the wall of shame
The Wall of Shame has been a frequent target of criticism as of late, and after pondering it for a bit I find myself in a position needing to come to its defense.
From an outsider’s point of view, the Wall of Shame seems to celebrate poor work ethic and lack of effort, a shrine established for Great Achievements in Senior Apathy. Its real estate alone serves as an indicator of status; no plexi-glass covered public wall housing academic or extra-curricular achievements can currently be found on campus. Even our art gallery, built to showcase student work, is at present filled with art which illustrates our school’s great amount of waste. Yet we, as overachieving Harvard-Westlake students, not only accept but propagate the existence of the Wall. Does it mean we accept a lack of discipline? A lack of achievement? A complete and total rejection of all things academic? Not in the slightest.
Since (essentially) 7th grade we’ve been pigeon-holed into following a Track of Excellence intended to guarantee myriad options for us upon graduating. The system works well; when the effort is invested, opportunities are limitless with a Harvard-Westlake education, a fact of which advancement and Yearbook are well aware. There is a definite dehumanizing and overexertion-inducing element to it all but whatever suck it up and deal motherfuckers welcome to the real world. PAUSE. No.
The only way we’ve been able to survive in this safe but demanding system is through the network of “everything else” we’ve created: friends, activities, etc. In a matter of months, our safety nets will be shifting, disappearing. We, being the good prioritizers we’ve been trained to be, recognize the pressing need to enjoy these last few months to the greatest extent, maximizing our time to absorb all we can from these people who’ve been our Five Pillars throughout our practicing Harvard-Westlake doctrine. We realize now is our time to cherish those who’ve given us so much, and that our hard labors can’t even begin to compare on a scale of importance.
The improperly dubbed Wall of Shame thus serves as a reminder of what is important now, that it is okay to fail in an an environment demanding perfection and absolute investment, that we have paid our dues to the best of our abilities and that everything is going to be ok.
No honor or sense of accomplishment comes from having one’s work displayed on the wall, and many can’t articulate their feelings towards it with any more specificity beyond its being “funny”. Its function is simply that of a connective tissue for our senior class as we simultaneously make the pilgrimage towards a newly defined self-fulfillment.
LAB
