Silly Civil Disobedience

MindGate

So, I find a lot of rules and laws to be silly and uncalled for. My school has a lot of them. I mean, I can understand most rules. Some just flat out don't make sense, though.

So, for example, our school has a rule stating you can't carry around a backpack, purse, or bag - at all. Yet, 70% of girls carry a purse around (some big enough to carry books!) and not one teacher has a problem with it. Though, theres a few guys who carry small, clothe gym bags around just to carry their books in. Yet, every teacher has a problem with that. Seems a little bit biased to me, dontcha think?

Sure, girls have "feminine needs" every month, but does that mean you need a purse to carry around containing money, make-up, books, utensils, and your phone just to tend to "this need?" Couldn't you just keep whatever you need in your locker? Is there truly a need for a purse? No! My girlfriend goes around without one all the time.

So, what I've been wanting to do recently is have a day dedicated to stop this biased behavior. I want the school to either ban all bags outright and stop their biased salutary neglect OR allow everyone to carry bags.

How would I go about this? An organized day of civil disobedience, of course. I would get as many males as possible (I've already talked to a couple who are willing to go along with this) to carry around little purses all day! Sure, many teachers will have problems with us doing this, but if they force us to put away our purses, they'll have to force everyone else to do so as well, which will of course create a little bit of pandemonium.

If we'd do this once a week, maybe the school will finally make up its mind.


Any comments on this?

Jeffrey

Make sure your purse matches your outfit!

Nothing wrong with your protest as long as it is peaceful and you keep in mind that all people's feelings are just as important as yours and that you need a dialogue about this rather than just an angry gesture. The teachers the principals the girls and the guys are all important. And koombaya!

MindGate

I'd send a letter to the principal the day this would start.

nanimo

Yeah, provided you were smart about it I'd say carry around a murse, and don't forget your Indiana Jones Fedora hat, too. Ok, that was tacky but Indy does carry a murse, in addition to his leather jacket, fedora, and bullwhip.

NomaDBuddha

Hahahahaaa, reminds me of my highschool. This year, at the beginning, the headmistress, made new rules, some being ridiculous : for example, boys aren't allowed to grow their hair longer than 3 cm. I know, it sounds like BS to me, still wondering who the hell will lose time to measure his hair ? The headmistress visited my class ( last year, the whole class was in really deep sh*t because of some nasty things, which made our headmistress see us with vvery bad eyes; 'U mad ?') to see how we were doing. Some of my colleagues ( the vast majority being boys) had let their hair grown during the summer, but they didn't let the hair grow that much. Now, theheadmistress enters the classroom, and the first thing she sees is my colleagues with skater-like hairstyle. She sent them home ( with absences put on theregister at every class we had that day), and the thing repeated for some weeks. We grew tired of this thing, and demanded to see the rules. Teachers said to go look at the library. We went. The librarian had nothing. She said to ask the teachers. Again , nothing. So, we concluded that those rules weren't even real.

Now, what I want to say, is that most of the rules imposed by school are just to be ignored. They're not even real. And...wish you luck with your "uprising".
Can I join ?(even if I live near Bucharest)

DaltheJigsaw

Great thread!

Ficus_religiosa

How on earth do you transport books, laptops, pencils etc., if you can't have a bag?
What NomaD wrote is even more silly - why the heck care so much about other people's hair? I'm shocked to be honest... Why does anyone comply to such rules?
Break them again and again.. I can't believe such nonsense exists in the 21st century...

MindGate

We don't carry laptops in public school. (Well, ours.)

And we carry all of our books by hand.

compassionate_warrior

NomaDBuddha--the restriction on length of hair sounds like something left over from the Soviet era. maybe as a protest everyone could dress up one day in old Soviet-era army uniforms. I see Romania hasn't joined the 21s century yet, or at least the school authorities haven't.

MindGate, I think you have a valid point about discrimination between boys and girls. The girls should be allowed to carry around purses small enough for a few cosmetics and other "personal items", nothing more. The boys could be allowed to do the same, but what do guys have to carry around that's that small, that they can't carry in their pockets? If girls are allowed to carry bags big enough for books, so should the boys. Bring a child's red wagon to school and carry your stuff around in that, and see what happens. No rule against it (yet! )

Anyway, the day you plan to do whatever you do, write a well-written essay explaining your motives and your reasoning, and give it to the principal first thing, before the day begins.

Let us know what happens.

Dakini

What about fanny packs? There's no rule against those, I assume, so all the guys could show up one day with those. (Yeah, I know they're ugly, but guys carrying little purses would be just as lame.) And don't forget to wear red-white-and-blue Uncle Sam hats, you guys, to show that you're patriotic Americans upholding the law. Have fun with it! Use your imaginations-get creative.

We should get Roger in on this--he's our official Class Clown. maybe he could come up with some good ideas.

Cloud

I think highschool rules are screwy just to get us ready for the world; "fair" doesn't apply.

Also @MindGate, funny how in your other thread you acted gay to try and avoid getting pelted by snowballs and such, and now you want to organize a day for male students to carry around purses.

MindGate

I'M SECRETLY A GAY. SHHH.

/joking/

Its not that I am, its just that I'm not afraid to act feminine. Guys always act so "macho," they're so competitive. Testosterone drives them. They are always so violent. They are always trying to be so manly and better than the next guy.

I'm against that, though. That attitude just bothers me. Where the hell is the happy medium at?

