Assembly Disrespect
The moment the person on stage utters the words, “Senior class,” students are up and out of their seats. It’s a premeditated action: several minutes before the speaker concludes, students are moving about, putting on jackets and preparing to leave. It’s disrespectful, as is putting feet up on the balcony, pulling out cellphones and talking amongst each other. These actions don’t seem so transformative to us, but if you ever stand on the stage, you’ll realize you have the ability to see every little thing that goes on.
Assemblies are great tools that introduce new ideas and new ways of thinking.
We wonder sometimes if Milton Heath Jr. ’45 realized why we laughed at him. If he noticed our inability to suppress our snickers when he, the 2014 John Phillips Award recipient, suffered a memory lapse—seemingly from Alzheimer’s or a dementia type disease. A more recent occurrence of open disrespect was during Tuesday’s assembly regarding climate change. During the final moments of Dr. Cameron Wake’s talk, the yellow light turned red on the back wall. Wake concluded his talk, and opened the floor for questions. Almost immediately, the assembly hall was filled with loud “No”s and the sound of amusement.
These two reactions embody our student body’s response to assemblies. According to Exeter’s website, assemblies are “fun, relaxing, stimulating and mind-changing all at the same time.” But are they actually? Most students view them as burdens—appointments they wearily have to attend. The act of dicking an assembly has almost turned into a bragging right.
Assemblies are great tools that introduce new ideas and new ways of thinking. They provide insight into fields not explored in class. But most assemblies end up falling by the wayside. Discussion fails to outlast the walk to Grill.
An assembly is mocked for a monotonous speaker, an outlandish idea, or a boring message. Students only fill all the seats on the more entertaining days, like the Halloween or dance assemblies.
Until the student body changes its attitude, assemblies have no purpose. They waste a tremendous amount of money and time. If continuous entertainment is what the school needs, money would be better spent on a bouncy house.
Abide by non sibi. If you dislike a talk, don’t show it. Don’t ruin the experience for others. Don’t disrespect the speaker. Don’t give him or her a shoddy impression of the Exeter community.
Assemblies are not millstones. They are opportunities to learn. They are opportunities many other schools cannot provide. Until a change in attitude is seen, both the administration and the student body must ask themselves: what good does assembly do? ♥