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BPDISTRO Journal Entries

Tuesday Dec. 31 - BPDISTRO

                So I was at some distro site the other day, and I was looking at some patches... And there was one about the KKK.. it said "Hate the KKK" with an image of a burning confederate flag.... Which I mean is cool, seeing as the KKK are hateful bitches.... But really, how much sense does it make to hate a hate group?  It's kinda oxymoronic if you ask me.  I say love your neighbor even if he is a racist dumbass..   So please, consider yourself a hypocrite if you hate any hate group.  It is there right to free speech.  It is also their right to be punched in the face, but that's the business of who is getting hated on.... so in conclusion, stop hating hate groups, and start hating people who don't do anything about hate groups... does that make sense?  I hope it does... sorry I just had to write that, cuz it pissed me off...OH YEA P.S. = It is always acceptable to hate Paul Shaffer click here

                                             ~BP

Writings
    -Surprisingly, our culture still sucks (The first half of tylers zine, a punkrock
                                           critique)
    -Rebellion against the textbook (A communiqué to my mother)
    

Surprisingly, our culture still sucks

Tyler - for his zine

    Normally, I am not one who is often exposed to mainstream media. However, on a recent trip to Seattle, I rediscovered the logo hell that is an airport. Its not only the cancerous chain franchises that form the corridors. Or the billboards on every available wall-space. It is also the inexpensive advertising one sees on every passing brand-name whore, or on the business-person who passes you on the moving sidewalk pretending to be late for their 2 hour layover only to avoid making eye contact with the other sheep. These are the logos that pierce my tranquility. The state of our clothing industry is terrible, but its not their fault. They do what any self-respecting, profit-over-people corporate entity would do. It's my fault. No, hold it... it's your fault. Wait no, that's not correct either, I guess its our fault. It is the fault of every 'normal' kid who blindly pulls a gap shirt over their head, unaware of the poverty it ensures for a young Mexican girl, simply working to support her father, who was injured in that very same facility. It is the fault of every rebellious teen who points their middle digit at the passing prep, instead of taking the time to explain the injustice their shoes have brought an entire civilization of people across the sea.
    Attention! Nike has raised its minimum working age from twelve to fourteen. It is heartening to see that they have considered the feelings and future of Indonesia's youth. Wait a second, what hurts a twelve year old that doesn't hurt a fourteen year old? Fuck you Nike, stop pretending you care for the people you pimp.
    Criticisms are not only for those foreign to my 'independent' lifestyle. Overconsumption is one of America's largest problems, in my opinion. It is the root of all that is wrong. I dare you to file complain about something that you can't place into the Overconsumption slot. I once raked all the garbage off my bedroom floor, and found not one piece of waste that wasn't packaging, Oreo Sleeves....Bag's of chips..... a tub of ice cream that had once been foul but has long been void of organic matter. Now setting aside the issue of my bedrooms hygiene. I found the horrible of my lifestyle. Though, most of my food mess I had scavenged from a dumpster, ultimately, all that packaging was still getting tossed. You can't recycle shrink wrap. You can't reuse the cd packaging of your new Against All Authority album. Why must we use all these materials to produce music, or taste cookie snacks? I must admit when you open a cd, for the first time, its nice to know that its yours, and no-one else's. But honestly, do we need to wrap the plastic packaging with plastic packaging? Not really.

Throughout this communiqué to my mother, I will address several issues in my life. Most of which will explain my personal beliefs of the public education system and the part it plays in my life. I also plan to touch on my plans for life and the journey I plan to take throughout it.
    This is not a persuasive essay. I wrote this with the intent to educate the reader on my beliefs. Hopefully it is persuasive, but ultimately I have left that responsibility to the reader.

Rebellion against the textbook
"Changing the system from within" and why it can never be done

Phase One: Unlearn

Charter : (n) A document issued by a sovereign, legislature, or other authority creating a public or private corporation (business, city, school, or bank) and defining its privileges and purposes.    

