"Should teenagers give up their sleep for studies?" -- Matipa Mutoti

Teens are faced with a lot of things that compete for their time, especially with such little time in the day. Older siblings having to look after younger brothers and sisters, clubs, sports teams and activities, school and even spending time with friends. There is simply not enough time to do it all. Therefore teens find themselves giving up something to make time to study. Far too often, it is sleep that they give up.

Teenagers have started to believe that it is crucial to study for those few extra hours into the night assuming it will be beneficial for them. However, they do not realise that they cause themselves more harm than good - physically, mentally and emotionally.

Sleep is an important part of any healthy human being’s life. It is required for the body to rest and recuperate especially after a long day of exertion. With little or no sleep, the body is unable to do either of those possibly resulting in stunted growth and development.

Furthermore, one might think stunted growth and development may be a small price to pay for a possible 100% at the end of the day but that is not the case. Sleep deprivation can lead to heart attacks, high blood pressure as well as ageing skin, strokes and diabetes.

Students who sleep less than six to seven hours a night find it harder to concentrate at school. Due to the lack of rest and recuperation, the body will begin to automatically shut down even though the mind wills it to stay awake. This causes situations whereby the student falls asleep during class. Not only will the student have the tendency to fall asleep in class; they will also lack focus and concentration therefore forgetting what was taught to them in class. The student has to use his or her own time catching up therefore creating an endless cycle which is hard to break.

Teenagers are generally very hormonal. Lack of sleep intensifies the emotions caused by the hormones making them emotionally unstable. This instability can lead to depression which is becoming common amongst teenagers.

In addition, research has confirmed students who study more tend to earn higher grades. Teens have the perception that to have more study time they must sleep late but they are wrong. It all depends on how the teens manage their time. They should try and balance everything they do equally and  keep that schedule constant.

Teens also feel peer pressured by what their peers are doing. At schools like Arundel, girls feel like if they are not waking up early and sleeping late studying then they are being lazy therefore will not  get good results at the end of the year. Teenagers should stop this competitive mentality and acquire study methods that do not put their lives at risk.

I believe that teens should not be sacrificing their sleep for the grades they want to achieve but should not procrastinate and manage their time well. Is it really worth risking your life over a few tests?

Matipa Mutoti

"Why Arundel girls fail AS" -- Nyasha Elose

After hearing of all the D’s and U’s received by last year’s lower sixes I have decided to come up with a list of reasons why they failed. It is also a list of why other lower sixes, in the past failed and why my year group will fail as well or “get U’s” as was so kindly said by my Chemistry teacher.

Firstly, we do not get enough homework. Last week, my biology teacher gave me only two, 10 page worksheets to do! I finished them in time to have my supper at midnight. I for one, think that is unacceptable. Teachers should give us homework that takes at least five hours to go through not this measly three hours they’ve settled on. Other lazy students might want to argue that they need time to “sleep” and “eat” and “socialize with their families”, all I have to say is eating and sleeping will not get them their A’s. Besides the fact that a lot of homework helps us to obtain A grades, it keeps us off the streets. You won’t catch any Lower Six Arundel girl taking cocaine when she knows she has 30 pages of notes to write in one night.

Secondly, we do not have enough learning time. We have lessons for approximately 5 hours and 20 minutes; I sleep for longer than that during holidays! We have such frivolous time allocations for “break” and “lunch” and even that unnecessary club period. I approve of rest time and form time being cut off, they were such useless periods but I feel that we should have done the sensible thing and cut out break and lunch as well. How are we expected to get A grades when we learn for a mere five hours? Eight hours is ideal, with no breaks in between to keep those “brain juices” flowing. Who needs to eat when education is at hand? Perhaps chapel should be shortened to five minutes; fifteen minutes is as much a waste of time as rest was. Who needs to put their bag down and bask in the sun? The same person who drags out a five minute prayer into a fifteen minute one that’s who. Ah, and it does say “Men shall not live by bread alone” in the Bible; one more reason to cut out lunch!

I believe that if all my suggestions are followed precisely Arundel will never have to suffer through seeing lower sixes get anything less than an A.

Nyasha Elose

"No Room for Corruption" -- Chido Mpofu

Entering a lovely, welcoming local police station, I was so proud to see a very important framed piece of paper claiming that the country had a zero tolerance on corruption. It was very convenient that it was in a police station as they are the enforcers of the law.

