By ALEXA FRIEDMAN – Viewpoints Editor
Classroom rules at Clarke Central High School can weigh students and teachers down by creating a fearful atmosphere that an observer could walk into the room at any moment.
Alright, so here’s the deal. Right now, I’m sitting at a computer with my feet up on the desk because I produce my best writing when I’m comfortable.
For some reason, when I’m in school, I always seem to find myself being told to put my feet down, sit in a desk as opposed to the floor, type when I want to hand write and hand write when I want to type.
“If observers came in right now, it would look really bad if they saw you listening to your iPod or talking to your friends,” any number of teachers will say.
Why should that make teachers look bad? And why are teachers forced to be afraid to color outside of the lines just in case some big, bad clipboard-holding observers come into the room to find a desk under my feet and headphones in my ears?
Oh, the horror!
There should be more leeway for students to learn in the way that’s best for them instead of this constant fear of someone walking into a teacher’s classroom and finding the slightest rule broken.
We need to learn in an atmosphere that fosters learning in an environment where students have the freedom to use iPods, wear hats, sit on the floor, talk with peers and not be so tied down by rules.
School should be more about what we can do and not so much about what we can’t.
