Please Help
Please Help!
An essay:
I got back from school today, a place where educational instruction, training and discipline are for pupils up to 19 years of age or at any level. Or at least that’s what the Oxford dictionary defines the term ‘school’. But what we learned in class was far from educational. Classrooms teachers act like talk show hosts, and where things like the merits of cannibalism are recommended topics for debate. This new approach was meant to help students to think more independently and critically about values. But what are values? We are taught to think for ourselves, to become aware of our own feelings, our own ideas, our own beliefs ...our own value systems. Today a friend of mine (a graduate student from Japan) asked me, "Where's the ‘moral’ in ‘moral education’?"
In these curriculums a lot of time and energy are spent exchanging opinions and exploring feelings, but practically no time is spent providing moral guidance or forming character. The virtues are not explained or discussed, no models of good behavior are provided, and no reason is given why a boy or girl should want to be good in the first place. In short, we students are given nothing to live by or look up to. We come away with the impression that even the most basic values are matters of dispute. Morality, they are likely to infer, is something you talk about in class but not something you need to do anything about. Yesterday we were all asked by the teacher to write an essay and to express our views on morality. One boy, whose essay the teacher must have liked, more than any one else’s said… “Moral values cannot be taught and people must learn to use what works for them. In other words, whatever gets you through the night, it's alright. The essence of civilization is not moral codes but individualism. ... The only way to know when your values are getting sounder is when they please you more.”
A value is essentially what you like or love to do. It is not a need-to but a want-to; at least that is what we’re taught in school. If we are to come up with our own set of values then why did my best friend get five years for pushing drugs on the campus? Our teacher today asked us what the four most popular activites were, and was surprised to find that they were, sex, drugs, drinking and skipping school. When she asked to justify our choices with answers she discovered that, “Everyone drinks and smokes dope. Sex is the best part of life.” In science class, we were told that we all just evolved here by chance, that we are just part of a vicious circle of life. What we do now doesn’t matter, as we will just die, evolve into a better human, or get wiped out by a superior race of mankind. If that is the case, then why? Why must I study? Why can’t I just hang out with my friends and drink? Why did my sister’s boyfriend get stabbed? Why did his murderer get sent to prison? After all there is no right or wrong? What is right, and what is wrong? If my girlfriend cheats on me, why can’t I beat out of her who she is seeing so I can pay him a visit with a lead pipe? If there is no God, and no Devil, then why do we have rules? Why do we learn that we can do what we want, when we want and develop our own values and morals, then get kicked out of school, fined or get sent to jail when we were just doing what feels good? If there is no good, and no evil, then why can’t I slip a drug in the drink of this really cute girl at the party next week? After all it will feel good…and they say that if it feels good then it must be good. Why is there so much violence in school? Why do I have to walk through a metal detector everyday, and then get frisked down by a cop? We can’t blame the gun companies. We have had guns for years and years and never had a problem like we have now. If I think back even fifty years, all the movies, the books, people I have talked to, they all had guns. Back in the early days in America, a man was not a man with out his gun. Every family had at least one gun. Things were a lot tougher and rougher then they are now, and yet they never ever had a problem with guns. Back then, kids as young as twelve and fourteen would take their rifles and go out in the big woods and hunt turkey. It wasn’t a big deal at all; they carried guns with them wherever they would go.
I wonder what it was like to live back then. But all my teachers say is that it was a lot tougher to live back then, then it is now. I still can’t help but think that what they say is a lie. Every day in school I live in fear, fear for my life, fear of failure, fear of not saying the right thing at the wrong time. Sure things physically might have been a lot different back then, but I’m sure kids my age could do a whole lot more than I could right now. They could ride horses, build houses, fix their own things, cook their own food, discover their own land, get married and have kids. Me, all I can do is hack into the telephone server for free internet usage, and send viruses. I can’t cook; I can barely fix my bicycle. And what of my parents? Well back then the parents took time to teach, and show their kids how to run the farms, fix the plow, bake the cake, hunt in the dark and to find your way back home using only the stars. I barely see my parents, except when I need money or to ask for the car keys. Back then the children followed in their parent’s footsteps, if their parents were farmers, then they would be farmers, if their parents were a blacksmith, or a teacher, then that is what the child would become. I don’t want anything to do with my parents. My dad works at the firm, sometimes sixteen hours a day. Mom works at the department store then comes home and watches The Sopranos. To grow up just like them would be worse then anything I can think of.
Please, I’m so scared! I have no one to talk to, they say at school that we can talk to the head shrink there, but he’ll probably just give me some prescription drug to take, He won’t listen to me. Please, is there no one who can help me? I’m all alone with not a single friend in the world. Sure I have a group of people who I call my friends, but are they really my friends? They are probably just as messed up, if not more than I am. The only relief I have found is in alcohol and drugs, but they only give me temporary relief, then when I come off my high, I feel worse then I did before. Is there no one that can just love me for being me? Why do I feel that I constantly have to playing and pretending that I am someone else? If help doesn’t come soon, I might as well end it all. Many people I know have done it, and lots more have tried. I wonder if it will hurt. Where will I go if I die? Is there an afterlife?” I’m holding your pistol and it’s loaded, you have to help me? I am all alone, I’m scared, I am your son. I am the youth of America.