These people should be commended for the amount of work they do each day to bring about a peaceful environment. It is almost as if there is a zero percentage crime rate. With smiles on their faces, they attend to you in a civilised manner. Everyone is treated equally. That day I happened to be standing in a queue in front of our honourable President and I was asked to go before him to his surprise. They said it was because I had arrived first. If you commit a crime, you are dealt with sternly to the extent that you generously offer them a token of appreciation from your empty pocket for them doing their job. Without being forced to, it is a personal choice that everyone has made at least once.

Our sunscreen manufacturing companies must be the most successful industries as the traffic police are constantly in the sun patrolling the roads hence why we have the safest roads. Most of them patrol without being told or expecting something in return but from the goodness of their hearts. This is true leadership as they put everyone’s needs before theirs.

If it is so that you have committed a crime worthy to go to court, which is rare, you are guaranteed justice. Regardless of whom you are or whether the judge is your mother or husband, you receive what you deserve. A month ago to everyone’s surprise, the Minister of Defence Forces’ son was caught breaking the law. The father made no attempt to save him but believed he must suffer the consequences of his action. Even though he had enough money to bail his son out, he decided the two year sentence should help his son to be a better person. This is a good example emphasising that there is no room for nepotism.

With all this in mind, the police happen to be the most malnourished, skinny people in the country. They only rely on taxes paid by people as a salary, nothing else. The government does not want to discomfort their citizens by imposing ridiculous taxes, lest they all migrate to a country equally as safe as ours, South Africa. Therefore the police are paid starving wages. As little as our taxes are, we see reasonable change in the country. We have level roads with no sign of potholes and the best rust free railway system. As if it is not enough, our airline has been voted the best in Southern Africa- always on time, safe and very efficient.

This reinforces how there is no room for corruption, misuse of money or unfair treatment of people. This has led to a negative net migration as many people come from other countries to live in a safe environment such as this country.

Chido Mpofu

"Dear adult, some advice on how to talk to me" -- Munashe Charera

I am young, you were young once and I know that when adults raised their voices to you, you never liked it. Neither do I.

Dear adult, when you talk to me, please show me that you are going to speak to me to better me and not to put me down. Please speak words of encouragement because when you were young I know you needed encouragement to believe in yourself. I am vulnerable and shouting at me makes me feel less of myself than I do.

When I am wrong, please correct me by showing me my mistake and how I can fix it. I am young, mistakes make me learn and become stronger emotionally when you show that you actually care.

Dear adult, please help me learn so that I do not make the same mistakes that you have made in life. Please give me life advice before I do what I will regret in life.

You have been through it all. I am only starting to feel the pain of life. Peer pressure has ceased to be an issue but I now need to know myself.  So when you speak to me do not speak negatively to me because I am only starting to experience the hardships of life.

I am young, ambitious, a dreamer, I still believe in happy endings, so, dear adult , when you speak to me please do not spoil this experience for me and tell me how bad life is. I am young I have time to discover it myself. Please talk to me with respect; although I am half your age, I also like to be acknowledged as a young adult. I understand that you are human too and that you do get depressed but please try smile at me when you speak to me. I feel appreciated when you do.

Dear adult, I just ask for one thing to be treated as equally as the way you treat others older than you. Believe it or not, I am human too and it hurts me to see two different sides of you.

Munashe Charera

"An Arundel Satire" -- Matukx

Arundel School is home to the most original copies. We hold our breath for six years and only breathe after the war has been won. Despite this, we only leave with sweet memories. Therefore every student leaving Arundel realises that life at Arundel was a piece of cake.

How then are we groomed to be so obedient and trouble free? The day starts off as light as a feather of lead. Each Arundel girl moves around from floor to floor, door to door with a bag that only weighs half a tonne. In this bag is her social life. She would have most probably been up all night having a party and staying up late with different types of books. The hangover from all this is totally worth it- who would not thoroughly enjoy this? Waking up and looking into the mirror and reading your French homework from your forehead. It is a different decoration each day, bright and colourful.

Carrying a heavy bag on your back must have been scientifically proven healthy. The bag latches onto you and squeezes your shoulders to the extent that you can hardly breathe, but I guess that is only part of the exercise! In actual fact, as the bag pierces through your spleen, bending and stretching the bones, your body learns to be flexible. After all, who would not find a muscly girl attractive?

Furthermore at Arundel, subjects do not stab you from the back; they do so from the front where you see it coming. Lesson time is the only period during the day time walks and does not fly. All teachers make sure no one is clearly confused. For example, one leaves the Mathematics class knowing that ancestral spirits have descended upon them and they have the ability to calculate pi in their head. The class will be so alive with expressive silence- and of course not because no one has a clue on what is going on.

