Double Standards: Teachers vs. Students

There are many double standards that I could talk about, but in this post, I'm going to talk about the double standards between teachers and students, as it is the issue that has come up the most. Teachers get away with so much more than students do. I'll start with something that happened recently. A teacher was talking about how us packing up before she dismisses us is a pet peeve of hers, and that she wasn't going to change. By saying this, she was implying that we should change because she wasn't going to. But why should we have to change? I know it's not a big thing, but we should all give a little and take a little.

Second example. Students often get penalized for turning things in late, but if teachers don't grade things or hand papers back within a reasonable amount of time, nothing happens, and sometimes they even become angry with us when we ask where our work is. In one class, a teacher hasn't handed back a paper or test that we did and took in January, and in another class, a teacher hasn't handed back a paper that we did in November or December.

Third example. At my school, there is a strict policy on being late. If you are one of more minutes late (for no apparent reason), you are subject to an unexcused tardy (or UT). If you are five or more minutes late, you are subject to an unexcused absence (or UA). I am not complaining about the rules, as they are understandable. However, many teachers are frequently late to classes, seemingly without reason or reprecussions. One teacher was even twenty-five minutes late to her forty-five minute long class. If a student is five minutes late, we get a UA, but if a teacher is twenty-five minutes late, it seems like nothing happens.

Fourth example. We have a chapel. It's not faith-based. We have speakers (usually teachers and students who are seniors) who talk about anything significant that they feel like talking about. We're not allowed to speak during chapel. One day, it was a teacher's chapel talk and he talked about how he is an Atheist and how people should actually think about what they believe and not just believe something because their parents do or out of fear. Another teacher stood up at the near end of the chapel talk, shouted "God Bless You!", then stormed out. From what I know, she didn't have to apologize or anything. I also know that if one of us, as students, had pulled a stunt like that, at the very least, we would have had to apologize to the chapel speaker, and probably to the school.

Last example. At my school, we have an Honor Code. Breaking the honor code is worse than breaking a regular rule. Honor code violations include lying, stealing, cheating, breaking into boys/girls dorms, etc. Recently, there have been a few Honor Committee (HC) meetings involving girls who broke into their boyfriends' dorm rooms. The punishments given were off-campus suspensions and academic probations. However, there are also unmarried teachers (among others) who many students have seen going over to each other's houses late at night and not leaving until the next morning. I understand that it is different, as they are adults, and we are teenagers. But is it not the same "crime"? I'm not trying to pick on anyone, but I just don't think it's fair.

If you're going to set an example, you should set a good one. You can't set a bad example and then wonder why we do the things that we do.

Stereotypical Stereotypes

What is a stereotype? An expectation? Something to live by?
I think about this question a lot because it is often brought to my attention. But it's not so much what is a stereotype, but why do they exist and why do we follow them. America is supposed to be a smart country, but why do we follow such poor examples. Men are smarter than women, blondes are stupid, Asians are smart, preps, jocks, nerds, etc...... They come in all different types. Some say that a type of people act a certain way because of their race, religion, looks, education, the list goes on. But I think to myself, what stereotype am I? Do other people see me as a stereotype? These are the things I ask myself when people glance at me...do the people I hang out with make me follow a stereotype? Is normal....a sterotype? Does personality even matter any more in today's society? Or is it soley based on...an assumption...a stereotype? If I struggle for 21 odd years to get the best education possible and get a great job, does it matter? Was it worth it? If people are just going to make me who they want me to be or who I am in their heads, without even getting to know me or without getting past things...what's the point? I think about all of this almost every second of the day, and I will continue to think about it forever....because everyone thinks....no matter who they are or are seemed to be. Life never stops. You enter the world, live your life, and leave the world. Rarely are you remembered, except by the one's you love. I want to make a mark on the world, I don't want to be a stereotype. I want to be me. I want to be a Shyla....

Sex Sells, Pt. 1

"S.E.X. Take a deep breath and think before you let it go."

