January 13, 2000

1:34 PM

The high school English paper that rocked Naugatuck, Connecticut has now resurfaced on the Web.
posted by jjg (7 comments total)

I didn't think Matt would ever take that essay offline, and was surprised when he was forced into it. I think it serves as a good reminder about how bad education really is, if that's what deserves an A- these days. I still can't get over the fact that there has been no punishment for the original author, and that everything came down on Matt.
posted by mathowie at 2:25 PM on January 13, 2000

It's promising to see at Matt's site that the author has apologized and the teacher has gotten dinged.

What upsets me most about this -- even more than that neither the author nor the teacher knows how to use the subjunctive mood -- is how chilling essay reads if the date were changed to 1/5/1999 and instances of "A.J." were changed to "Eric and Dylan." Are people really still wondering why Columbine happened? It wasn't Doom: It was teachers like Mrs. Allen and students like Maria.

Teachers should enlighten and inspire, not degrade and mock. (Note to self: Home school.)


posted by luke at 2:53 PM on January 13, 2000

Jeez, Luke, you're right on about that. Look back in Matt Dabrowski's archives to see what kind of school he goes to. He's constantly getting in trouble for speaking his mind and seems to be in perpetual conflict with his school's administration. A person can take only so much punishment and degrading treatment before they lash out. On the bright side, Matt's going to be done with high school in just a few months and won't ever have to deal with this B.S. again.
posted by mathowie at 3:39 PM on January 13, 2000

I just got an email about http://savemattd.tripod.com/. The mirroring continues...
posted by mathowie at 3:52 PM on January 13, 2000

>On the bright side, Matt's going to be done with high
>school in just a few months and won't ever have to
>deal with this B.S. again.

Until he goes to college.
posted by jkottke at 1:02 PM on January 14, 2000

I think you've dogged college before, Jason. Maybe I just got lucky, but I can't comprehend how even the worst college experience can measure up to high scool. In college you so much more freedom. Don't like your teachers? Change your classes. Don't like your friends? Make new ones. Don't like where you live? Move out. And there's always the last resort, which I took advantage of, which is to change college altogether. In my book, college is the height of freedom and fun. Sigh. It's downhill from here.
posted by luke at 5:08 PM on January 14, 2000

+1 on that Luke.

Jason, I mentioned MattD's ordeal would be over after HS for the reasons Luke mentioned. At my college, there was this hill near the center quad where people could do, say, or shout whatever they wanted. One week, a guy might be smoking pot and giving a talking about legalization issues, the next week some people might be using a megaphone to talk about Black Nationalism, and at almost every point in between, there'd be a jesus-freak telling anyone that walked by they were going to hell. I've heard of very few college enironments that were limiting, but almost every HS can feel like a prison to a geek.
posted by mathowie at 6:02 PM on January 14, 2000