Schoolyard Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember (even though it may be hard at times), what peace and quiet there may be during exams, even though exams mean panic and stress. As far as possible be on good terms with all teachers (ALL teachers!), especially the principle as you never know just how much influence it may give you later (if any) in the playground when the school bully comes back to pound you yet again.
Speak your oral loudly and clearly, and always listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant, as they may unknowingly give you ideas of their own to better your assignment with, as well as pushing your own marks higher with their own story.
Avoid the loud, aggressive, and incredibly fat bullies at all times and for as long as possible, for they are vexations to the cafeteria line.
Compare yourself frequently with others, especially if you are self-conscious and have low self-esteem, for there will always be greater losers and bigger dimwits than yourself. I mean, surely you’re not the biggest fool in the entire world, so there must be someone who is lower than you on the Dimwit Scale mustn’t there? At the very least one. So you might as well enjoy it, because they may be the only one in the world who is. It’s only logical.
Keep interested in your own classes, however boring, for it is these very classes that have detained you for so long from having to clean up your room in Jean’s presence. Be grateful for them, for without them, your secret collection of Playboy magazines would certainly be discovered, hidden in the back of your various textbooks, disserting you to a fate worse than death…. A trip to the principal’s office.
Exercise caution in your schoolyard dealings; for the playground is full of trickery and treachery, especially when it comes to fights. But don’t let this discourage you. Honourable is justice, and justice includes dealing out bruises, black eyes and bloody noses to the scumbag and all of his friends who helped to lure your innocent and unwary textbook buddy to sit next to them in science, leaving you nigeled in the middle of the classroom with the school loser at your side. This is an example of dishonourable dealings that are not in your favour when things turn against you, leaving you feeling awful, the best way of dealing with it is to make someone else feel just as, or better still, worse than you feel. This is often very satisfying.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign feelings of spite within yourself. These do you credit when it comes to finding someone else to blame for the spitball that landed (accidentally of course), smack bang in the middle of the teacher’s forehead, who turned around just as you had released your spitball. Well, it wasn’t your fault that she turned around at the wrong time now, was it? And if it wasn’t your fault, then it had to be someone else’s fault, right?
Take kindly, with many complaints here and there, to the work demands of the teachers, gracefully surrendering your after school hours to fulfill the insurmountable mountain of homework and assignments that should have been completed weeks ago. Nurture strength of stubbornness and self-righteousness, to shield you in sudden bouts of misfortune and arguments with teachers concerning the ‘D’ you were given on your latest English assignment. Be willing to threaten them with parent-teacher interviews and lawsuits of all kinds. (Of course you’re not going to actually enforce them, but what the teacher don’t know won’t hurt them, will it?) But also exercise caution when doing so. The teacher you mouth off at today may be the teacher you’ll have to suck up to when it comes to begging for the extension on the next assignment.
Isn’t that the way it always happens?