Goodbye Fun......

WHEN did we become such wowsers?Is it right that an 18-year-old Year 12 (Grade 12 student for my American friends!) student can vote, buy a beer and die in a war, but is regarded as a criminal if he is on school grounds after dark to put police crime scene tape around the school canteen?
Schools are cracking down on student pranksters celebrating their last formal day of classes before final exams begin.
Authorities are hiring security guards and threatening to lay criminal trespass charges against students who invade school grounds after hours to carry out their pranks.
Yes, thanks to the fun police now on patrol, toilet seats won't be wrapped in Glad Wrap, brick walls won't be defaced by shaving cream graffiti and classroom chairs will remain Vaseline-free.
Now you might think the crime scene prank, which happened at a Melbourne school this week, was pretty harmless, but under the new no-fun regime this silly bit of fun could now land students in jail. Holy crap! To think, i coulda been landed in a jail cell with a bunch of my friends........bugger, see no one in 1979 was out to get students then. Except maybe McDonalds.....hehehehe, the second store had opened here in Oz and one of our pranks was to nail a so called "meat pattie " to a tree, come back for our 12 month reunion to observe how much it had deterioirated..............LOL....it was still the same!!!!!! Anyhow, i am off the track damn it......
The punishment is fit for an adult, but the examples show that young people are still being treated like naughty little children.
In a country like Australia that has traditionally taken pride in larrikinism and disdain for heavy-handed authority, we are slowly ruining the spirit of youthful celebration.
Muck-up day used to be a day of freedom when students got their own back on adults who had spent the past 13 years telling them what to do.
Now principals are proud of the return to yawn-inducing formal assemblies and stultifying morning teas with the staff.
It all just smacks of the greatest hypocrisy.
Outside the school grounds, celebrations involving booze, babes, bawdiness and bad behaviour continue to attract legend status.
Office workers spend their Friday night happy hours in city watering holes, sharing a drink and a smoke and a grope.
Footballers enjoy their end-of-season skol-and-shag fests, often preying on hapless locals from foreign tropical lands.
BUT after slaving for 13 years in stifling school classrooms, many students who are legally adults are being told they aren't responsible enough to organise their own celebrations.
The simple fact is that we've forgotten what it's like to be young.
Most students don't want to hurt anyone or damage things, they just want to get their own back on some of the teachers, feel naughty and have a cracking good time.
Muck-up days began gaining notoriety in Australia in the mid-1970s, along with the birth of schoolies week.
But those who started the tradition 30 years ago are now reaching middle age and seem intent on ensuring others don't have as much fun as they did.
Such educators will argue schools can't afford to allow students free rein because they damage school property, bully younger students and injure staff.
Indeed, there will always be a few students who don't know where to draw the line.
Recent examples include the Catholic college students who spread mutilated animal body parts around the school, sprayed graffiti, dented cars and smashed windows.
I'm not for one moment suggesting we should be condoning or allowing such behaviour.
However, such examples are isolated and relatively few in number given the many thousands of Victorian school leavers who finish classes each year.
But sadly, in this brave new world full of punitive regimes we've got used to punishing the masses for the sins of the few.
Whether it's terrorists, welfare cheats or slack workers, we're all being subjected to increasingly restrictive laws in order to stamp out the actions of a very small minority.
But there is a middle ground to be found between student-led chaos and teacher-led morning teas.
At some schools, senior students and staff get together to establish some ground rules on the common understanding that Year 12s should be able to muck-up within reasonable bounds.
At one school there are sanctioned food fights on the oval during classes -- students get to feel naughty and throw their eggs and water bombs at each other and a few brave teachers -- but no damage is done.
At another there is a very successful Year 12 sleepover -- complete with disco and movies -- which is organised by the students.
THE bottom line is that the more students are respected and treated like young adults rather than naughty children throughout their senior years at school, the more chance officials have of keeping a lid on muck-up day.
Students with pride in their schools will treat the school staff and property with respect.
It's too easy to simply blame a few errant students for behaving badly. It spares us the need to critically examine punitive and overly regimented school cultures and the excesses of our own society.

till next time, Michelle.