The Classroom

The Classroom

What a peculiar place a classroom is.

You see, most of us have been in a classroom at one point in our lives. Some of us are restricted to sitting at a particular location, while some of us are free, or like to think that we are free, to sit at any place we desire. Regardless of decision, most of us receive the same lessons from the same person, even though the one sitting right in front may absorb slightly more than the one at the back.

Some are confined to a single classroom for an entire semester, while some move from classrooms to classrooms every day, watching different teachers, visiting various friends (though not so various, as some friends would take EXACTLY the same subjects as you are, regardless of your consent) and seeing different perspectives of the classroom.

It’s incredibly fascinating, this perspective thing.

Have you ever sat on a high stool in the right back corner of a classroom? Or perhaps, sat on the teacher’s chair (provided he has a chair) and gazed into your classmates faces? Or maybe even perched yourself on the table beside the sink in your home economics classroom and look at your mindless peers doing the exact same thing every single day?

Believe it or not, I have actually sat on all three of those positions. And boy I tell you, I was almost blown away. Call me a diehard fan of Dead Poets Society, but Mr. Keating does have a point. Looking at the world from a different viewpoint, like standing on top of your table and looking down at everything around you, is an experience almost too sacred to ignore.

Standing on top of a table, Dead Poets Society style

Yet we tend to ignore these simple luxuries we can enjoy as ignorant members of a technological society.

Sure, it might be a daunting task for girls, with understandable fears of young, immature boys waiting patiently on the floor to see your panties, or perhaps even because it is challenging the status quo. Don’t worry, boys feel the same about going against the flow. In fact, some boys are even more afraid than their female counterparts because of the fear of losing one’s dignity. But to hell with dignity! If you don’t see the world differently, you are condemned to not live life to the fullest.

You will get a job, sit in an office (or workplace) every day, try to save up, get kids, send them to college and hope to have enough to retire comfortably. Spend time at the neighbourhood club swimming on weekdays. Occasionally visiting your grandchildren, who seem to always want to talk to you as little as possible, because of the wide technological disparity between your generation and theirs. Do you want that?

Or do you want to enjoy every second of that young youthful heart of yours? Actually live life by espousing the old phrase “CARPE DIEM” that Mr. Keating whispered into the young hearts of students. With poetry, beauty, romance and love as your core desires, while still supporting the need for equality, freedom and brotherhood.  

The choice is yours. 

After all, we only live once!

My dear comrades,

Adopted Quote from Mr G

Act now.

By the way, this quote does not only apply to poetry. It is applicable to everything else, such as art, dance and music, to name a few.