Big Brother is Watching You

Last year, in my language arts class, we began talking about dystopian societies. It was a precursor to a series of books that we would be reading, all about dystopias. We read famous titles including Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and The Hunger Games. All had the common theme of dystopian societies.

So before reading, we learned what exactly a dystopian society was. This got me thinking. I began to notice how dystopian-like our school system was.

One of the main characteristics of a dystopian society is that its citizens are under constant surveillance. That is exactly how our schools are now. In nearly every hallway, there is at least one camera, if not more, monitoring the hallways and recording the daily goings-on. Students are also rarely alone. Sure the teacher will occasionally leave the classroom for a moment, but there are never any unsupervised classes. Teachers from nearby classes will keep an eye on the temporarily unattended class and if any of the students leave, then the cameras will be there to keep watch on the vagabond. You are never really alone in a school building.

The second characteristic that stuck out to me was the usage of propaganda to control the citizens. Everywhere we look, in every classroom, there is always, ALWAYS, at least one poster promoting the fun, the great learning opportunity, or the sense of accomplishment one could receive from excelling in said class. Some posters even express the idea that quitting, or not sticking with something because of the negative side effects, is worse than what those negative side effects could do. Many schools have posters even promoting themselves, glorifying sports, exalting AP classes, and commending their wonderful staff members. Everywhere students look, they see some form of propaganda.

Another dystopian characteristic that can be seen in schools is it’s restriction of its “citizens.” The first main restriction is on our travel. I understand that it helps keep order, but it is somewhat ridiculous. If a teacher is going to give a test that will on average only take half of the class period, it is unreasonable to keep the students in class unless the teacher is going to continue teaching after the testing period. However, most teachers simply allow students to mingle, talk, and generally goof around. Why not just let the students leave class? Especially if it happens to be a class during the lunch hour or during the last period of the day. It seems like a waste of the teacher’s time to have to keep the students under control and a waste of the student’s time when they could be doing other, more beneficial things (,not that all students would use the out-of-class time beneficially.)

It was just something that I noticed, that struck me as odd. One might think that I’m stretching to make these connections; however, I think most students nowadays would agree with me. School is essentially a dystopia.