My Rant to an English Teacher
by MacKenzie WainwrightLife is truly boring to me. I sit in a prison called high school, in a box called a classroom, all day long.
I learn how to take a stupid test. TAKS this, TAKS that*. I won't be taking that stupid test for the rest of my life, but I don't think most of my teachers realize that.
I want to learn about religion and its REAL effects on the world around me. And I don't want to be criticized for not being Christian while I'm at it.
I want to learn BASIC math. You know, the simple stuff, like how to balance a checkbook, but nobody seems to know how because they are too busy doing trig homework.
I want to have class discussions with teens that actually care about what's going on around them
And no, I don't want to hear about how much booty you got last weekend.
I am wrapped in a wet blanket, drowning in a puddle of conformity, and it's killing me. Slowly, but surely, it is killing me.
I hate coming to school. I have nothing to contribute to the common good.
I have nothing to say to the people who use gay and lesbian as derogatory remarks. I would try to make people understand that being gay or lesbian is NOT bad or wrong—it’s a way of life that nobody has the right to make fun of—but they are set in their ways, and then they turn on YOU calling YOU a lezbo or faggot.
I also hate hearing people talk about President George W. Bush like he is doing something right with all this war and killing. I respect your opinion, but I will not be forced into thinking that killing people over oil is right. And after I protested against the War in Iraq last year, I was labeled unpatriotic and stupid. SO WHAT?!
I don't care what you or anybody else thinks about me. I am me and nobody will change that.
I just hope that sooner or later someone will realize how boring it is to have all the same opinions and thoughts!
We are not the Borg.
At
least I'M not.
And I WILL NOT be
assimilated.
MacKenzie is a youth from First Jefferson Unitarian Universalist (UU) in Fort Worth, TX.
*TAKS is the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The TAKS exam is a standardized test given at the end of grades 3-8 and 10 in the spring of each year in Texas. This exam replaced the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills in the spring of 2003.
For more information contact youth @ uua.org.
Last updated on Saturday, April 19, 2008.
