C/D and E/F - What truths will you write about tomorrow?
Lesson Recap
First anecdote: Student Sample 1
This was an accomplished piece. What was really good? What needs improving? +1 for any contributions
It was a sweltering day in Jerudong International School. I strolled into school, picturing the regular school day that I was routinely following. Little did I know that it was not a day for normality, but rather, a day for change. Ever since I had arrived at JIS, I had kept a mental note on how people of the same race stuck with the people of the same race. However, I had never questioned the mentality of the system that we were following blindly. Instead, I followed the crowd, like lemmings jumping off a cliff after watching others do it. I mean,after all, everyone was following it. Who was I compared to everyone else? Soon, I realised that my graduation ceremony was approaching rapidly. I was elated. It seemed that we were ready to evolve and that we were finally able to move on onto the next chapter of our life. Everybody should be able to participate in the celebration of our newfound maturity, I thought to myself. I was wrong. As the day went by, it seemed that my newfound maturity had an impact on how I saw actions now. Things like who spoke, who did this and who did that at our ceremony, all of a sudden, came into a clearer perspective, like I had just put on a brand new pair of glasses that let me see the world more clearly. It hit me. This was injustice. This was unfairness. This was inequity. From the favourites who were chosen whenever to do receive every privilege, 'earn' praise, or the outcasts who would simply stand at the figurative and literal back of the stage and be stepping stones just for the favourites to step on us then kick us away. I had to do something. I started acting out in class, telling my fellow outcasts how the graduation was going to play out or about the pure injustice of the situation. I listened to how they had noticed these signs of injustice but were not comfortable with speaking out loud about it, only in their mind. Eventually, fortunately or unfortunately for me, my teacher Mrs Ramsay noticed the rebellion in my actions, how I was no longer one of her soldiers that would do anything she would say. She noticed I had changed. She ordered me to step outside of the classroom and, on the outside, I willingly obeyed. However, on the inside, my mind was racing with, what should I say, is this worth it and how am I going to get her to see that she doesn’t. “What is the issue today? You are usually such an obedient student.” she stated. My mind’s mouth gaped open with shock. How could she be so oblivious to the obvious problem that impacted my classmate and I’s learning. I tried to stay calm as I started off my conversation with, “ I am so sick of how most teachers in this school pick favourites or have a bias to students. What makes your favourites like Jemima, Enya, Daniel better than any of the other kids or I in the classroom?” By now, the calm aura I had tried to retain was completely gone. In replacement was a blazing fire that enticed me to let the fire burn. As I passionately ranted on and on about how she abused power to give her favourites a higher platform to stand on and more opportunities, the weights that haunted me like “Blind Obedience” and “Conformity” had been thrown down a canyon, never to be seen again. As she interjected every 2 minutes to say, “I understand.” I knew she didn’t. She didn’t try to understand or couldn’t comprehend how any of the non-favorite students felt and how we saw food meant for all of us was stripped away and given to her favorites, making them stronger and more powerful. After our talk, I felt relieved. I had previously done my duty to my parents by telling them about the violation of fairness in the situation and apparently my mom had gone to talk to Mrs Ramsay about it. But after this talk, I felt like I had done my duty to myself to be able to speak up for not only myself, but for others. However, nothing about the graduation changed. The same favorites still spoke their rehearsed words of praise (mostly to Mrs Ramsay). I was the only outcast in my class who performed in the assembly to sing. Looking back to it now, I could have stayed quiet. After all, I had a part of the assembly unlike the rest of my classmates, standing quietly, watching their opportunity to be part of something fly away like feathers in the wind. But I realise the reason why I did do what I did is because I felt strongly and I wouldn’t allow the topic to be untouched anymore. So for my prior classmates, I wish that you all can learn how to stand up for others and yourself in cases of injustice for your future. From this experience, I learnt that the person I am is a collection of many perspectives, like mirrors in a carnival, and I can choose a compass to follow that will lead me to a different direction.
