Power in the School Yard

Schools have always interested me. Being a part of the schooling system for 12 years, I have learned a lot on how they work and operate – especially at the high school level. Many schools, no matter their academic record – have hypocrisy breeding within them. Examples include the fact that mobile phones are not to be used, not arriving late and so on, but the teachers seem to break every rule. Its inevitable cause stems from the pure fact that the school authority cannot be challenged under most circumstances.

Control

Narrowing our focus down from the school as a whole – to an individual classroom we find some interesting things. Firstly, it is common knowledge that the teacher has the power and the students are under their command. Whilst the teacher can use this power to control the student body and encourage them to focus on the work, they can also abuse their power.

The two types of power abuse I will talk about are the disciplinary actions and the grudge based, and poor decisions.

Disciplinary Actions

I will start off with the less severe, yet concerning problem of handing out punishments. The schools are setup in such a way that the student is unable to fend for himself. Consider the following scenario.

Suppose there is a student who takes public transport to school. If this student arrived late to school in the morning twice or thrice, and the teacher being rash as most of them are, gives a detention, what can the student do?

There is only one thing he can do – that is to attend the detention.

This system is grossly unfair and open for abuse. The abuse of this power, which in a school environment is inevitable, can surmount to bullying of particular students, handing out ridiculous punishments for petty things and so on.

Enforcement of Rules

Breeding from this insane power difference between the two concerned parties (students and teachers) is the ability to enforce any rule without any expense to the administration. From this, there operates two sets of rules – one for the teachers and the other for the students.

The difference between these sets of rules is carefully illustrated by the fact that teachers can be as late as they want for their class, however, students are not, and by the fact that students wear uniforms and there is no apparent dress code for the teachers. Some go as far as not being able to wear clothing other than the school uniform in general circumstances such as cold weather (e.g. scarfs, beanies) as it is not in the uniform list. I personally have been told a couple of times to remove my beanie as I was walking to school by teachers. How revolting. These differences are unnecessary and should be removed to make it a fair environment.

I’ll extend this argument further to uncover the fact that many schools attempt to reach out their influence past the school ground. It is now a fact that at any time you are in uniform, you have to observe the school rules at all costs. While that is extreme but holds some fairness, schools tend to argue that their students must observe the school rules whilst on the internet. Be mindful of the fact that students aren’t even in the school – so why should they be obliged to follow the school rules. Do the teachers behave responsibly at the pub when they are passed out on the floor? How are they able to escape the school rules?

Unfairness in Marking

Following on from that, is the concept of grudges and unfair marking. Whilst this seems like an impossible thing to happen in a school – it does happen. I have heard many stories of this sort of dodgy marking going on – and it has adverse consequences which not many people realise. These situations can arise from a variety of conditions such as the student questioning the teacher, being spontaneous with smart aleck comments and a whole other host of reasons which are invisible to the naked eye.

What are the consequences of teachers abusing their marking rights? One of the many reasons is that the discrimination can cause a student to detest the subject and hence ignore it; it can also lead the student to frustration and breed a sense of hopelessness. It can impact on a student’s self-confidence if he feels that all his efforts are being wasted and so on.

Currently, if a teacher happens to dislike a student, he/she is free to give them low grades without any reason simply because there aren’t any adequate services that protect the student’s ability to question the marking. If a student were to question the teacher’s mark – they would face even more problems. This type of injustice is further supported by the fact the teachers are never trained to mark in a similar way, rather they are able to roam free with their marking systems and how the grade the work.

Once again it is interesting to see how it is expected that students should arrive at one answer (as per the criteria sheet), yet teachers are not restricted in that way. The hypocrisy is outrageous and has a negative impact on students. Over two years, I have had a teacher who readily hands out A and A+ and a teacher who prefers to give B and C. If the standard varies in this degree, how are students supposed to know what is right and what is wrong?

Another example of this depressing system comes from a practise exam. One student who wrote a three page essay achieved 3/10 from his teacher. Another student who wrote about 8 bullet points achieved 2/10 from another teacher. Is this even remotely fair?

Freedom Of Speech Restricted?

As a result, the entire concept of ‘talking back’ to a teacher becomes impossible – because in essence, the student is utterly powerless in all circumstances whereas the teachers are able to do whatever they fancy without any consequences for themselves.

It is easy to say that these circumstances never arise in the schooling system; however, it is important to know that for these circumstances to be recognised, they need to be publicised. Of the few students who are affected by this – it is unlikely that even one of them would come forward and explain their situation – simply because they know that nothing will be achieved and that it will only exacerbate the problem even further. The very concept of things not existing because we don’t know it should be relinquished.

