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I hated High School. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s an absolute fact. I always find it amusing when people reminisce about how “wonderful” their years in high school were, how they wish they could re-live all those beautiful bygone days. I do my best to suppress my need to gag and then beat them about the head and shoulders with their own yearbook!
And I have found, over time, that my experience is not unique. You see, the adolescent years are some of the most formative for the development of teenagers’ social behavior as adults. And anyone who vividly remembers high school or works with young people can testify to the vicious, dysfunctional, schizophrenic world in which they are expected to learn these “normal, healthy social skills”. Nowhere is the concept of “Natural Selection” more vividly illustrated than in the hallowed halls of the local high school building.
Travel back with me down a dark and twisted memory lane and let us revisit the world in which popularity is synonymous with human value, where vulnerability or weakness is blood in the water, where personal opinion is dictated by the consensus of the social elite, where freedom of expression is translated into freedom to express yourself “like everyone else”, and where the violation of such implied rules of order results in ostracism, ridicule and sometimes even terrorism at the hands of your supposed “fellow classmates” and occasionally even the administration. Life - from fashion, to entertainment, personal relationships to personal conviction- was a tyranny of oppression by the social aristocracy and popular culture.
As I consider, I’m astounded at how accurately those descriptions correspond to the world in which we live currently. While I’m sure there are those who were so deluded by the twinkle of their prom tiaras or too distracted by the glorious grandeur of their letter jackets to notice, and who are even now wondering how I could be so harsh in my portrayal, I think many would agree that high school was (and is) sorely lacking in the ingredients necessary to form independent, thinking young men and women of moral fiber. And to those who would criticize my less than radiant description of high school existence, I would ask if perhaps you are still living with the same High School Mentality you learned and/or propagated in school? Because I am becoming more and more convinced that one of the primary problem with our society is that so many of us have never grown up. (more…)
