Be Open

Hey, this is Jodie. Mom's fixing some dinner right now, so she asked me to be a guest writer. :)

Oprah's words here ring very true in my high school life. It seems as though my class, the class of 2011, is divided into two very distinct extremes of students: the overdoers and the underdoers. Average students, the in-betweens, are very few and far between.

I am among the overdoers. We are the minority, but we group together in all of the Honors classes and foreign languages. We are the ones who finish homework in class, who bring our instruments home to practice, and who ask themselves in the middle of the summer, "what is the difference between white and black seeds of a watermelon?"*

Underdoers make up a whole lot of the rest of my grade. They show up to class stoned, hit on the young female teachers, and when asked how they are in French ("Comment ca va?") reply that they are feeling very hot dog today, thanks ("UN HOT-DOG!")

It's not like these two (very broad) generalizations of students are going head-to-head at war with one another, as would be done in the cinemas**; on the contrary, there are so many people who I find hilarious. There are all sorts of redeeming qualities about everyone, and while study habits may differ, they excel at many other skills that many overdoers lack.

Underdoers are by no means dumb. They've just been trained to hate learning. It is unfashionable to be content with homework just as much as teenagers feel they have to disagree with their parents about EVERYTHING. Apathy abounds, and it's all based on an unfortunate stereotype that is cast on teenagers from not just the media, but from the general populations' understanding. Since it is expected of teenagers to rebel and to be apathetic, they are enabled to simply not care.

This brings me to what Oprah says about learning; not just reading and arithmetic, but about life itself. One must be open to learning or going against the stereotype. When it is truly fashionable to pay attention in class, so it will happen. It is unfortunate that school is more of a social chain than a place to learn, but that fact can be put to advantage if approached the right way.

In other words, don't tell ABC and Disney channel to encourage kids to be open-minded; instead, say it to Hollister and Urban Outfitters. After all, open-mindedness is not only the key to learning, but the key to peace.

--Jodie



*This conversation happened between myself and my overdoer boyfriend earlier today. I asked, and he put aside what he was doing to find the answer. Black seeds are actually fertile, which is why they are found much less often in grocery-store watermelons; white seeds are polyploids, which means that you won't have waxy watermelons growing out of your ears.

**"Haha you're such a nerd! Who does their homework anymore?" "You slacker, get some brains and grow up!" "Geek!" "Bum!" "DORK!" "NE'ER-DO-WELL!"