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MV mission statement: total bullshit or ahh for Christ sakes this is bullshit!
I
must start off by saying what you are about to see is absolute bullshit
in its purist form. This will be an editorial and will stick to our
motto of being fair and balanced so the reader can decide fairly and
balancedly (sic) from our biased opinion.
Upon looking for some mindless homework that I never did complete
from the Monta Vista school website, www.mvhs.fuhsd.org,
I ran across the MV mission statement under the staff section. It went a
little something like this: Graduates
of Monta Vista High School become informed, ethical, and active
citizens; knowledgeable self directed workers; discerning participants
in the arts; and lifelong learners in the pursuit of personal excellence
who can adapt to the challenges of the future. Bullshit.
Lets dissect this a little further. Informed, by dictionary definition,
obviously means not being not informed. Which is exactly what a MV
student is, absolutely not informed. Aside for mistaking Palestine for
Pakistan and Pakistan for Pantusan (a magical island kingdom from the
most excellent movie “Surf Ninjas” staring Rob Schneider and Ernie
Reyes Jr. and Sr. upon which the magical island is captured by half
robot evil guy (Wesley Neilson) but later on returned to the original
inhabitants by a small party of unlikely Ninjas (that surf) from San
Diego and their visually impaired friend.)
MV students barely know what’s going on around them. To most MV
students MV represents a perfect Replica of how things are on the
outside world. Most are so sheltered they don’t know much more than
their books tell them and the teachers yell at them. So this is quickly
marked of the mission statement.
Ethical. MV students are anything but ethical. With an
environment so competitive MV students are likely to cheat, in one form
or another, in classes even if they were teaching ethics. On a test day
I cannot get 5 feet without being asked what was on a test. I am not
exempt, I asked what is on tests all the time, cause I am not ethical
and the administrations claim to be helping create ethical students is
complete nonsense when it creates many who, like me, just want to get an
A in this “grades-overstressed” environment.
This is where the article turns serious, so if you just wanted
something to laugh at go back to you Kirkland Vodka and Ritalin. Active
citizens is something I can agree with, with some exceptions. MV
students will become active citizens in the employee and business world,
however not in a sense of activism by trying to change anything that is
wrong in their surroundings. Rather MV has created a race of students
that will quickly adapt to a loss of personal freedom in order attain an
“A” or a buck. The only activists that will ever come out of MV are
ones that are so sickened by the system that MV is based on that they
are ready to consider themselves not a part of. So in a sense MV is
creating not so much active but opportunity motivated students.
I agree with the workers part of “knowledgeable self-directed
workers.” As far as workers MV students are great, eat less, sleep
less, work more. As far as self-directed, how can you be self-directed
when all you are good at is taking directions. I can’t even elaborate
on this point, its just a complete oxymoron.
As far as discerning participants in the arts some MV students
may certainly take a love for music and many are musically inclined.
Some are excellent painters and some are great writers. However what did
MV have to do with this. What has MV offered to these students that are
such wonderful participants in the arts. A slap in the face. Restrictive
grade oriented lit programs, a horrible un-inspired music department,
and art classes that have you drawing in squares. These classes aren’t
as horrible as I make them out to be, there is definite room for
learning, but the selection is horrible and don’t tell me to make a
class if I want to. For one, that’s not my job and even if I wanted
to, MV students are so focused on getting AP classes or going to science
classes I could never get the necessary 15 students to start the class.
As far as life long learners are concerned MV has created them in
the psychology definition of the word where learn means program. MV
students are easily programmed. This does not extend to all, but a large
portion of these dulled youths function on zeros and ones. In response
to the second part of whether MV students can adapt I say absolutely. MV
students are virtual chameleons that will fit into any setting as long
as it doesn’t require individual thinking.
MV has created a race of programmed individuals that will
constantly feel obligated to fulfill their duties given to them by their
teachers, parents and eventually bosses. I understand that it is very
hard to format a way to teach students and motivate them to learn,
however their needs to be opportunities for those who want to take
different courses in life with out having them be punished for their
actions. Not all MV students are what I described and the ones that are
described are not bad people. They are nice people I can talk to on a
daily basis, however MV stifles these young individuals into becoming
anything but, and therefore I would never consider myself and MV student
rather a person forced to go to school because the consequences of not
going outweigh the consequences of staying. So
here it is, the new MV mission statements: Graduates
of Monta Vista High School become, opportunity motivated directed
workers with a stifled sense of the arts and life spent being programmed
to adapt to others excellence. Danny Schwartz
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