Why are our schools so confining? Shouldn't they be fun and instructive? Shouldn't our schools inspire us to greatness? Wouldn't it be better for everyone if we enjoyed going to school?

I once had a friend compare high schools to jails. Now this may not be a new concept but the presentation of the idea is outside of the box, allow me to share. The first thing you do at high school is check in and meet your wardens, oops my bad, councilors and principals. At jails they are called by their rightful titles of warden. At our high schools they have had the friendly titles of class councilor, vice principal, and principal bestowed upon them. How nice!

We will next look at the windows, not through them longingly, this time. The windows on, and in, our schools are double paned plexiglass or have a wire mesh running through them. What happened to the days when there was no glass over the windows or if there was, it was open and set a calm atmosphere? The counterpart, jail, is at least “more of a man” when it comes to taking away that freedom to leave. Jails are at least just straight forward about it and just put bars over the windows instead of teasing us with a breakable material. The jails don’t mess around with glass, in comes the metal bars and metal screens.

Let’s take a look at the camera situation. Or rather we’ll review the situation while they watch us. As we walk down the parking lot aisle, the cameras watch. As we trudge down the halls to class, the cameras watch. In jails, the cameras cover every area the inmates are allowed in. The cameras cover the yards. The cameras cover the entrances. And surprise, surprise, the cameras cover the hallways. Our high schools are not quite as bad as the jails in terms of camera usage, but they are on their way. Soon cameras will be everywhere in our schools, everywhere us students are allowed.

So again, why are our schools so confining? Why don’t we open them up and make them friendly again? Let’s make school a better, happier place to be. Let’s make our schools instructive in creativity, not destructive of creativity. Let’s make our schools inspire those yet to come, let them soar to greatness. People talk about the separation of church and state, let’s make the separation of school and jail.