Thoughts on the Judicial Council

-
There are few things less consequential than wearing pajamas in the school cafeteria. And there are few things more cringeworthy than recalling myself ruling its violation of school rules in front of two hundred students.

“To belong is to understand tacit codes of the people you live with,” said Michael Ignatieff. Isolated in the mountains, our school is a small community that needs tacit codes to maintain itself. The code consists of detailed rules and an exhaustive penalty point system to ensure its observation.

In the system is the student council, modeled after the government's separation of powers. As students petition against penalty points received, the judicial council investigates them, rules cases, and leads court. Taking on the work with great dedication, we spent meal-less dinners debating for Precision and Integrity.

At the same time, student council was nothing like the government. Ministers and heads never check nor balance the other, and rulings and policies were as clever as they were narrow. Sometimes, in wiser moments, I worried I would blind myself in my sheltered bureaucracy. Often I did.

However, the system maintained the City Upon a Hill. The seemingly trite cases were nevertheless necessary to uphold the code and school. Characters trained in the simulated world could also acquire valuable skill sets of experience. Soon, I will leave the mountains to face the pressing issues of the larger world. I look forward to addressing them with the same determination and dedication, perhaps wearing PJs while I’m at it. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review on Arkangel, Black Mirror

-
Image
Review on Arkangel,  Black  Mirror As a young child, Sara has grown up with a child monitoring system implanted in her head. With a tablet, Sara's mother can find the geolocation of child, see what Sara is seeing, and blur out disturbing images. This difference in growing up caused Sara to be emotionally immature and socially outcast in school. Another problem is that Sara learns violence, illness, and sex only at a late age. While it is natural for her to be curious of obscenities, she harms herself because she did not have the awareness that she should have achieved through early exposure (not pleasant but necessary). For instance, Sara cuts herself because she does not know pain or violence. She only knows the concept, and she harms herself because she never had the chance to fully realize what violence is, and why she should avoid it. When Sara has a sexual relationship with Trick, she mimics the actor she saw on internet pornography, because that was the first way she e
Read more

Big Graduation Mischief

-
All is dark in the cold night of Hoengseong. The wind is rushing through the snow-covered mountains. In the middle of the mountain lies Korean Minjok Leadership Academy (a.k.a KMLA), isolated. On the top floor of KMLA’s dormitory building, a single dim light is seeping out into the night. It is coming from a dark storage room of the school cafeteria, where twelve students are huddled up, whispering. There was a knock on the door. Everyone flinched- except for Summer, who scuttled to hide behind the shelf of tuna cans. “ It ’ s me ” , whispered Blake, peeking into the dark room. The dead quite room was now filled with sighs of relief. “ You ’ re late, Mr. Class President”, Seolin accused.   " Sorry, I just came back from the basketball competition- did I miss something? ” “ The morning assembly had been a chaos. They banned our graduation!” “…and so, we’re planning an escape” added Brian. “Here, come on in”, said Jihyun, handing Blake a shabby scroll of paper.
Read more

Self Reflection Essay: To kill a bee – first aid kit

-
Image
To kill a bee – first aid kit     As a young child, I watched a television program named “Go Diego Go!”. The main character of the animation was Diego, a young adventurer of the jungles. He used a special bag filled with supplies and food used to rescue wild animals. Quickly, Diego and his rescue kit became my hero.   Watching the animation, my younger brother and I started having little expeditions of our own. Our favorite pastime was to go outside to the playground or the woods, searching for animals and insects that needed our help. We also bought a plastic pill container from the town grocery store and named it our first aid kit. We filled the kit with sugar, salt, water, oats, and honey nicked from the kitchen.   With our small first aid kit, we fed birds, located stray cats, and especially, tried to save dying bees. In certain times of the year, bees were frequently spotted in our playground, laboriously fluttering for their last flight home. Nature
Read more