A Sydney Private School experience in the 21st century
I am, supposedly, one of the lucky few who have had the pleasure of going to a private school. I graduated in 2014 and ever since then I have grown to think that I wasn’t lucky at all. The idea is old fashioned and is against modern ideas and ways of life and I want to tell the unlucky few to open your eyes.
“Welcome to your yearly brainwashing” is what head’s of private schools should say at the opening assembly of each year. Instead; it’s the same subtly motivational speech to boost school spirit. This idea of school spirit is very interesting. I can understand the power of teamwork and comradery it teaches, whether it’s through the school sports or the houses within the school. However, it can be taken overboard way too easily. For example, the big thing at my school that everybody would get incredibly excited for was the annual rowing championship, the ‘Head of the River’. The lead up to this event saw incredible attempts to get every boy to go out and support the crews. I’d like to think that a lot of the people encouraging others to go were genuine, although I think it just came down to the mentality of; “If I talk about the Head of the River and try get others to go, then I might seem cool”. There’s always an end goal and most of the time it is personal, it teaches you to use the situation to see what you can gain for yourself rather than for others. Watch the rowing because it’s what everyone else is doing and not because you want to see people you go to school with do well on a big stage. Equally, in a way it is a front for bullying. This idea of school spirit means that the bond and passion needs to be shared throughout the school and anyone who isn’t passionate sets themselves up for discrimination. I went to the Head of the River twice out of the six years I was at school and one of those times it was compulsory to go. However, the other years that I didn’t go I would just tell people that I had gone because I feared the social consequence of telling the truth. It is important to balance the power of group motivation, teeter it over one way and people will rise up and fight the system, lean it over the other way and people will be beaten out of the system for being different. Schools must find that balancing point to properly develop their children.
I want you to quickly consider what the most important thing someone should learn from high school is. It’s hard to narrow it down to one thing and I’ve seen all kinds of answers online, from research skills to relationships. People, as a whole, seem to be undecided on what the whole point of high school is. That’s to be expected. For me, the big thing that people should be taught about is the importance of respect. In my opinion, respect is supposed to be earned. I don’t believe that I should respect someone because I’m told to. At a school, this happens all too often. Equality is thrown out the window with any other modern way of thinking that is quickly and rightly so becoming the norm. The food chain of a private school ensures the youngest are at the bottom and the teachers are at the top. I respected some of the people in the younger years vastly more than some of the teachers and that is how I should have treated them. It is not fair that someone who has never met me before should be able to order me to tuck in my shirt or pull up my socks. I had a handful of teachers who I really connected with at school and I respected them, mainly because they respected me. It works both ways and it shouldn’t be taught any differently when at school. If someone came up to me today and told me to tuck in my shirt I would laugh at them, why should we be taught differently at school? This idea of Sir and Madam when addressing a teacher is again, old fashioned and unnecessary. If I saw a teacher from my school walking along the street, even a couple years after I have left, I would still wonder whether or not to call them Mr….. or Mrs…… Not because they are any better than me but because I have been inscribed into thinking that I NEED to give them this respect. Life shouldn’t be like this, we are all equal and should treat each other the same way we want to be treated. I don’t want anyone to call me Sir, even if I know them and I don’t think it is particularly necessary for young adults to have that responsibility. Sir Nelson Mandela is someone I would proudly call Sir if I ever had the chance, not some Geography teacher who has never taught me and only joined the school a year ago. People are sometimes shocked to hear an adult giving a child respect in this way but I have met many more children who I would prefer to respect than some adults.
School is a central part of anyones upbringing and life, whether you attended it or not. What happens during this time period moulds who you are and helps you to see what you will become. It’s important that you get the right teaching as well as getting taught the right things. I believe that the school I went to and possibly (although I can’t speak for all of them) the other private schools in Sydney. The mindset that is taught encourages comparison. For example; when I look at you I see how I’m better than you rather than encouraging a more cooperative mindset that incites looking at a person and seeing how best you can work together. This was shown at school on the sports field and in the classroom. Whether it was bragging about scoring the most runs on the weekend or getting a higher mark in a test, this was the attitude inherited by the school. The teachers didn’t openly reveal a students score and encourage the class to mock them if they did badly but they didn’t always do anything if the other boys did. If that is the way at a young age then that will encourage the same mentality later in life.
“Judgement…is one of the ego’s tools to foster separation through comparison.” — Peter Santos
My private school experience in Sydney, Australia might be similar to your experience no matter where in the world it was, or it might of been completely different. Either way I hope you agree with me that something needs to change. We are living in 2016 yet in many facets of life we live like 1816. It makes no sense and is to blame for many of the worlds problems, stop being afraid to change and stand up for what you believe in.
Thank you for reading.