-- 'S.E.X' by Lyfe Jennings

The song 'S.E.X.' by Lyfe Jennings is possibly the only song I know (and I know a lot of songs) that tells you to think before you "give it up" to someone. In our society, a lot of songs are about having sex. These songs usually degrade women and make sex something dirty. And sex shouldn't be a dirty thing, especially when it's done in the right circumstances. I believe in waiting until you get married to have sex -- not just because it's the "Christian thing to do", but because a girl's/woman's virginity is really something special. It's something that you can only give away once, and it really is the ultimate gift you could give someone. I go to a church camp every summer, and last summer when everyone was leaving, some counselors (all male counselors) and older students (all female students) stayed behind and talked to the younger students (a mix of male and female) who weren't leaving for awhile. They started talking about how your virginity is the ultimate gift that you could give any guy and how if you give your virginity away before you get married, you really have nothing to give your husband. I had never really thought of it that way, but I realized that what they said was true. Even in the world of prostitution, a lot of customers pay more for younger girls who claim to still have their virginity (sometimes these claims are lies).

Now, I'm really not trying to put down people who have sex before they're married. But if you are my age (around fifteen years old) and think that you are ready, I ask you this question. Are you emotionally and financially ready to accept the consequences, whether good or bad? If the answer is no, then I really think that you are not ready to have sex. Even though it may not exactly seem like it in the society that we live in, sex is a really big deal. And no, everyone else is not doing it. I actually know a lot of teenagers (not to mention adults) who look down on young people who have sex. And it's not because people are against them. People simply don't think that most teenagers are ready for the responsibility that comes with having sex. And yes, I do understand that it is not the 1940s and people don't have sex just to have kids anymore. But regardless, you still need to be ready and responsible.

In America, people get nervous when sex is talked about, even more nervous when the urge is acted upon, and most conversations where it is talked about are just awkward, to put it simply. Teenagers who haven't had sex tend to be really sexual, and say really sexual things because it's basically a foreign and unknown territory to them. People who have had sex just want to keep it on the DL (well, some people...), and would rather not talk about it or anything related to it. And I ask, why is sex always depicted in the media? Songs, books, movies, television shows. It's hard to go through your day without seeing anything about sex. Why is that? And why is it considered a dirty thing, and not something sweet that is shared between two people who love each other?

Maybe it's because we've made it into a dirty thing, and it's not always between two (...or three, or four) people who love each other...

Stay tuned for Part Two.

Remembering MLK...

April 4th, 1968. On this day, Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered by James Earl Ray (there are still some disputes regarding whether or not James Earl Ray was actually the one who killed MLK). Forty years later, on the anniversary of his death, we wonder, "What happened to the dream? Is it still alive? Would MLK be satisfied with the way we live today?" I would say that if Martin Luther King Jr. was still alive, he would applaud how far we've come, yet still be disappointed. Although I did not live during the civil rights movement, as a young black teenager, I think that we haven't come as far as we should have in forty years, not just in terms of equality, but in terms of where the world should be in 2008. In our world today, there is so much blatant hatred of each other, so much senseless violence. It even makes me wonder how long I'm going to live when people are killed everyday for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's ridiculous. MLK would probably be disappointed with this, especially with the fact that black people are killing off other black people. It might come to a point where there are none of us left, though I'm sure some people would be happy about that. He might tell us not to give others the satisfaction of us killing each other off. I know he would applaud the fact that the two people in the Democratic party who are running for president are Barack Obama, a black man (well, he's mixed. His father was African and his mother is white), and Hillary Clinton, a white woman. And they both actually have a fair shot at it. He would look down upon the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, which the United Nations hasn't labeled a genocide because the people responsible have vetoing powers in the U.N. (China and Russia). He would also look down on what happened during Hurricane Katrina. It happened in late August of 2005. It's three years later and New Orleans isn't even close to being rebuilt. My cousin went there for spring break to help out and she says that except for one district, it looks like the storm hit yesterday. He would probably look down on the fact that the KKK is still out there and has a website and parades. Yes, parades. It seems as though no matter how far we've come, we still have a lot farther to go. His dream would most likely still be the same. All he wanted was for us to all get along and live in peace. What was so wrong with that?