The three o’clock bells are the most non-violent restraint. One is then allowed to day dream and reminisce about the sport they are going to play in the bleating sun. As the sun’s rays hammer our forehead, we know that it is motivation to take a shower in the evening. As a matter of fact, why would one need a hat for just an hour or two of sport as opposed to the thirty minutes of break time? Everyone knows that skin cancer is only prevalent between ten and ten thirty in the morning and after that, the risk diminishes.

Therefore, at Arundel, everything makes perfect sense.

Matukx

"IT IS TIME" -- Fiffiem

It is time, time to make a change, time to grow up and not wait for everything to come to you but to just go for it! It is time to stop saying it is all too hard, and that you cannot carry the load, instead be hard, too hard for the load to carry you. It is time to give up, give up everything and everyone that weighs you down and give into everything that makes you more portable. Most of all it is time to take the blame. ‘It’s my fault I failed’, ‘it’s my fault I procrastinated’ and ‘it’s my fault for not being there’. With all that responsibility at stake it is also time to trust in your creator even more too. It is time.

Fiffiem

"Dear adult, some advice on how to talk to me..." -- Bhunu_xx

Respect - a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

Dear adult, I would like to be shown some respect. The same respect I show you, it is only fair. I would like to converse with you in a civil manner, without you screaming down my throat. Screaming is not good for your throat anyway, and your message gets across just fine in a normal tone. The higher your tone gets, the less I hear what you have to say.

The generation that I am growing up in, speaks in colloquial English. We call it slang, I rarely use it though. Dear adult, please do not speak with me using slang. When you do, you come off as trying too hard. You probably think that it is a way of relating to our generation but really it does not appeal to the most of us. Plain English would be just fine. Still on the topic of conversation, my input even though I am a teenager is just as valid as that of an adult. I find it funny that after an adult has repeated the exact words I would have said you will take them more seriously than me. The mouth that these words are being spoken from should not determine the validity of the statement. You should also acknowledge the fact that you are sometimes wrong. It's a normal occurrance in humans you know. 

I would like to feel comfortable and heard when having a conversation. Yes you have lived longer than I have, and have therefore been through more of life's many experiences. However I want you to listen to what I have to say, please. Conversation should not always be about you,or your life experience and how they will benefit me. Stop trying to live through me, I would like to experience life for myself. Yes, with your guidance, but not through you.

Dear adult, I do appreciate you, I just want us to communicate better.

Bhunu_xx

"What Colour is the World Today?" -- Hilina Da Costa Gomez

It was quite a peculiar question. The entire globe was a mixture of orange and brown and red. I looked at Stephanie, surprised by her question. Being the flattering gentleman that I was, I said, “The earth is brown like your humble eyes, the daisies as yellow as your hair, the world is white and pure like your dress because you are my entire world when you’re near.”

She laughed a little but she cried a lot, not on that particular day but often, and that was mainly my doing. We grew apart and eventually we both forgot.

What colour is the world today? I had asked people this question despite hardly considering why or from which part of my mind the question came from.

I had met Rayna long after Stephanie. This time I had been the one to cry. It felt as though that period of my life was spent on a post-apocalyptic island and I was the last of humanity.

It would rain each day. It would rain acid. There were no buildings nor trees nor bushes to crawl beneath. The land was bare, the skies were grey, the ground was black and I was exposed.

My heart was heavy and I knew no hope until one day I too was expelled from that lonely island of murk and misery.

I carried on, alone, for the longest of times. I was beginning to see the different colours of the world. I forgave past mistakes and tried to forget the gloomy clouds of grey that gathered over me and managed to stay despite my attempts at liberation.

It was a perpetual darkness that towered over me, but I looked ahead knowing that I would eventually see the light. After a few days the dark cloud would disappear but as a result of my own weakness a new cloud would emerge in a matter of hours.

I would receive the occasional hailstorm and strikes of lightning if ever I made the mistake of angering the goddesses of the cloud. Alas, even when the goddesses go searching for a newer servant, the cloud remains and my insecurities grow.

I had long given up trying to please those who would never be pleased. My life was to be filled with the psychedelic hues of joy and sovereignty. However, freedom does come with a price and I was a few pennies and half a heart overdue.

I knew that I was not good, but I did believe that I was worthy of true joy. It was the only emotion I felt made life worth something. I had never thought it possible, until one sunny day, when the skies were clear and the world was humming approvingly under the guise of an autumn breeze.

I was in a park. It was sparsely occupied and soon my thoughts explored the aspects of my life that were good and that meant something to me and hopefully others. That was when it lifted. The grey clouds that had gathered over me were blown away as cerulean met verdant.