After witnessing these occurrences, I have created a Power Point presentation on the changes that I think need to be made to the schooling system to make it a more pleasant place to work, learn and play.

This presentation requires Microsoft Power Point 2007 or the Office 2007 compatibility pack for Office 2003. If you do not have either of those, then there is a PDF which contains all the slides in static form. Viewing this document requires Adobe Acrobat Reader – which can be downloaded free from the Adobe website.

Click here to go to the presentation

Pak vs. Australia Classic Moments

I have compiled a set of photos which have been captioned from the match. The photos are from CricInfo

There is a document version which is a PDF which means you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. However, there are also images which you can view as well from the site.

Enjoy!

Link: http://rklabs.free0host.com/cmauspaktest.html

RK Labs Open

I have created a site RK Labs which will complement and work in conjunction with this blog. It is there to host a wide variety of items such as my rocket designs (which will soon appear) as well as host multimedia content which might be blogged about on this site.

This site is unfortunately, still in construction. Therefore there will be some content missing, and I apologize for that. I opened this site so readily as I needed a host to allow for the hosting of multimedia files.

I hope you enjoy the site and I look forward to you comments (which can be left in the “Your Say” section, or alternatively, can be a comment on this blog post.

Click Here to go to RK Labs

A Sydney Test

In 2008, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) hosted the infamous India vs. Australia match which was marred with dishonest cricket. It was an entertaining session of cricket as the umpire decisions were horribly wrong at every corner. In amongst that was the Harbhajan saga in which he was accused of calling Symonds a monkey. Funnily enough, about a year later the Australia Cricket Board found that Harbhajan was correct and proceeded to drop Symonds permanently. It all ended with Kumble publicly saying that “only one team played with the spirit of the game”.

Two years on, another controversial and interesting match had occurred. This time it was Pakistan and Australia. Thankfully, this time the umpires and other officials were not involved.

It all started on Day 1, when the sky was grey and the covers were on during the first session of the match. Once the skies cleared up, the green pitch was revealed for all to see. At the toss, a confident Ricky Ponting chose to bat first. Pakistan took to the field with Sami and Asif leading the devastating attack on the Australians which started with 2/2 proceeding onto 3/10 and so on. In the end, Australia was dismantled for a mere 127 in the remaining two sessions of the day.

Overnight, headlines of Ponting’s terrible decision resonated throughout the media – with claims that this was the biggest blunder Ponting had ever made.

Day 2, Pakistan was batting. Farhat and Butt took control to get a 100 run partnership. Yousuf and Umar Akmal held on after that to drive Pakistan home with a 206 run lead. With such a lead, many were confident Pakistan would be able to complete the job and perhaps win by and innings even.

The next day, Day 3, Australia resumed batting after getting the last wicket in the first over of play. Here Watson and Hughes managed to create a 100 run partnership and were going on very nicely. However, Kaneria and Gul brought that to an end by claiming the wickets of Hughes and Watson (on 97). Although Australia had surpassed the deficit, they were only 80 runs ahead at the end of day’s play. They were also 8 wickets down. Many, were confident Pakistan would finish off the rest of the game in due time.

Day 4. This is where everything became very interesting and unusual. Mohammed Yousuf, Pakistan’s captain decided to use the most defensive field in the game. It is important to keep in mind that Australia was effectively 8/80 with Hussey and Siddle at the crease. Instead of cramping the batsman and placing the pressure on them from the very first ball, Yousuf mysteriously placed everyone on the fence – literally. Consequently, any mistiming of the ball or loose shots were wickets thrown away. As a result, the batsmen were in no pressure what so ever and built up a lead of 176 runs. After the lunch breaks the two quick wickets were taken. Once Pakistan got into bat, they all collapsed to a measly 139 rendering them the losers. Another chance thrown away.

I think it is pretty safe to say that Australia did not win the match – rather Pakistan lost it. The difference in my statement is that Pakistan just threw away the game, rather than the Australians stealing the game away. The result of the match does not make Ponting’s decision to bat first a brilliant tactical decision. Hussey is not a hero, sure he made a century – but it was one of the easiest batting conditions a batsman can ever have. The Australian batsmen, in the first session of Day 4 at least, had to try to get out in order to do so. Australia just got “lucky” that Pakistan made an unusual decision to lose.

