#172: Election

Election (1999)
Written and directed by Alexander Payne
Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Chris Klein and terrifying high school memories.

High school for some reason has garnered the reputation as being the best part of our lives. If that's true then we should all commit mass suicide now. If it doesn't get any better than the rumour-filled, status-oriented, filtered information session of secondary education then the world is a much worse place than imaginable.

For some high school is legendary. Hanging championship sports banners or performing in a musical or play are cathartic experiences. But en masse, high school is training wheels for life, or at least it should be. High School is not inherently better or worse than any other part of life, it just is a part of life.

High school politics though serve very little purpose. When elected to student council you aren't given any real responsibility just the image that you do. You see, when you get chosen to lead your fellow students it's nothing more than a status symbol.

In the tenth grade I ran for the position of second vice president. Yeah, that actually existed. Every grade had to be represented in the student council, except the freshmen. A friend of mine was running unopposed until I decided on a whim to have a go at it. My platform was to bring paper towels back to the bathrooms instead of those awful blow-dryers that do not dry your hands at all.

I won, not sure why, but I won. My promise went unfulfilled and the meetings were boring as hell. The VP2 didn't actually do anything except attend a weekly noon-hour meeting. Since I didn't want to resign -- I am far too stubborn for that -- I beat the system.

During these dreadful meetings where my position was to sit there quietly and not disrupt the proceedings I read the charter of the school government. What I discovered allowed me to keep my position and only occasionally attend the meetings where all I did was occupy space in a chair.

The charter stated that you could only be removed from your position if you missed three consecutive meetings. Since the Clinton scandal was in full swing at the time, it would have been embarrassing to be impeached for anything less than fellatio. Considering our faculty advisor, this was not exactly a pleasing option. She likely would have feasted on my soul instead. Instead I would skip two meetings and attend the third. This infuriated the advisor and my soul shrank deep within my person out of a great and rational fear of consumption. Bravely I pointed out the loophole and she could do nothing more.

This rule has likely changed and if there's any justice in this world, the amendment would be named after me.

We didn't have a Tracy Flick at our helm. No one really cared because there was nothing at stake. There were no real real responsibilities. It's just another effort at sheltering the youth before letting them figure out all the troublesome things on their own once they go to university. For years, university was peddled without even any coaching about why. Just go to the U of your choice and you'll figure it out. Great advice. Because our hopes and dreams are of no real substance supposedly.

No, this is not a rant against teachers. They have a thankless position for the most part and much of what they try to do is greeted with apathy and sometimes hostility. How can we expand the youthful minds if books like Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are banned or requested to be banned? The whole protectionist attitude when it comes to our children does more harm than good. It's time someone actually thought of the children instead of shouting "won't someone think of the children"?

Give kids responsibility. Give them a voice. Sure, they'll screw up but that's the point. Failure is not the end of the world, and in many ways it's very beneficial.

I just realized I merely speculated for the most part here. I grew up in the system and only now recognize the flaws I encountered. So if it's a bit disorganized and lacking references then I think that kind of proves my point in a way...