If you ever want to see your spoons again...

 

As strange as taking spoons hostage may sound, I assure you the motives behind it are far more rational. For months now I, on behalf of fellow students, have plagued the canteen staff with requests for metal cutlery at lunchtimes to no success. Now, I know what you're thinking; no doubt the words irritating and trivial come to mind. However, apart from the fact that they are genuinely pathetic excuses for cutlery and break at the glimpse of anything tougher than mash potato, they are morally wrong. Firstly, in a school of 1600, that's potentially 4800 forks, knives and spoons used and thrown away everyday! Lets forget for a moment that all of this has to be removed and replaced everyday, but the amount of waste that results is unthinkable. After being taken to landfill degradation and decomposition of plastic happens so slowly that that very spoon could outlive you twelve-fold! Additionally, most throw-away plastics are petroleum based meaning they are even worse for the environment! So, amongst the tuts and sighs from those less green members of the sixth form, I started to steal the cutlery. My names Abigail and I steal cutlery. With help from a few friends who agreed to house the fugitives in their lockers we have eliminated plastic from our canteen. Now the question is... what does one do with several lockers worth of stolen plastic spoons? Suggestions on a postcard.

Shhh... they might hear you

I highly doubt any young person has not heard, or in fact become enraged, at the latest headlines regarding the possible rise in university tuition fees. However, on the 10th of November NUS is arranging a demo in London against this decision and thousands of students will surely take to the streets to stand up for a decision which, despite not affecting them directly, is a student issue.

Now, I am currently Head Girl at my school; a school which prides itself on its active student voice team. Yet, the national student voice group within our school have been told they are not allowed to publicise, let along attend, the event! Despite having a team of passionate, outspoken students who are assigned roles withing Student Voice...."Perhaps a letter would be a more appropriate way of expressing the student perspective."

Personally, I do not feel it is right to rely on others to fight the battles in which all students bound for higher education are involved.. and I would urge you to do the same.

An Education

I was recently reading an article about the teaching of sexual education in schools with regards to different religious views. In particular, this article referred to the many complaints from the Christian parents of students at several junior schools. The issue they raised against the teaching of basic sexual education to their children was that it "perverted basic christian virtues". Now, I am not a Christian so therefore may be misinterpreting something here, but I cannot understand how any parent or any child can wish ignorance upon their child...especially when the subject is something that is becoming increasingly current; it is naive to think that children are or can be "kept children" like they used to be given the influences of today. I was also concerned that the comments from parents indicated it was only Christian who have these "basic morals" installed in them!
A religion does not ensure nor equate to decent behaviour and an understanding of "basic morals" and sooner or later, every child needs to know what is being taught.

The children of Gaza

The Children of Gaza. Before watching the documentary I admit I hadn’t thought past the children who might be injured directly in conflict. The dispatches documentary on channel four was a real eye opener to the long term injustice that exists without, it seems, much support. "Where are the human rights organisations?" one man asked... Of course it would be naive to expect a counsellor for each child scared by war, but is that what is really necessary? The scarring of war goes deeper than the wounds children recover from. It is the confusion, the misplaced guilt and the fear that no child should know. It seems in this situation the children’s mental well being is being forgotten assuming their physical state is okay... which of course is not even the case in the majority of instances. But what was deeply disturbing to see was the children’s rationale of the entire thing; despite their mature acknowledgement of the practical aspects of war... there is an underlying disturbance in their violent play which includes mock torture and abuse. Additionally the undertone of wars influence is included in the aspirations of the youth... is it really right for little boys of seven to be encouraged and to openly crave vengeance for the death of a man? It is an issue which is hard to address in a culture depicted by violence and written off as a lost cause which could not possibly be compared to the ultra-comforting, overly-nurturing environment which we expect for children in the UK... right?

My first blog..

Having never written a blog before, I'm not entirely sure how to begin. I am under no illusions that anyone will read this but aim to use it more as a diary... The idea being that through writing about... well, anything... I will develop my thoughts and improve my expression of them in the hope that, one day, someone will want to read them.

I think that's enough of an introduction. I will perhaps begin with a rant... I can only pray this will not be the enduring theme... We'll see.

This weekend I went to Paris with my school for a conference about the future of young people in the EU where several speakers had a captive audience of hundreds of young people from across England. One such speaker was Kate Hoey, Labour MP, who spoke out about her views that the voting age should be lowered to 16... and then stopped. Later, Caroline Flint spoke about the curriculum including decision making at a young age, in order to build their democratic skills...and then stopped.

Needless to say the important issue behind their words was not heard loud and clear by the audience who, despite being of the considered age and having an interest in politics were left unconvinced. Lowering the voting age would enable young people to have a say in the world they are expected to take responsibility for.... having children, getting married and joining the armed forces are a possibility at 16. Admittedly, as Caroline Flint argued, this can only be done with parental consent, so why not be able to vote with such consent?

Of course there are those who would abuse the lowering of the voting age... but if between the ages of 16 and 18 you had to apply in order to gain your voting rights this could easily be avoided... how many people would go through the hassle of a registration process "for a laugh"? Not many.

Having said that, isn't it a little harsh to say that because people are young they are all irresponsible? How many 18 and 19 year olds can really own to a informed knowledge of the government they are voting for? How many actually use their vote? I suspect no more or less than a 16 year old would.

Finally, if so concerned about young peoples reckless voting... the answer is simple... EDUCATE! I do not mean Carolines ideas about "team work" in primary school... I mean getting people involved, fired up, interested in the workings and causes of politics so that when they come to vote... they want to because they know who they support and why!

Would it not be more beneficial to encourage consideration than to delay ignorance?