I was horrified to find out that I'd have to miss six periods of my day because of dress rehearsals for the upcoming Winter Festival concert. I was even more dismayed when I realized I'd be missing both an oral exam in Spanish and a test in Biology. I knew I would be able to make them up, but it would take some planning ahead.I spoke with my Spanish teacher and arranged to take the exam after school in her office. Since I have no free periods because of the many classes that I take, I knew I was going to have trouble finding time to make up the Biology test. Fortunately, my orchestra teacher gave us a free period because we had rehearsed earlier during the day, so my teacher and I determined I would be able to take the test 6th period. My friend, who was in the same position, planned on taking the Biology test at the same time as me.
Our dress rehearsal was supposed to end ten minutes into 5th period so we would have half an hour for lunch, but it went longer than expected, leaving us with ten minutes until the end of the period. After putting away my instrument, I had three minutes to eat and review the material I would be tested on the following period. I wolfed down four bites of my sandwich as the bell rang. I jumped up, turning to my friend.
"Ready?" I asked. "I want to get there quickly so we have as much time as possible to take the test."
He looked at me. "No," he replied. "I've waited all day to eat my lunch, and now I'm going to eat it."
"But it's a full-period test! We have to go now!" I said urgently.
"You can go. I'm going to eat first."
I left him there. He ate, while I took the test and listened to my stomach growl. He came to take the test ten minutes later.
I talked about this interaction with another friend later in the day. We discussed that for me, schoolwork was more important than basic needs. I always put schoolwork before sleep, so I'm almost always sleep-deprived. I would forfeit lunch any day if it could help me raise my score on a test or homework assignment. I would never ask to go to the bathroom during class because I could lose participation points for the day.
It's certainly not a healthy way to approach school. The idea of having to make choices between school and needs reminds me of the documentary Race to Nowhere and its description of the misplaced priorities of parents who constantly push their children to try harder and achieve more. It's not always possible, and it's often not even good for the well-being of the student. But how does that problem get fixed?
I totally know how you feel. My advisery and I ran into the same problem last week before our self-defense field trip (which was awesome, nobody should diss it). A lot of the girls in our advisery were like "We can't miss a test, we can't miss school" and my adviser said "You have to live a little sometimes girls". And she was totally right. We can't always be striving after that next test or that next point because it will kill us, we have to take time to smell the roses... or the dojo mat in my case haha.
ReplyDeleteI can relate too! Last week my art class went on an all day field trip to the Field Museum and drew animals all day. They got to take a yellow school bus, eat lunch at the Corner Bakery, and have lots of fun. And I missed it so that I could attend all of my classes! I regret that decision.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this common attitude is a problem. I don't know that it can be fixed as I think it's a personality type- work first play later. Unfortunately, there is rarely time left for fun. If the school more strictly enforced the "no lunch policy" and "no early bird AND summer school policy" or the "no seven majors policy" it would force kids not to take on so much responsibility. Most of the pressure, though, comes from home. A change must be made in the parents and students as much, if not more so.
I feel like school is important, but not so important so as to deprive one of necessary functions, like sleep, or in your friend's case, food. I guess they were really hungry or something, and felt that that was more important. As long as they finished the test on time, I guess it wasn't a problem. I've learned not to be too obsessive about anything. If it gets to the point where you would sacrifice something dear to you to improve in school, say, then maybe you need to take a step back and say, why do I want this so much? Or, ask, "I will do this, but to what end?" Why is it so important? How much will it matter in the future, say, 10 years? That perspective helps.
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