Adolescence

y’all already know when aurora started playing, i was weeping the performances were fucking incredible, there should be a masterclass done for this director, and a thank you to louis tomlinson for preparing me for this. i don’t know why my middle school years have been haunting me this week, but maybe it was to get me here. a part of this that resonated with me was the scenes when viewing the disruptive behaviors at the school from students. i can attest as someone who has been through these types of classrooms and educators (at way worse degrees) that this is where the catalyst lies for some students. i’m not gonna say the blame is to be put on the adults (most of them really are trying), but when you repeatedly tell kids they’re worthless trash that will end up nowhere… i think you can guess how they’ll retaliate. anyone can point as many fingers as they please until the real culprit is found, but i’ll say this as someone who was a kid in those classes: behind the bullying, aggressive behavior, low test scores, drug and alcohol use; we were all desperate for someone — someone — to tell us we mattered. and not just anyone, a grown person we could trust that could look us in the eye and say, ‘you’re a good person who deserves good things.’ those of us who were lucky enough to come from supportive homes or to have an opportunity for a better education turned out alright. the rest got stuck with substance abuse, teen pregnancies, jail, and/or dropping out of school to work somewhere they despise. this is a rising issue in education these days, and it’s not just the school in the poor neighborhood that’s experiencing it anymore. it feels like every week i see a video of teachers and students lashing out at each other in schools that were in much better conditions than mine. i don’t have any answers, just perspective. i don’t know why students act this way, i don’t know why school administrators don’t give a shit about teachers, and i don’t know why a handful of teachers take that frustration out on their students. but somebody needs to help, for fuck’s sake. some of these 11 year olds can’t even write their own names. … anyway. all of this to say that the way kids are treated and treat each other in schools needs to alarm you. i’ll argue day and night that this may not be where certain issues start, but it’s certainly where they begin to rise.