Unsettling Adventures with Middle Schoolers

      I thought it was very interesting how throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, all of the patients seemed to follow whatever McMurphy was doing. When he was rebelling against the nurse, they would too. When he was following the nurses orders, they would too. I also realized how this applies to real life. 

      Last Friday, my friend and I had to go to the Middle School to perform a social conformity experiment for our Psychology class on the seventh and eighth graders. We would pick three students first, and tell them three questions we were going to ask them that were generally easy: What is 6*7? What is the capital of New York? What part of speech are the words "to jump"? We would then tell these students that we were going to call one more student over and ask the same three questions, but this time the three accomplices would answer wrong answers together: 49, Buffalo, adjective. Then we would see whether the fourth student would conform the the wrong answer, or stick up for the right one. 

      Through this experiment, we were able to distinguish the "McMurphies" of the school, versus the "patients." The overwhelming amount of "patients" where unsettling. So many middle schoolers simply went along with the wrong answer, after a quick glance around at their peers for approval. In on instance, we started with the fourth student to see if hearing all the students say the same, wrong answer after him would affect his reaction. It did. The fourth student actually went back and changed his correct answer from the beginning! Seeing this happened showed me just how powerful social conformity is, and even though this made me sympathize more with the "patients" in the novel, it also made me disgusted to realize how people don't stick up for themselves.

       However, I can not overlook that there were people who stuck up for the right answer. These "McMurphies" gave me hope that maybe society isn't as conformist as it seems, and there are those that are able to break the mold, and stick up for what they believe in. 

Always Look On the Bright-Side of Life

       In class yesterday, we talked about whether we thought McMurphy had selfish or selfless intentions when he convinced the patients to go on the boat trip and use their insanity as a strength in society, rather than a weakness. While some of my class thought that he at first was selfish but then changed once he got to know them, many people believed he was simply doing this for his own personal benefit or creating a rebellion against Nurse Ratched. I find it very interesting that people, including myself, tend to believe that others always have ulterior motives for their actions. For example, in the novel, the patients themselves begin to doubt that McMurphy has other intentions when Harding states, "'Everything he's [McMurphy] done was done with a reason"' (266). The fact that Harding would think this of McMurphy after McMurphy has risked himself so many times to give the men more freedom in the ward mad me kind of upset. Also the fact that Nurse Ratched barely had to say anything to the men to get them to turn on McMurphy made me upset also. Another example is my close friend who believes whenever someone asked them what they got on a test or essay, that person is always trying to make them feel bad. People are curious and tend to ask others how they do on examinations, and this isn't normally to put the other person down. Also, in psychology we talked a while ago how if a person goes to McDonald's or another fast food restaurant and offers to buy other their food for free, few people accept the offer. Society cannot understand why a person would want to pay for their lunch or breakfast, which no compensation. Overall, society needs to view people in a better light, and to give them the benefit of the doubt rather than always believing people to have other selfish motives.

Surprise Substitute

       Last Friday, much to our surprise, our English class had a discussion instead of an in class essay. Usually, when Ms. Serensky isn't there we have in class journal or writings, which most, if not all, students dread. However, on Friday we were blessed with a pretty cool substitute teacher. I walked into the class expecting him to be just another sub, who would basically just let us AP students talk about whatever we wanted while he would sit back and listen. Mr. Moor was the exact opposite. He gave us time to take our notes on our reading from the night before, but once discussion started, he was right there with us, asking thought provoking questions like "Why was it Cheswick who drowned? What is significant about it being this character?" He also didn't sit down once during discussion, and it almost felt like he was a student like us. Even though this might seem a little weird, I found it a breath of fresh air that there was actually a substitute we had for English that seemed like he cared what we were doing.

