Hamdev would like to forewarn, this article is a statement of opinion, which may be controversial. Some of the opinion contained may not have been formed with all the facts that may be considered necessary to make suitable judgement. Furthermore, this opinion contains strong bias as the author is strongly connected with the subject being described.

Seemed like an appropriate thing to write about today.

Sin Bin’s final performance today, only just realised when I got home, maybe it would have been interesting to go, since I’ve been Isolated and all that.

Though I speak with a huge bias, what is the point of being Isolated? It never does any one any good. I don’t know how the Sin Bin performance interprets it but in my opinion, Isolation is one of the most pointless punishments a teacher can enforce.

That Isolation room, tiny, cramped, a sink and a water cooler. It’s torture in its most subtle form. Sitting. No one talks to you, no one even notices you. A lady from the admin office will walk in to get a drink or something every so often. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a disapproving stare, but its unlikely. You just sit there, you may know what you’ve done, you may not but, hell, no one’s going to tell you. Everything, every thought, goes through your head, its pounding a grim pressure and, for me, an immobilising sense of confusion. Anger, maybe; my head hurt too much for anger though. Looking back, I find it hard to remember. I was punished for something I am so passionate about, the feeling of being let down, humiliated and un-trusted. Not humiliated by my actions, of course, but by the fact I believed in the school, I believed they did value my opinion. Of course, they didn’t; who was I kidding?

Only myself it seems. Lots of other people, my peers, had already cottoned on to the fact the school was not going to listen to them. It was an idea I was reluctant to accept. School Council, Year Council, stuff like that – it means something, right? I’m not sure, I like to think so; I have influenced the colour of the new toilets, the Monkey World trip and even a few policies. I am concerned, however, that a lot of very valid and reasonable requests, often that don’t involve money, aren’t met and usually the reason why isn’t clear. That’s all I ask, if I could just be told why some of the things I propose aren’t enacted upon, I’d be happy – it’s like there’s a meeting, some suggestions but nothing following it up.

So, I had created a website, a perfectly good website, one with a community, a spirit and a life, something with vibrance; a place where people could talk about what they liked about the school, another point of entry for suggestions. Why would something, which accurately displays and represents pupils’ opinions, be disapproved. I tried to dismiss the fact that it had been as I sat there. I waited. I didn’t know, I was never told, about what was happening outside my isolation. I was just left there, not fed or watered and not even a way of going to the toilet without the fear I would be further punished.

Eventually, it had felt like an eternity, I was spoken to, if you can call it that, merely being beckoned to a different room, a different corner. I still was none the wiser to what was happening, or indeed, what was my fate. Exactly one week previous, a teacher had told me I would be expelled if I continued to pursue my vision of pupils’ freedom of expression. This crossed my mind several times, but I was never stupid enough to let myself actually accept that they might. They couldn’t, on what grounds and what basis?

I was only in my new corner a few minutes, I had actually been given some English work on a note with a big smiley face from a sympathetic teacher too. I was told to go somewhere else, an office this time. My isolation was over, but the ordeal has never ended. My incarceration was unjustified and unnecessary. We are always told to communicate our problems with each other and the the teachers, I would very much like the thought to be reciprocated.

Anyway, my moaning over, I have another moan; Jim’s isolation. If you don’t know what happened to Jim this week, it doesn’t really matter for the purpose of this article. But firstly, the event was unfortunate and a direct result of bad management and implementation of a project. We are teenagers, stereotypically rebellious and non-conformist, they pretend to “trust” us, let us be responsible for ourselves. That in itself is a fallacy, we may like to think we’re being trusted but we know we’re not; of course, that encourages us to push the so called trust to its limits. Really, we shouldn’t be trusted. I cannot see a reason to blame either of the people involved in the incident this week. If I were the school, I would be worried as to how the incident was allowed to occur, since in my opinion the school is at fault.

Continuing, how could an isolation benefit Jim? His state of sheer humiliation for the duration of the incident was plenty enough discipline. Isolation does nothing, except rile the person involved. It made me detest the school’s ideologies and policies and ultimately led me to continue with my endeavours of Freedom of Expression which are persistently disapproved of by the school. In fact the latest disapprovement was displayed in an attempt at blocking the extremely successful and popular Spreadfire forums.

I really needed to vent that.

Anyway, work experience is here. I can’t help feeling its going to be really hard work, I’m really not up to it right now. There’s that feeling you pick up on at the end of every year where everyone is just too tired to do anything. Personally, I’d much rather sit at school doing the traditional end of year nothingness. I hate not being around friends or people I know, I’m going to hate the summer holidays – they’re just way too long! Oh well, Year 7 induction day will be fun – wooo free lunch.

Enjoy and see you in two weeks.