Mohammed Yousuf did the most disastrous thing he could possibly do. To put his fielding tactics into perspective, two batsmen, who are under some pressure to salvage the tattered remains of their team’s dignity, come into a new day’s play, and instead of keeping that pressure, the opposition has the wicket keeper, a slip catcher and the bowler near the batsmen and everyone else in the crowd. Why he would do such a thing is a mystery.

The fact that Pakistan hasn’t won a great deal of test matches does not account for any part of Yousuf’s decision simply because simply anyone knows that the lower the opposition scores the better it is for your team. In a test match when there is very little chance for a draw, one knows that an attacking attitude is the best approach no matter what the situation is.

Whether the score is 8/80, 8/800 or 8/8,000,000,000 everyone knows that you have got to stop the flow of runs by taking the wickets. You can’t take wickets when every one of your fielder is on the fence. So the fact that 8/80 for Mohammed Yousuf may have seemed too big of a task to complete is not a valid argument.

We all make mistakes; hence Yousuf may have made a tactical mistake by placing everyone on the field. However, we expect one to rectify their mistakes in one way or another. Yousuf did the exact opposite. He did not take an attacking approach for a very long time. Up until lunch, it was a free batting gift for Australia. As one of the commentators cleverly put it, it looked like batting practise in the nets out there.

Lastly, even the Pakistani bowlers seemed agitated at the fielding placements. How Asif, Sami could and Gul, three brilliant bowlers, bowl to the batsman knowing the chances of getting a wicket is slim to none. Asif tried reasoning with Yousuf, but all in vain. The captain would not budge. Every single person watching that match would have realised why Pakistan were bleeding runs when they should be batting and winning the match. How could a tactical mastermind such as Yousuf not pick what the mistake was?

One could say that Yousuf may have made an error similar to Ponting. However, that is not quite so. Firstly, Yousuf had multiple opportunities to change his decisions. Secondly, Ponting is an arrogant individual who believed that Pakistan was a weak side and that he would easily be able to seek glory in challenging conditions and perhaps boast how brilliant his team was. Of course, that led to his downfall.

In my opinion, Yousuf’s strange fielding tactics which varied heavily from the previous day was a deliberate attempt. I cannot see a legitimate reason as to why his decision was an “accident”. No captain in the world, no matter his experience would suddenly lose confidence overnight, after three days of utter domination. It is just not possible. He wanted to lose and that is exactly what he did. Bizarre, I know. The reasons as to why he did it are unknown, and perhaps will remain unknown. It is just farfetched to say it was an ‘accident’ or ‘coincidence’. For the sake of Pakistan cricket, I would recommend the board to investigate how these losses are occurring.

A New Year, A New Decade, 2010

To all my readers, I wish you a Happy New Year!

Hopefully, you all have set your new year’s resolutions and will see them through the coming year. I am sure the turn of the decade will bring some excitement and thrills which we would not normally expect. I hope it will be a brilliant year.

As you may know, I haven’t posted a blog for a while – perhaps for over a month or so. I apologise to those who enjoy reading my posts, but I simply did not have much to write about. However, over the coming months I shall make an attempt to fill up my blog with more articles which a wide range of audience can engage in. As usual if you want to post anything or would like something to be posted on this blog – feel free to contact me.

Once again I wish you a happy new year, and take care over the summer holidays.

Valedictory Dinner [Part 3]

[…Continued from Part 2]

In my opinion, those teachers who walked out because they got attacked in a song deserved to get offended. The attacks were justified, especially those who think they are the of the royal class and think that they should be treated like gods. Perhaps teaching in a old, ageing castle for some time has given them that impression. It is unknown if they returned or not, but if they had not returned they weren’t worthy enough to be there anyway, they had a free dinner by all means – it was the students who paid for their seats.

To those who think that the song showed a lack of appreciation should really take some time to think about what they are talking about. The success of any student is not because of their teacher. If that were the case, everyone would get 99.95 as their ENTER score (which is not possible). A student’s success lies through their hard work, persistence, parents, external resources and the help and mateship of other students. While teachers have some impact on the student’s overall success it does not warrant a 100% attribution of success to their name.

It is about time that those teachers who attempt to maintain dictatorship in schools – by ordering students around, taking out their petty anger out on us and assuming that they are the best and are always right – realise that they are not our masters, rather they should be working in collaboration with us. They cannot be viewed to be higher than their students – ever. Fortunately, there are some teachers which have the capability to do that – the others should learn from them.

Moving back to the dinner function, the principal had his say and apologised for his colleague’s statement that we are the worst Year 12s in the school history. One wonders how the teaching staff thought that was appropriate, yet a song attacking them was out of bounds. Double standard rubbish really. After his apology, the principal then went on to take back his forced apology by saying that our cohort had worried them. Sadly, he was not told that the certain teaching staff had worried the student body – most students will agree on that.

