“Singin’ in the school
First place $50
Reza Rasoli, 16,
Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies
I wait anxiously to get my graded test paper. The teacher comes over and stands right in front of my desk, he hands my paper to me faced down with a blank expression. I don’t want to look at it right away, so I slowly turn the paper over. I looked at the paper, I jumped out of my seat and stood on my table and yelled, “I got an A!” Suddenly music comes out of the P.A. in the room and I say those same exact words, but now in a musical tone. The whole class now gets up and begins to dance and sing all together. A verse and chorus are tied into the song that we had established, and we all sing and prance around the room singing the “He got an “A” Song.” After the song is done we all sit back down and proceed with what we had been doing before and act like nothing had happened at all.
This would be one of the many events that would happen in a normal day of school if I could change my school. The change that I am talking about is making a class were we would learn how to make a spontaneous song about practically anything. This would make the days at school a lot more exciting and pleasant. The environment at school would be all totally positive.
Imagine just walking down the hall and someone has just gotten a date for the Friday night party. They are so thrilled they run down the hall singing a song they had just made up. The students surrounding the overly excited kid follow the lead and sing along to the impromptu song. Just think how energized you would be for school. Not only would I be energized, I would also be proud of my fellows peers and I for coming up with an established song so quickly and so complete.
Students are not the only ones who can join in these fun elaborate songs, teachers may also partake. Teachers can make up songs; these songs would probably happen in an evil situation. For example, giving an “F” to a student whom really tried to do their best but could not bring down the evil professor. So they both have a competitive song, fighting over the grade, the singing gets more intense, the bells ring, suddenly they stop. The grade stands and they continue to go on with the school day.
School bathrooms…Yuck!
Second Place $30
Weston Motoyasu, North High
Graffiti and mildew stricken walls, slippery floors, and the smell of smoke and un-flushed toilets; is that a description of Skid-Row? No. It is the exact portrayal of our school’s bathrooms. Think about it, almost every school you go to has unsanitary and filthy bathrooms. I’m actually scared of going into the bathroom at my school. Not only because I think I’ll slip and fall, but I seriously think it’s hazardous to my health. If I could change one thing about my school, it would hands down be the dirty restrooms.
Just the walk by the bathrooms will make you feel sick. It reeks of smoke and human waste. It came to the point that I had to plug my nose every time I would go near it. The bathrooms I want are the kinds with little air fresheners and automatic flushing toilets. That way, it will always smell like fresh pine and the toilets will never overflow with pee and feces that would scatter all over the floor. That will make the smell a lot better and people won’t have to plug their noses and make a scrunched up face every time they walked in. I would actually use the restrooms when I need to go!
Graffiti is a major problem for every city in almost every state. The same is for every bathroom in every school. C’mon now, who really cares whose names is one the wall, especially the bathroom! Please, how pathetic can you get? At least do it where everyone will see it, not above the stall so that the people that pee have ugly writing to look at. Do the taggers go in there pretending to use the bathroom, but actually stand on top of the toilet to get as high as he can so he can tag his name or gang? I don’t know, maybe it’s a pride thing to have your name written in the bathroom?
There have been many times I’ve almost slipped and fell in the restroom. Actually, I have seen a couple people fall. Oh yeah, guess what, I really don’t think it’s water they’re slipping and falling on to. Maybe we should change school bathroom names to “the ice skating rink” or “slip and slide” because that’s what it’s truly like. My type of bathroom would have great draining systems and would have an overflow line that will not allow the water to go above a certain mark in the toilets and sinks. That will prevent the wet, slick floors.
Honestly though, I don’t think it’s too much of the school’s fault that our bathrooms are like that, but it’s ignorance of the school’s students. We don’t take advantage of what we can have if we weren’t so immature and dumb. I know it’s practically impossible to have the bathrooms that I imagined, but at least we can try to put our stupidity behind us and have clean bathrooms that are actually nice to have. The school might not be the best, but at least you can say, “Yeah, but you know what, our bathrooms are sure nice!”
The best school is a virtual school
Third Place $20
Caroline Park, 13,
John Burroughs Middle School
Ugh… Monday. The dreadful “M” word. Whenever Monday comes, I wish I could stay home in bed all day! But of course, parents ruin that. I dress up, and go to school. See my best friends – Stephanie, Michelle, Esther, and Christine. I wave. They wave back. We talk for a while and I go into my homeroom. Then, I start my wild day. Whenever I walk into my history class, my teacher, an old, but OK teacher, Mr. Stiefel, would yell “GET TO YOUR SEATS!” Yikes. P.E. Yuck! Running five laps around the school. English. A book report. Science. An atom model. When would this ever end??? School ends. I rush to the bus, get home and slump onto bed, falling asleep. Now let’s not forget our trashy school companion, Homework. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!
See, this is a typical school day. Some kids like school, some kids don’t. I’m in the “don’t” group. I wish that I wouldn’t have to wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and I wish that school doesn’t have to be 8 hours long. Oh well. But if I could change my school, here is the picture…
I go to school in my own bedroom
I get up at 8 a.m. I yawn, stretch, turn, and play with my dogs. I get dressed, eat my breakfast and go out to have a nice jog. Aaahh…. the life! At exactly 8:50 a.m., I get back home, listen to some music, and go into my room. My parents give me a thumbs-up sign and I give then a thumbs-up back, close my door, sigh and sit at my desk. There is a computer on my desk that has “School” on the top of the monitor. I smile, turn the computer on, get my books and wait. Suddenly, my teacher’s face pops onto the screen. She says “Good morning class!” And I wave. The teacher, me and all the other students logging in study together and do some algebra. Oh! I love this school! Finally, at noon, the teacher says “Log on again 30 minutes!” I turn the computer off, casually walk to the kitchen, eat myself with microwave spaghetti and watch some TV. In 30 minutes, I turn the computer back on and the school resumes.
Now, isn’t that something?? You never have to leave home, you could watch TV, eat anything you want, and if you’re sleepy, maybe you could put your picture on the screen, so the teacher will think it’s you! Then you could just talk from your bed, eating Oreos or something. That’s my wish! I bet this would be so cool to all the other students out there. I mean, even the teachers would enjoy it! They’re going to stay home too, you know! I think it’ll be great, and no homework! All we do in the Comp-School is we just discuss the day’s lesson, do some problems, and that’s it!
After that, go to the mall, hang out with friends, or just sleep and hang around the house…
Ack! Homework! Oh well…the dream was too good to be true anyway… :-)”