    To paraphrase to layperson, the school had been placed under financial control of the state, (a type of public school, except it is not controlled by the school district) which gave the state: Hiring influence, curriculum influence, and required every classroom to hang the American flag for all students to see, and remind them of their nationality and freedoms.
    My experience at this school, in short was a positive and influential one. However, now that I am able to think back, I am curious as to what would happen if it were to have remained a private institution.
    During my education at Bluffveiw Montessori, I was taught that comprehension and expression were most important in the learning process, little did I know these beliefs would doom my high-school career.    
    At each Parent-Teacher-Student meeting (a quarterly progress discussion) my mother was made aware of my strengths and weaknesses and how I have progressed since the last meeting. This constant Parent-Teacher involvement was produced great development, which I believe helped to teach my mother the importance of educational participation with my sister and I. (something I thought was conventional, but have discovered through high-school that many parent involvement consisted of a report card and a refrigerator magnet.)
    Something we have always heard at the aforementioned meetings, was my learning speed and hate of repetition. Thanks to my mothers file-keeping/pack rat skills and some personal research, I have been able to include some examples of my elementary progress reports:

I obliviously did not include every comment, as this paper could easily have gone for volumes. However, I did include those I thought were an accurate depiction, and summary of what I remembered my experience to have been. You will notice my boredom with topics I had understood. Another thing you will notice is my socialization, and how I placed it as a higher priority than most curriculum practice.
    Something I remember of elementary school was how much i didn't like to not know the answer. I remember when I first learned something, I would always have to be one of those with my hand raised. This initiate and participation began to dwindle after the topic had been established and the basics had been discussed. Now that I am able to think back, I think it was very hard for me to keep talking about something once I already had understood it. This is something I remember talking about with teachers in the past and present. 
    This boredom with topics I have already comprehended I believe, is foreshadowing into the failure into the busy work of homework in high-school and general public schooling that I would soon experience.