Finally, it was our school captain who addressed us. Before he began he informed us that he had not prepared his speech – which is extremely brave on his part. He started off by thanking the staff, and went on to state that all of us actually wanted to be there. Many laughed, including myself (I remember counting down to the end). He also stated that in previous years, many of Melbourne Highs students view that they are granted to be successful and more intelligent than the other students – not surprising considering that their teachers have a similar view. The captain wanted this to change and rightfully so – however, he slipped up when saying that the other students weren’t “that stupid”. Funny nonetheless.

Dessert was served, and it was delicious. Sugar was compressed and coloured brown to represent a cake and it was very good. Many were unable to devour the entire thing as they had filled up on too much coke and lemonade.

Once that was all done, the function was over. Many students took the time to take photos, class photos and other group shots. Others discussed about holidays and the future. Some walked around giving handshakes.

Overall it was a good function, great experience being with friends. Not sure if it was necessary to charge each student $65 and let the teachers with their fat paycheque in for free. I don’t know why the school couldn’t have allocated some money to respect the Year 12s who give the school it’s elitist reputation year after year and farewell them without asking for anything in return. Perhaps they needed to make a profit for their big Christmas bonus. Who knows.

I realise that this post is going to cause a lot of hate directed at me, especially by those who are in love with the school and think that displaying some of many faults of school is heresy.

Got a problem? Comment below.

Valedictory Dinner [Part 2]

[…Continued from Part 1]

Once inside we were served with soft drinks. Chamath and Hojo happened to take a soda water by accident. Carbonated water is often difficult to drink. In disgust, Hojo poured his drink and Chamath’s drink into the bin. At this point in time – the rest of the group was entertained by the fact that Hojo had used a bin as a sink. However, Chamath sealed it all by saying “I don’t want to look like as if I’ve finished my drink”. While the rest of us still had half a glass of drink, his glass was empty – devoid of any ice cubes as well.

Once inside, we were seated. The random seating arrangements that the school allowed meant that groups were quickly split up. When the function started, our school vice captain took to the miniature stage and addressed the crowd. During his speech, he bagged invidual students which created some laughter. Along with that he thanked the school staff for doing their jobs and for providing the services they are paid to do. Although our vice-captain failed to mention the great efforts of my form 12B, who appreciated the teachers for completing their duties as set out by their paycheques, by giving them presents and cards. Very thoughtful indeed. Then again, I shouldn’t be so ill about it, as I am enjoying my gift from the school… which was nothing. In any case, it was a decent gesture since it is better to give than to get.

The foundation of gift giving is reciprocity, you haven’t given me a gift, you’ve given me an obligation… The essence of the custom is that I now have to go out and purchase for you a gift of commensurate value and representing the same perceived level of friendship as represented by the gift you’ve given me.
- Sheldon Cooper, PhD [Big Bang Theory]

Seems like the ‘obligation’ was not completed.

According to most people, the entree did not live up to their expectations. Many including myself questioned the true worth of the occasion – was it really worth $65? It was agreed that there could be a profit margin associated with the event, but the leading accountant Hojo did not agree to do the math.

Next up was the vice-principal. He too had his say about the hard work of the school. He brought back some memories of the year, as did the two Year 12 co-ordinators. They discussed about the smoking saga and the physics disaster. These recounts were impressive. The vice principal dwelled into the formal and social girls which started to get creepy, but it was in all good fun, I would hope.

Dinner was served. There were two dishes, but instead of having a choice we were allocated a dish – in an alternating fashion such that the people next to you got the other dish to yours. It is very reflective of school, in the way that you do as you are told, there is no such thing as choice. Luckily the chicken and rice/risotto dish was quite delicious.

Some students entertained the crowd with some music. One band sang two songs. The first of which is “We will miss you Melbourne High”. It was a great song highlighting the interactions of the students throughout the year. It was well appreciated by the entire crowd. However, their next song “Melbourne High Teachers, What the fuck?” caused some controversy. In this song, they attacked the teachers and bagged them. Most teachers got a mention. At the end of that song, many teachers walked out in disgust. I found that song funny – as did most of the other students.

[Continued in Part 3…]

Valedictory Dinner [Part 1]

Valedictory Dinner – a farewell function hosted by the school for its Year 12 students. As it was the last event of the school year – many turned up. After much prolonged thought, I too attended to see what the school can cook up.