Linc

If you decide to do something at your school, I have 2 thoughts: Be clear, concise and polite in your message, and do not be confrontational. If teachers/staff act irately, don't rise to the bait. You'll lose.

Using humor would help.

PeacefulAssemblyChur

So, I find a lot of rules and laws to be silly and uncalled for. My school has a lot of them. I mean, I can understand most rules. Some just flat out don't make sense, though.
...
Any comments on this?

They are mostly trying to train you to OBEY!

They try to condition you that if you don't like a rule, you should just force it onto everyone else.
Its called slave-vs.-slave mentality. Very sad.

Good thread.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world."

sndymorn

Simply sew a backpack onto your shirt and then call it a pocket.

TheJourney

Break all the windows of the school, then set it on fire. Watch it as it burns to the ground, then piss on the ashes.

That will show them.

MindGate

My school is made a brick, silly rabbit. That won't work.

NomaDBuddha

@Ficus : well, they bother about hair because if they see something different then it's not ok with them (school authority). The headmistress doesn't want to see students having some different hairstyles, she just wants to see some dull, common hairstyles and that's it, she's happy. Some teachers in my school, like my chemistry teacher, my Informatics (computer programming) and my maths teacher allow us to have any hairstyle we want.

@Comapssionate Warrior: "Romania hasn't joined the 21s century yet" and it won't join 21st century very soon. The protest won't work, because we already have uniforms ( well, not like in the communist period, but it's still nasty to me). The Ministry of Education in my country reintroduced school uniforms ( when I was in middle school, nobody wore school uniform; it was taken out from the rules of conduct.), so...I don't think it'll work.

@The Journey. Reminds me of 'Another brick in the wall' video.

@PeacefulAssembly : theoretically yes, they are to be obeyed. But, trust me, most of the rules are just null and void, especially when teachers don't even care about most of the rules ( they care about things that somehow, pisses them off.)
At the beginning of every school year, students are to sign a blank page ( after school rules are read) just to say that you understood. No one cares. But when it happens to look for the school rules ...Surprise ! No one in the entire school has them ! ( like in my case) .

TheJourney

Another brick in the wall is my shit haha

Ficus_religiosa

@NomaD Buddha
I think it's so silly I can't even grasp it...

@MindGate
Same as above... Pupils without bags? Come on.. That was reality fifty years ago where poor people couldn't afford bags and used belts instead..

NomaDBuddha

Yeah, that silly.

Mountains

That was reality fifty years ago where poor people couldn't afford bags and used belts instead

Uh, well *less* than 50 years ago (okay, 40 years ago) I don't believe it was possible in the US to purchase a kid sized backpack to carry books in. I went all the way through high school without one, and carried by books using, yes, you guessed it, a canvas strap. It wasn't a case in our family of not being able to afford one, I just don't think you could buy one.

Oh, and you know what? I SURVIVED IT!!

Dakini

Guys always act so "macho," they're so competitive. Testosterone drives them. They are always so violent. They are always trying to be so manly and better than the next guy.

I'm against that, though. That attitude just bothers me. Where the hell is the happy medium at?

Good for you, MG! (You left out: arrogant) It's sad that there're no role models for a "middle way" for guys. It's one or another extreme. You'll have to be the role model for your peers and those younger than you, as you get older.

Dakini

Uh, well *less* than 50 years ago (okay, 40 years ago) I don't believe it was possible in the US to purchase a kid sized backpack to carry books in. I went all the way through high school without one, and carried by books using, yes, you guessed it, a canvas strap. It wasn't a case in our family of not being able to afford one, I just don't think you could buy one.

Back then, the only backpacks were army-surplus, or smaller knapsacks for day hikes. But kids started using the army-surplus ones towards the late 60's. The first to use them got laughed at, but then in the 70's it caught on.

TheJourney

For real, you can have it all. That's what I'm learning. You can be assertive to a certain degree and yet still be kind and let others have what they want. Think of it like you're creating your own reality. Because you're not selfish, you don't just want it to benefit you, so you won't take advantage of your opportunity and create a self-indulgent reality; on the other hand, you don't wanna be walked all over so you can create a reality in which you get what you want as well. Everyone is happy. You're creating the perfect reality. That's what i'm doing.

Barra

Well, this is just bizarre. Are they afraid that you could carry a bomb? or a gun? is that what is behind it?

Where I live a lot of guys wear those courier type bags. They look very cool and I would recommend them. They are not great for carrying books, as it would kill your shoulder.

Its probably best to carry books as the girls did when I went to high school - stacked on top of a binder and carried in front of the body on both arms. Boys would carry them on one hip.

But I support your "purse protest" Pink vinyl shoulder bags would be great - get them from a thrift store. Tell the powers that be that you are carrying it on behalf of a female friend, and see what they have to say. Fill it up with tampons, just to show 'em!!!!

Ficus_religiosa

@Mountains

I'm sure you survived perfectly well, and it's possible today also. It's just not necessary to bother people with silly rules like that, when bags are available to anyone, anywhere..
Now we're talking public school, and it's easier to survive that without a bag - but at least in the high school system I know and was used to, everyone had tons of books, laptops, graphic calculators, pencil cases, folders, food, drink, blocks of paper, measuring and drawing devices (for math too) and compendiums. Add to that jackets, wallets, cell phones, music players, chargers for the laptops and phones and for the girls also stuff for their personal use.
It all had to be carried to and from school, as well as between class rooms - and be properly protected against the weather and any other physical threats during transportation. I can't see that happening without bags..