My Transition into Conventional Public School, in 8th grade was, what seemed to be just simply a rough start and a tough change. Under which I simply had to get used to the change in the grading system then I would be fine and set for success. This was not the case, and my failure was a warning to my mother and I that things were not working with me. Something was not mixing well between me and the Winona Middle School. Most teachers enjoyed having me in class, but were concerned that I was not inputing my full potential. At first I was confused as to how I could fail a basic 8th grade math class (the same math I had just recently completed in seventh grade at montessori) while still scoring 99 - 100% on most of the tests. I had not studied once (with the exception for German, and Band) my entire 8th grade year. I was scoring very well in most of my testing. And I was failing classes every once in awhile, and generally had a very poor G.P.A.
    What was the problem? Where was my grade falling through? The answer: HOMEWORK. I had not sat down and spent more than an hour on homework the whole year. And when I did sit down to do homework i usually completed it within 15 minutes. However I rarely did sit down and do homework, so this obviously was causing a problem to my grade, and didn't allow my teachers much documented information on which to base a conclusion as to where exactly my comprehension of there class I possessed.
    Why wasn't I doing my homework? It was easy enough. Nothing I couldn't complete easily in one night. So I ask myself... why did I choose not to participate in my education this way? Because there is no debate, It was a choice. And it was my choice. I was no victim. The school did not leave me behind. In eighth grade, my decision was subconscious, and I seem to remember using an excuse: "I'm still transitioning.." whenever I was asked why I was doing poorly in school. Perhaps that is because I didn't know why I had zero motivation to do homework that was so easy and un-challenging. now, looking back and having developed my opinion and understanding of the matter, I know why I rejected that homework. I know why I rejected that work.
    Those ideas of education I had been taught in montessori (and at home) about comprehension of subjects, and expression of understanding weren't a part of public "conventional" teaching. Those ideas made (they still do) a lot of sense to me. I never really felt obligated to prove myself to anyone outside of the classroom. My confidence in my mothers participation in my schooling made me very sure that she would know that I understood the topics being discussed, because I could verbally convince my teachers (and students) that I understood what was being taught. To me, this was good enough. I thought; "I am in school to learn, I am learning, My teacher knows I am learning, my mother knows I am learning, why should grades matter?"
Which raises another question, one we have to think deeply, (and perhaps a little radically) why should grades matter? To most students, grades do not aid the learning process, they have simply become habit, which makes it seem as if they help, but when in actuality they just are something that has been used to lean on in practice and have become accustomed. a question remains, why has this grading system become policy? Before grades were used as a progression document in the education system, they were used in description of products. Mainly produce. If a farmer had grade AAA tomatoes for instance, he could sell them for more then the farmer next door which had only AA tomatoes. Thus, it would be the desire of the farmer to have tomatoes with the best grade possible. So that the tomatoes could be sold for the highest profit possible, which would then allow more money to be spent on taking care of the crop. The quality of the tomatoes would continue to improve. However, the grade system is not based on the tomatoes of the farmer. It is a comparison with other tomatoes on the market. The tomatoes could be bitter and dry, as long as every other tomato crop is in worse shape. Thus, the only benefit of the grading system is to compare crops to other crop growers, and the crop grower who can afford the best seeds, and best care-giving processes, are the ones who get the best selling deals. This does not effect the tomatoes whatsoever, it simply aids the farmers in pricing.
    I am not a crop. And I refuse to be treated as such. My success should not rely on the success of the surrounding crops, it should also not depend on what my "farmer" can afford to grow. I refuse to be compared to other individuals who learn differently than I, peers who live differently than I, and friends who want different things out of live. We are not all tomatoes, thus we can not be compared to each-other as such. We are people, representing different, separate interests. We are people demonstrating separate skills. We are people standing up for sometimes opposite battles. I, as I would hope most people, do not mind learning aside these separate individuals. I think it is important to associate with others to experience different sides of a conflict and use different (sometimes opposite) opinions to assist my own understanding of a subject. However, I demand that I be recognized as someone who might have completely different ideas of how life should be lived. If teachers refuse to make exceptions to this rule, why should I make exceptions to my standards?

Having been criticized as an Elitist, I recognize it is my privilege to a free education. Most of the world does not receive a free education. However, I do not believe that children represented by bar-codes, all taught the using the same methods, compared against the same standards as their different separate peers, all taught (which a lot has been proven) various lies. (mostly, but not limited to, the subject of history) I do not believe that is a free education.
    I am not saying every teacher teaches lies, and represents a foreign non-related interest. This logic would be an insult to the many great teachers I have had in the past. But to force those teachers to consider me a bad student because I have not practiced my education in ways my classmates have is, by far, much more damaging than anything I could ever do to them as a student.
    Treating a (lesser) human as if they were exactly like their neighbor is something that should never be called for. But, sadly it is. To say that the education system I have been so displeased with is an abomination and is way out of control and should not be tolerated would be wrong. It is called for. However, in order to understand why it is called for, you have to understand for whom it represents. You have to know what capitalism is. You have to know what capital is, and who wants it. Only then can you understand why it is important for those who establish the public education system ("farmers") and why it would benefit them to raise children to believe that they are nothing more than a bar-code and a transcript. To raise children to believe that they are simply produce, simply a crop. To tell children that they need to strive to be just as good if not better as those around them.
    This would be a positive method of teaching, I think, to teach children of competition with each-other and to strive to be as good as your neighbor. However, it relies on the notion that everyone has the same fighting chance. It relies on equality. Equality is something, that when suggested in the realm of capitalism, is simply impossible, for reasons that I will perhaps write a paper on at a later date.
    Many critics of my way of thinking suggest that I am simply complaining. I am complaining without the willingness to do work to support my demands. Complaining without a solution. They are wrong. I have a simple solution, and I have been working towards it for most of my publicly schooled life.

To submit writing email us at bpdistro@mail.com

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