Internal Insanity in Swimming

       Today in English we talked about how Chief Bromden, the narrator in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, experiences an internal conflict between secluding himself from the other inmates or befriending them. I experience something very similar during swim meets, when I swim the 500 yard freestyle in competitions.
      The 500 free, which is 20 lengths of the pool, is the longest competitive varsity swimming event. It takes a lot of not only physical endurance, but mental endurance as well, to be successful at this event. The internal conflict I face when swimming this event is do I acknowledge my fellow competitors all 20 of the laps, or do I "zone out" and just swim.
       If I acknowledge other competitors when I swim the 500, it forces me to assess my position among them: Am I fast? Am I slow? Should I try to keep pace with them? I guess you could say this is good, because it allows me to face where I stand compared to the other swimmers. However, like the Chief, it causes me to suffer, because then I always feel so much pressure when I swim, like I'm only competing against them, when I need to be more aware of my own racing strategy.
      On the other hand, if I shut them out, I only see the race from my perspective: How tired am I? How much fast should I go? Should I conserve my energy? Many times this prevents me from reaching my full potential because I don't have that competitive edge that evaluating other swimmers gives me. However, it allows me not focus on myself and not get as nervous, which helps me swim a better race.

      In the end, I still haven't found which strategy works better for me: facing or avoiding other swimmers during a race. Hopefully over the course of my last season in high school I can figure it out, and maybe take some tips from the Chief as he solves his problems in the novel.

The Silence of Society

      In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the narrator of the story pretends to be deaf and dumb while in a psychiatric ward. While I read this, I thought how terrible it would be not to be able to speak in society today. However, it was then I realized all the things we can do without actually speaking to someone:

• We can text on our cellphones instead of talking to people. Texting has become a convenient way of communicating with people all throughout the globe, and even my swim team coach texts the team when practice is cancelled or she has an important announcement. 
• We can order things online instead of shopping for them in stores. From food to clothes, almost anything is available for purchase online today, and you can get it without having to talk to anyone.
• We can take school courses online, instead of in the classroom. ITT Tech offers online college courses, and so does our high school (psychology, economics)
• We can use social networking sites on the internet. Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace all allow us to stay in touch with friends on the internet, without talking.
• We can get money from ATM machines instead of talking to a bank clerk.
• We can buy songs on iTunes, instead of going to stores and having to communicate with cashiers and salespeople.
• We can do college interviews online. Wake Forest University has a required interview in order to apply, and one option to fulfill this requirement is to answer a couple short answer questions online with a time limit per question.
• We can meet our significant other online, instead of having to meet them and talk to them in person first (eHarmony, Match.com). 

      All of these examples show how much society today has diverged from verbal communication. We can do almost anything without talking to anyone, and this lack of communication has caused many people to become socially awkward in person. I believe we should use these new technological advances, but in moderation. Who knows what will happen if we rely too heavily on technology to avoid social interaction with others in the future?

From Ridicule to Realization

      Today in English, Ms. Serensky mentioned how differently the 11th and 12th graders act to her ten minute warning during in class essays. She noted that the juniors all seem flustered and freak out, while we seniors simply go about our essays, most of us not even glancing up from our work. What I found most interesting from this analysis was my own personal reaction to this comment. I laughed, as did most of my class, especially, when Ms. Serensky went on to say that one of the students even said that at the ten minute warning, he/she had finally decided to move onto the examples in his/her writing. Most of my class was in shock at hearing this, and could not believe anyone could know so little about writing a formal paragraph.
      After school, as I drove my sister to swim practice, I brought up this subject with her, interested to see her opinion. When I told her the story she laughed and said, "Yeah, most of my class didn't get to a lot of examples." I was surprised and told her she better get used to it because by the end of the year she was going to have to be able to write an entire essay in 40 minutes, and in AP 12, without her book. She then said to me, "Well, last year you were in the same boat as all of us." This made me think about how hypocritical my reaction was in class and how I mocked all the juniors for their lack or writing experience. Last year, I was the kid who freaked out at the ten minute mark, and who had heart attacks before every in class essay. Even though I still get nervous this year before essays, it isn't half as bad because I know what to expect. The juniors don't. I learned not to be so quick to judge others, and hopefully in the future, I will be able to empathize the juniors because I was once in their shoes.