Things get better after graduation.

2002-05-08 - 7:25 a.m.

High school flashback!!!!!

I'm listening to CBC radio right now, where a reporter is interviewing students at Marc Hall's catholic school. For those who aren't in southern ontario, Marc Hall is a gay student at a catholic high school who is fighting a legal battle to be allowed to take his boyfriend to the prom.

So I have now been reminded of the absolute bigotry in schools. The capability of teenagers to be passionate about anything, or to be affect apathy toward everything.

How do any of us survive it? How do we make it through three years where anybody can be your enemy?

In grade ten I had one of those rare teachers who isn't afraid of discussion. I was in french immersion, so we could talk about anything and, so long as it was in french, it counted as education. She would bring up subjects each week, everything from abortion and sexism, to racism, to homophobia and inclusive hiring, immigration, religion...

It was a class where I -did- speak out, because I couldn't just let these kids keep spouting off on how all the fags should be sent to an island and nuked, or how all of their jobs were being stolen by minorities.

At the same time, there was a learning-disabled kid with the unfortunate name of Peter Parker who had to be rescued when a mob of fifty to a hundred kids decided to start spitting on him during lunch hour.

You graduate from high school, and hopefully you get some footing in life, and start to be able to put that trial-by-fire behind you, and you settle in with other people who feel close to how you do and then you forget. Or you think things have changed.

And then you realise that things haven't, that teenagers still cannibalize each other for the basest of reasons, that for every kid who somehow manages to survive there's another who kills herself over it, or who abondons himself, or decides to adopt those hateful behaviours, to attack others with them.

And you wonder if there is anything more you can do beyond crossing your fingers, and saying over and over again that things get better after graduation. Things get better after graduation. Things get better after graduation.

And you hope to God that eventually, they do.

Cheers,

The Magus

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