Prison

                Yesterday I went to prison. Not literally, but as a field trip for a class. Now when I started taking field trips in elementary school, I would have never guessed that I would ever go inside a prison let alone being toured by prisoners. However, as bad as it may sound it was actually very interesting.

                It started by just a tour of the Grafton Correctional Institute. It is a medium security prison. It isn’t exactly how it is on T.V. where there are a bunch of very angry people locked up behind a big door for twenty hours of their day.  They are somewhat confined during certain parts of the day, but when we were there, most of the inmates were walking around or not locked up.

                Even though the prison is pretty laid back, it still is prison. Our tour guides made it clear that it isn’t fun and that it straight up sucks. Like a majority of the rest of the country, Grafton is also becoming overcrowded. There were a lot of people in a fairly small space. It creates a very distinct smell when you walk into any of the buildings there.  Not to mention it feels pretty sketchy when you have a bunch of inmates either watching you or walking around you the whole time.

                After the tour ended, three or four of the inmates spoke about making good choices, goals, peer pressure, the things that in a way would be expected from an event like this. However, it wasn’t the same exact speech as it usually is. It seemed to have a different tone to it. I don’t know if it was the way they spoke of it or the fact that they actually didn’t follow what they were talking about when they committed their crime(s). 

                Once they were done speaking, the inmates broke us up into smaller groups and had more than less a one-on-one.  I found this the most interesting part of the whole experience. Like how many people you know can claim they sat in between two convicted murderers?  This is when you could really see who these people are.  They honestly seemed like some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life.  

                In the end I’m really glad I got the chance to do this. I think it was a good experience and a thing not to base what your life on.  I don’t know if I would necessarily call it eye opening because some of what I saw was expected but I think it is what I heard from the inmates is what I took away from it.  It wasn’t so much of what they said, but the way they said it and the way they were able to apply it to real life.  

                The moral of the story is don’t do something really stupid and throw your whole life away (that’s basically what it all comes down to).

High School

Have you ever really wondered about High School? Have you ever thought about why you are there and what good it does?

Well unfortunately I have had an epiphany (if you will) about High School. I realized that you are only here for four years of your entire life and that it really isn’t going to make or break you . Well if you let if it can break you.

I realized that a majority of what happens in the four years you spend here really doesn’t matter.  Yeah academics and sometimes athletics determine where you will go to college, but other than maybe a specific college, you’re going to find a college.  Let’s be honest, a college somewhere will accept you because all they want is your money.

All of the other things that go on in High School really don’t matter though. Unless of course you manage to get arrested or expelled or something ridiculous like that then yeah you could screw yourself. What I mean is people in the real world aren’t going to care what you did in High School.

Maybe that is the bigger issue. People don’t seem to have a touch of reality. They don’t understand that there are bigger, more important things in life than what goes on in High School.

Also, have you ever wondered what it is you are supposed to be learning in High School? I have been wondering this for a long time. My typical question is usually “When am I ever going to use this?!” And from what I have been able to perceive is that most of the “stuff” I am learning right now wont matter after college.

It seems to be you learn the most through experience and on the job learning. So why is there such a push to learn all of this stuff that wont matter in six years? I know that the state makes all of these regulations that teachers have to teach. I get that. But then I guess what my other question is then why are some teachers are so bad at teaching?

Now if I really wanted to I could completely rant about a few crummy teachers I have had over the years but I wont do that (Not in this blog anyway).  But really why are some teachers so bad at what they do? The state tells them what to teach and they should be the experts on it all. Also, I thought all people who went into education did it for a reason. For the love of the job maybe?  Well apparently that isn’t always the case.

Now don’t get me wrong I have had some excellent teachers in the three years that I have been here. I just don’t understand why some people are teachers.

Well either way, it is what it is and everybody has to do it. I guess it will just take longer for some people to get it than others. I really don’t know where this rant came from but since it is an “Opinionated Blog” I guess I’m okay than.