Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be in a ward? Well if you go to school then you might be attending one. There are surprisingly similar qualities in both a ward and a school. Realize how both institutions carry the same policies such as, no phones, one at a time, and no bullying. Essentially, both high schools and wards have almost identical rules; the only difference is the punishment and the attendees. It’s not only the rules that are the same, the organization of the how the institutions run uniform.
Although we don’t wake up and get ready at school, it’s a necessary role of attending school. The scheduling of FHS is classes for two hours and twenty-nine minutes lunch and repeat hours of classes. At a ward it might be (after getting up and getting ready and eating) free time for a couple hours, group(s) for an hour or two, lunch for fourty five minutes, and free quiet time. The only difference between the scheduling is the events that the attendees are participating in. Some wards, for teenagers, even have schooling available. Now what if you get caught doing something wrong at the institution, what rights do you have?
In school, at least our school, the feel and idea is that we have our (the students) rights stripped from ourselves. A new rule that is being enforced is that our phones can be searched with suspicions. That seems like a huge invasion of privacy to me. There might be private conversations that I feel shouldn’t be read but anyone but myself. It was already a suspicion that teachers and administrators did that anyways, but now it’s admitting it. The worst part about any place where there are higher “qualified” (for lack of better word) workers, there will be the lower ones that get disregarded. Complaints seem to go unnoticed when it’s a student complaining about a teacher or a patient complaining about a day keeper. It makes it seem like they are better than us, that their words mean more. I’ve been to a sort of ‘ward’ before and I can say from experience, that although the environments are very different, they are still more alike than you’d think.
I like the way you drew the idea of invasion of privacy into your argument. I agree that that kinda of invasion is eerily similar to the way wards can strip you of certain freedoms, like having electronics and when you can do certain things. Very well written.
ReplyDeleteWhile the school is definitely a tightly organized and restrictive entity, I in no way believe it to be too similar to the school in that the treatment one receives at school is much better than in Nurse Ratched's ward. As for the unrestricted confiscation of phones, I think that it's reasonable: phones tend not to be conducive to education.
ReplyDeleteI think that the similarities lie in the structure of the institution rather than in the treatment of students and patients, respectively. IN any pyramid structure there are going to be various levels of power, access and privilege. That goes for schools as well as mental institutions. Both of these are designed to keep a large body of individuals in check, and both are designed to keep rules in order for many people by a select few. Liberties sometimes need to be taken in order to enforce the rules.
ReplyDeleteI think that most people dont realize that by simply going to a school one can slightly experience maybe going to jail or simply going to work. seeing that everything in life is literally an institution, from our workplaces to simply our group of friends. rules will always be different in every institution, but what brings everything together into the one category of institution you need to be able to see the pyramid of power within that society.
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