It seems that this year more than ever, it feels like school rules don't, or shouldn't, apply to us seniors. Today, a couple instances highlighted this for me.
My orchestra teacher let us pack up about ten minutes before the bell rang today, which basically never happens. Instead of standing around in the music hallway and staring at each other for ten minutes, most of us decided to just leave and go to our lockers or wherever early. As a freshman, I would have stressed over a school official catching me in the halls and asking for a pass. Today, I didn't even think twice about it.
Then, in second hour, we had an awful and controlling substitute teacher in Spanish class. There was lots of extra time at the end of the day, where we had literally nothing to work on and no activity to do, so a few students took out their phones and iPods. The substitute (who I could go on forever about) took any electronic she saw, and took them to the AP to keep until the end of the day. How awful! We were seniors, we were mature. We were all baffled she was treating us like such children. I use my phone in many of my classes, not hidden but right in front of teachers - they trust me, and never take it away. But then, I suppose, that is actually a school rule... (weird, nobody enforces it anymore).
As we get older we expect more freedom and trust, and often lately I find school rules to be embarrassingly elementary and pointless in nature. Of course I understand that these rules are needed to keep control in many cases, but I must say, instances like these make me feel that we have truly began to outgrow high school and need the freedom of college.
I remember last year seeing some seniors that were supposedly in a gym class wandering the halls, especially the music wing, freely. I mean, they still followed most school rules but if nobody noticed they did their own thing. Most seniors are adults anyway and should be aware of the rules/laws in place, and prioritize which ones are most important.
ReplyDeleteAs for the sub, subs don't know how students in any given class behave or what expectations they are held to. She was probably used to teaching freshmen or something. Also, some teachers still enforce the rule, but they are cool about it, perhaps issuing one warning beforehand.