December 3rd, Chamath and I caught the new Metro trains – also known as the rebranded Connex trains to Caulfield. Along the way, I was enlightened of Muqi’s ‘embarrassing’ moment. Apparently at Speech Night (which my attendance will be briefly discussed in the next paragraph) Muqi and his parents were attempting to exit the parking lot via the boom gates. It seems that the ticket machine which controls the boom gate did not accept their ticket – as a result the operator told them to put their credit card in the machine. Funnily enough, the machine swallowed the credit card and didn’t return it back. Half an hour later, another machine operator arrived to open the machine and return the credit card back to the rightful owners. By that time, Muqi had been exposed to some embarrassment as there was an entire queue of cars behind his vehicle.

Speaking (Writing in this case) of speech night, I did not attend much to the shock of many.

Readers by the name of Dilu:

I regret not going to Speech Night. I should have known better not to have other activities going on around the best night of my life. I am sure it would have been a blast – the memories cannot ever be erased. If technology ever gets advanced enough to transfer memories – I hope you can lend me your memory of Speech Night 2009

All other readers:

After the last three years of listening to the Principal and guests talking about how great leadership is and how everyone must be a leader (quite redundant really considering that the school can offer so many leadership positions and the fact that if everyone is a leader who is actually going to do the work – as we all know leaders often do not know much about anything. It is those who work under them that get the job done. From Presidents to Captains, the story is often similar). However, this year I am informed that the guest speaker changed things up a bit and talked about Public schooling – kudos to him. During the long speeches many students start chatting about unrelated matters suggesting that I am not the only one who feels this way. The break dancers are often quite awesome, other than that not much goes on. Singing is quite overdone – too many songs. I am sure it can be filled with some talent, which exists in the school. I shall stop here before it becomes a massive rant.

Back to the dinner. As we were walking to the venue the general public stared at us, since we were in school uniform. Once again poor decision making on the school’s part. Not surprising. At a dinner party you want to look your best. You don’t wear school uniforms to weddings or receptions so why to a dinner?

To our delight, Muqi presented us with another tale of woe. It seems, he and his father were walking down Flinders Street at night and across the street they saw two men fighting. It seems that another man who was on their side of the street invited Muqi’s father to go and help the fighting. Being smart, the father subtly rejected the invitation and moved on. Such events can only happen to Muqi.

[Continued in Part 2…]

Facebook Updates: Indian Cricket 07-08

A friend of mine, Kunal L,  has sent me a copy of his perception of what the Facebook Updates for the Indian Cricket Team would have been like during the Cricket Season of 07-08.

Since the formatting of the document would have been lost had I pasted it into this post, I have attached a Acrobat File.

(To view this PDF file, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be found on the Adobe Website for free)

Link: Facebook Updates: Indian Cricket 07-08

Enjoy!

The Great Revelation

The following piece was written by Raphael Park. All credits are in his name.

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A great revelation was made about the perceived legitimacy of the English prize awarded to a “talented” student, Krusty Jovanoski

The great-grandfather of Mr Jovanoski was actually the brother-in-law to a Brynt, who we speculate may have been an ancestor of Samuel Sanjay Luthra, whose son was due to receive the “prestigious” award had it not have been for Mr. Jovanoksi.

“[The Punjab society] is disappointed at the obvious lack of caution by the school to ensure equality”

His son, Kanine Luthra, 18, has received two awards: one for scoring the highest in Chemistry, and the second for scoring the best in the science subjects.

“Out of the six subjects that I have studied”, said the disappointed student, “I was only able to receive two of the seven-that were available. I believe that all the awards that I have missed out from is due to scandals such as the mentioned one of Mr. Jovanoski”

It has also been exposed that Poll Kite’s cousin is married to a Vietnamese woman, the same nationality as that of the Physics prize recipient

“It is the culmination of all the hard work that I have put in during the last 12 years of my life, behind the locked doors of my study”

His great-grandmother-in-law, Anina Bas agreed.

“He put in a lot of work”, said the English teacher at Melbourne High School, and also a former Bollywood actress during the [18]40.

Her great-granddaughter, Nashi Luthra, 17, is married to Mr. Luthra, who are incidentally also cousins as per Punjab tradition.

“He very nice boy, should get 99.99″

Mr. Jovanoksi is currently in Japan, debating whether Alexander the Great was Japanese or Greek.

He will be available for comments at The Age Online when he returns.

Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Luthra and their 8-year-old son are reported to be doing well.

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What did you think of this amazing story? Comment and Discuss.