An essay:
I got back from school today, a place where educational instruction, training and discipline are for pupils up to 19 years of age or at any level. Or at least that’s what the Oxford dictionary defines the term ‘school’. But what we learned in class was far from educational. Classrooms teachers act like talk show hosts, and where things like the merits of cannibalism are recommended topics for debate. This new approach was meant to help students to think more independently and critically about values. But what are values? We are taught to think for ourselves, to become aware of our own feelings, our own ideas, our own beliefs ...our own value systems. Today a friend of mine (a graduate student from Japan) asked me, "Where's the ‘moral’ in ‘moral education’?"
In these curriculums a lot of time and energy are spent exchanging opinions and exploring feelings, but practically no time is spent providing moral guidance or forming character. The virtues are not explained or discussed, no models of good behavior are provided, and no reason is given why a boy or girl should want to be good in the first place. In short, we students are given nothing to live by or look up to. We come away with the impression that even the most basic values are matters of dispute. Morality, they are likely to infer, is something you talk about in class but not something you need to do anything about. Yesterday we were all asked by the teacher to write an essay and to express our views on morality. One boy, whose essay the teacher must have liked, more than any one else’s said… “Moral values cannot be taught and people must learn to use what works for them. In other words, whatever gets you through the night, it's alright. The essence of civilization is not moral codes but individualism. ... The only way to know when your values are getting sounder is when they please you more.”
A value is essentially what you like or love to do. It is not a need-to but a want-to; at least that is what we’re taught in school. If we are to come up with our own set of values then why did my best friend get five years for pushing drugs on the campus? Our teacher today asked us what the four most popular activites were, and was surprised to find that they were, sex, drugs, drinking and skipping school. When she asked to justify our choices with answers she discovered that, “Everyone drinks and smokes dope. Sex is the best part of life.” In science class, we were told that we all just evolved here by chance, that we are just part of a vicious circle of life. What we do now doesn’t matter, as we will just die, evolve into a better human, or get wiped out by a superior race of mankind. If that is the case, then why? Why must I study? Why can’t I just hang out with my friends and drink? Why did my sister’s boyfriend get stabbed? Why did his murderer get sent to prison? After all there is no right or wrong? What is right, and what is wrong? If my girlfriend cheats on me, why can’t I beat out of her who she is seeing so I can pay him a visit with a lead pipe? If there is no God, and no Devil, then why do we have rules? Why do we learn that we can do what we want, when we want and develop our own values and morals, then get kicked out of school, fined or get sent to jail when we were just doing what feels good? If there is no good, and no evil, then why can’t I slip a drug in the drink of this really cute girl at the party next week? After all it will feel good…and they say that if it feels good then it must be good. Why is there so much violence in school? Why do I have to walk through a metal detector everyday, and then get frisked down by a cop? We can’t blame the gun companies. We have had guns for years and years and never had a problem like we have now. If I think back even fifty years, all the movies, the books, people I have talked to, they all had guns. Back in the early days in America, a man was not a man with out his gun. Every family had at least one gun. Things were a lot tougher and rougher then they are now, and yet they never ever had a problem with guns. Back then, kids as young as twelve and fourteen would take their rifles and go out in the big woods and hunt turkey. It wasn’t a big deal at all; they carried guns with them wherever they would go.
I wonder what it was like to live back then. But all my teachers say is that it was a lot tougher to live back then, then it is now. I still can’t help but think that what they say is a lie. Every day in school I live in fear, fear for my life, fear of failure, fear of not saying the right thing at the wrong time. Sure things physically might have been a lot different back then, but I’m sure kids my age could do a whole lot more than I could right now. They could ride horses, build houses, fix their own things, cook their own food, discover their own land, get married and have kids. Me, all I can do is hack into the telephone server for free internet usage, and send viruses. I can’t cook; I can barely fix my bicycle. And what of my parents? Well back then the parents took time to teach, and show their kids how to run the farms, fix the plow, bake the cake, hunt in the dark and to find your way back home using only the stars. I barely see my parents, except when I need money or to ask for the car keys. Back then the children followed in their parent’s footsteps, if their parents were farmers, then they would be farmers, if their parents were a blacksmith, or a teacher, then that is what the child would become. I don’t want anything to do with my parents. My dad works at the firm, sometimes sixteen hours a day. Mom works at the department store then comes home and watches The Sopranos. To grow up just like them would be worse then anything I can think of.
Please, I’m so scared! I have no one to talk to, they say at school that we can talk to the head shrink there, but he’ll probably just give me some prescription drug to take, He won’t listen to me. Please, is there no one who can help me? I’m all alone with not a single friend in the world. Sure I have a group of people who I call my friends, but are they really my friends? They are probably just as messed up, if not more than I am. The only relief I have found is in alcohol and drugs, but they only give me temporary relief, then when I come off my high, I feel worse then I did before. Is there no one that can just love me for being me? Why do I feel that I constantly have to playing and pretending that I am someone else? If help doesn’t come soon, I might as well end it all. Many people I know have done it, and lots more have tried. I wonder if it will hurt. Where will I go if I die? Is there an afterlife?” I’m holding your pistol and it’s loaded, you have to help me? I am all alone, I’m scared, I am your son. I am the youth of America.
posted by Shawn at 2:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home