School kid organises walk out for more home work ... scab or not? in Voices Windward

I already wrote the novel so I may aswell share it ...

A comrade on facebook sees the lad as a scab, betraying his classmates to improve his lot and his own interests, I feel that in a failing system he asked for a little support, didn't get it and took action ... What do we think?

http://www.dailyguideghana.com/schoolboy-14-excluded-from-lessons-for-organising-mass-walkout/

On a greater topic, is there anything really school kids trapped in such schools (or any) could do to improve their lot? - well aside from fancy rhetoric about teens establishing indepedant co-ops and free schools n such ...

My own personal experience is different to what you suspect, Early in school I was quite the ass licking swot but I moved to a seriously bad school in year nine and my own education began to wane, Later in the year I moved again and was (despite being set 1 student with a shit ton of extra curriculars) summarily put in set 6 for every topic, this was due to class sizes. I spent three years eeking my way back up from the sets from classes that were basically zero education, sat doing nothing, to set 3/4 where the occasionally bothered to try and teach you some trig, Most of the teachers assigned the classes temporary and had zero interest in the pupils and rarley knew the source materials, we'd so often just be told to "read and copy down from the book".

This is when I began to see the vast inequality within our system of education, those who shine, get funded and special effort put into them, not just on a pupil scale but on a school scale. I took too studying my own interests in my own time and managed to eek through and took a attitude of teaching classmates myself and helping them out with stuff because despite being "disobedient" actually had smarts and a willing to learn new shit, they were simply ignored. Most of these guys ended up going no where, no in the jobplace, not in life, because once you get used to being forgotten, ignored and despised, it's very easy to accept that and just accept it rather than make your own path and find your strengths.

I left school with next to nothing because in class we were given very little and no pressure to apply ourselves was given. The opportunity to fail with ease was presented and I and many of my school mates took it.

For me it changed when In a meeting with counsellor I voiced this and she gave me "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman and told me to write a 3000 word review, My topic of study for Science not English but fair enough. I'd never taken on a book like that really and I had to look up alot of the words and concepts within and it relight my desire for education.

Reading a few articles on what happened with this kid he wasn't pushing for a harder life for his school mates but was distressed about the educational system failing him and asking for additional tuition.

the same which would readily be afforded to a student in the top teir or any at a higher rated (and thus funded) school. I don't see how this is a betray of his school mates and all faults with the UK's rather indoctrinating school system aside, he obviously saw a problem, tried to solve it within the systems and decided to take direct action.

Sure we could say School sucks, stop being a swot, dodge school work , live free or we see a kid trying to get buy against the failures he's forced to endure.

I can see where you're coming from with the scab stuff mind, I get your point, but for me I save the term for those who betray a active effort to make change or against the system. Surely that would apply to those who said "oh stop trying to start trouble and just get back to class"?

Either way, having been there, living rough in a shit school, I can tell you it's no place to just sit back and move along with the herd, you need to fight and cry out for a moment of assistance while trying to survive in a culture of acceptance.

Sorry for the novel, but saying, "hey I/we need a little help here" and getting pissed off when you are ignored isn't the same as "fuck these bastards I want mine".

Maybe the kid is a wally but all that's just how I feel about it. Maybe I don't associate education and good marks with efforts to work your way up the system, some people just feel a basic understanding of cellular structure might be beneficial. 12 mins · Like Rev-Anthony Melia Eitherway I've got max respect for any young un that has the awareness and ability to orgainse themselves and others too highlight problems they see in what is tantamount to their entire world, whether that's lax teaching, sexist uniform rules, low pay for cleaners, or attempts to save youth clubs etc