Last year in American Liturature we all read an essay by Henry David Thoreau called Civil Disobedience which more or less stated if you were going to go against the grain do it in a civilized manner where no one would get hurt. Granted none of the senior class compares to Thoreau as far as rebelling against important things such as taxes, but still we have a right to protest.

Today we had a pep rally during home room, and in the pep rally we have the spirit stick compition. Most of the seniors chose not to participate, and thus we lost. It shouldnt have been made requied that we should participate in the cheer but some how it was. It is like telling someone "You'll cheer and you will have fun doing it too." Demanding us to have fun, when maybe we wont. We were punished for this however, because we lost, which should have been all. It wasnt though, the faculty then decided that they were going to keep us there for the entirty of home room, and let the underclass men go to lunch early. However, the underclassmen wont be served until after the bell rings, and it wasnt much of a punishment because it was like any other normal day.

They couldn't leave it at that. Then they called all of the seniors going on senior trip (not me) to the auditorium for a meeting. From what every senior in my anatomy class told me the moment they got back was that, the faculty basicly told them that they were too immature to go on senior trip, because they wont act as a group, but that they'll act like individuals. Since when is being an individual a bad thing? They want us to be mindless robots so we do exactly what we're told. Apparently they also brought up the fact that some of the students drink, and I can see how it comes into play, but none of them are dumb enough to drink or smoke on senior trip, because then they'd get sent home. And if they were, it was the students choice, and partly the faculties fault for not keeping a good enough eye on the students they are incharge for.

Granted what they rebelled over was stupid, but the students who chose to rebell did it in a civilized matter, no one got hurt, though maybe a little offended, and obsinities werent shouted. They just didnt cheer and were a kind of smart asses about it. But no one was hurt. If it wasnt for individuals, women wouldnt have the right to vote, we wouldnt have a nation of our own, and slaves wouldnt have been freed. None of those great things would have happend, so the faculty should remember that being an individual isnt a bad thing, especially when it is something as minor as cheering in a pep rally.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." So why are we punished for hearing another drummer? I dont understand the faculty, we are in America, the land of oppertunity and the free, let us be free.