think my entire family being teachers had anything to do with this), and even setting out to do things that would alone put me in a position to expose the injustices.

I was in a program in Elementary that was called “GATE”, I have no idea what it meant, but it was about as elitist a program as you could find. I was once informed by one of my “GATE” teachers that I was hanging out with the wrong crowd. I had friends in my classes sure, but my real best friends were two boys who were by no means any less intelligent than I, and by all means applied themselves less and caused more trouble. I was told not to hang out with them anymore, me age 10, being told that my friends were not good enough for me. I grew up with those two in my life for many more years, had amazing memories made with them, and still have contact with them to this day.

In High School it was less about the system telling me point blank what I should do, and more about them telling everyone what we shouldn’t do. Over my years I witnessed headwear being banned, girls being told their straps on their tank tops weren’t thick enough, and oh by the way, anything sexy or attractive about the opposite sex will distract us from our tasks (me, personally, I always tried to impress the cute girls with my knowledge and charm). I took up the cause of thousands of other kids who sat in a class where they already knew everything in the text book when I refused to stay in my Calculus class (after being moved out of the Advanced Placement Calculus class at the first half of the semester for having a C).

In college it was me, in Oral Communications, refusing to do outlines for my speeches, because I simply didn’t need them to give speeches that were only graded B’s because of said lack of outline. It was me in Image Manipulation sticking up for the random kid who was getting butchered in review by one sole person for absolutely no reason. It was me in Digital Illustration refusing to use layers; having to correct the teachers lecture errors until I finally left the class. It was me in Drawing & Perspective refusing to shade the boring pieces of fruit; turning in a series of handgun illustrations on velum complete with red spray paint splatter and packaged in a “decon” mailing envelope. It was me in a constant battle with my AD over me; taking classes “out of order”, testing out of classes and dealing with grading injustices. It was me again, in my last stand, fighting against an automatic fail in my Law class (which was due to me missing too many classes, because my Mother was in the hospital).

Growing up today I would be driven insane by some of the control placed over kids and young adults; uniforms at school (though honestly I kind of wish I had to wear slacks and a sweet blazer every day), classrooms split up by gender, arts and music disappearing from the classroom, test scores being the only sign of progress. I mean look at how I shrug off “proper” grammar and “conventional” writing styles alone, I have become a monster. It is all this that has been brought into my mind by reading about the plight of one young man who it seems pretty evident is cast in a similar mold to my own. It’s a story more people should hear and care about. Taking away the freedoms of our youth, to me, is even more of a travesty than taking away the freedoms of a grown adult. We have a voice, we can vote, who will will speak for the youth?

Popularity: 85% [?]

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « Super Bowl Logos.
• » Obligatory Super Bowl Post.

• BROWSE / IN Design Family Friends Life Personal Rants
• « Super Bowl Logos.
• » Obligatory Super Bowl Post.

• RELATED / YOU MIGHT FIND THESE INTERESTING
Tips for Lip Biters....