Freedom

This is actual a relatively general concept I take issue with but many times I have heard teachers or other authority figures, this is the idea that students must always accept school rules and respect their teachers immediately and without question. It makes no sense that students should have no say in the way their school operates and the rules that control them. We live in a democracy that allows everyone freedom, so why then are students subjected to an authoritarian society where their right to liberty and self-expression are stripped away. It is simply unconstitutional for a school to control a student's behaviour, thoughts and opinions, with no chance to fight back because if you do then you’re left to face an all powerful force. Students don’t just need a voice, they need power, a way to speak their mind and have a chance to argue for their opinions. While a majority of the school rules are logically and necessary, and some students may abuse the chance to counter school rules, that is no excuse to take away their fundamental rights and freedoms. Not only is it almost impossible for a student to ensure that the rules that mandate their behaviour are fair, just and reasonable, if they happen to be accused of breaking one of these rules they have no chance to prove their innocence let only face a fair judicial system. In the school system the governing body is the judge, jury and executioner with no chance for acquittal. The school may act as though they are fair to all of their students and gives them all an equal chance but there can be no assurance of this if the students themselves have no opportunity to defend themselves against the dictatorship that owns them. Not only does the school take away what we consider to be important freedoms but they directly contradict The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, such as Section 2(b) the right to freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, and if we consider the Charter to apply to the school rules as well then it contradicts Section 11(d) of the Charter the right to be presumed innocent. From all this it should be clear that the current system is blatantly unconstitutional and violated our basic Charter given rights and freedoms. The school board may be an individual organization that we all agree to take part in but that doesn’t give them the power to effectively own our free will, and the only reason we can’t fight back is because we need an education. The current method may be unfair and unconstitutional but it does work, our students may be unhappy but they are being educated, nobody has the strength or resilience to fight the institution that gives us our education. This current method treats student as nothing but empty vessels to fill with knowledge and platitudes of respect, but that’s simply not true, we may young but we are thoughtful and we do have ideas and opinion that need to be heard. No one is saying that the school system needs to bend to our every whim but the chance to be heard, the ability to have an actual chance to make a difference, that’s all we need. All it takes is to look back of history to see that authoritarian, almost totalitarian, societies never work, because we people with thought are told they can’t have any, those thoughts lead to only one thing… revolution. It wouldn’t be easy but I believe there is a system where students can be properly educated but still have their own voice and power, no one wants the school to be anarchy but there must be some middle ground between that and our current authoritarian system that can give students an education and freedom.