The light penetrated my skin so suddenly that I started, but I was comforted immediately. That was the day that the earth my clouds concealed met the sky. That was the day I smiled at every passerby with a spring in my step because I could hardly believe the amount of love and happiness my half a heart was able to achieve. Soon my past did not matter because I was finally free.

The debt I owed Jess was every single droplet of my love wrung from very depths of my existence, and I had nothing to fear because as many blunders as I had made, she made thousands more each day by offering her love to me.     

Hilina Da Costa Gomez

"What if?" -- zvipoc

What If I were a sand particle? Perhaps somewhere in the Antarctica, I’d be unique there, brown and special. Maybe I’d be warm, the only one to radiate heat. It doesn’t make any sense, I know, but I’d like to think sand particles retain warmth and never give in to the freezing cold. Perhaps I’d make a few friends, I’d never be able to tell them apart tough, snow particles all look the same.

What if, after my explorations of the “Freezing Continent,” I somehow drifted into the sea or ocean? It wouldn’t really matter because I’d be happy there. I’d get devoured by the deep, electric current. I’d be allowed to drown in it, lose myself.  I’d be carefree and lighter than ever. I imagine I’d be my best with the water, well rounded with my edges smoothed out. I’d have a perfectly gentle feel. One day, when I’d lost enough pieces of myself, the heavy pieces, I’d find myself dissolved and absorbed absolutely. Id dance and skip with immeasurable joy from one aspect of the current to the next. On some days, I’d sink to the bottom, maybe say “hallo” to my fellow particles on the ground. I’d like to believe that at least once I’d have an experience similar to Jonah’s from the bible. I wonder what the mouth of a whale would feel like in my dissolved state. I think I’d enjoy it, at some point however, I imagine I’d want to be some place other than a digestive system.

What if the sea spit me out and I found myself in a desert? Dubai I’d imagine, amongst my people. I’d feel in place there but slightly insecure about my individuality. I’d start at right at the bottom, it’s what I’d want; to be unmoved and untouched by anything other than my distant Arabic cousins. Perhaps I’d find some close family from Parent Rock, we’d have so much to catch up on. There’d be so many untold stories and unshared advice. Eventually I’d find myself at the top, perfectly victim to the travelling air. I’d join a dune, and maybe, just maybe the desert elders would let me be Zenith Particle. I’d shout to the world my name while I had the chance to be its exalted queen. I’d scream all of my joys and triumphs, but only after I’d cried out my pain and suffering, only then would the good things, the happy things have meaning.

What if, while I frolicked through the desert, I lost some water weight? I’d like to believe that I’d become a dust particle. The wind would finally stop pushing me around and adopt me as an honorary member. Id float, weightless, above everything. I imagine I’d have mixed feelings about it all. I’d love the feeling of flight and the colour of the world that danced beneath me. On some days I’d abhor the very wind that had taken me in for exposing my heart to the burning forestry, choking trees and mute birds that would never be able to sing “hallo” as they flew us by. I’d detest the darkness that visited seemingly often, seemingly uncontrollable, seemingly appealing. I’d wait like an expectant toddler for the days that the sun came home to kiss my face. On days like those, I would appear with the one beam of light that broke through the human’s windows. I’d imagine that they’d think of our trinity- wind, sun and dust spec as glorious!

What if I ended up in Africa, Zimbabwe, pamusika paAmai Getty? Id listen to the sound of her booming, horrible laughter as she played with the sweet, dirty children from across the street. I’d lie there on the ground and bask in the African sun. The rain would shoot down, but chose to stroke me gently, like a mother would her new born baby, not once would it try to drown me out. I imagine that someday, I’d get whisked away by the bottom of a man’s shoe, glued to it by a piece of freshly chewed gum, preferably a berry flavour. It’d be there that I met my lover. We’d share our journeys old and new.

What if the man cleaned his shoe, or shook it maybe? What if he split my lover and me? What if I wanted not one more experience without him? What then?

zvipoc

"Things I Wish My Teacher Knew" -- #R.T.S.

Johnny made his way to the principal’s office. He wasn’t nervous at all. He knocked.

Principle: Come in, Johnny and take a seat.

Johnny sits on a black leather chair, leaning forward perhaps getting a little too comfortable.

Principle: Mrs Briggs tells me you’re not the most cooperative student in her class. Why is that?”

Johnny: I don’t know Sir, I really don’t know.

(The principle sighs.)

Principle: Okay. She gave me a list of things you’ve done in the two weeks we’ve been at school. (He clears his throat and leans forward, pushing his glasses up to read the paper.) It says here that you’ve been late for lessons five times already.

Johnny: I was preparing for her lessons Sir, I was taking a break so that I could be fresh and alive for her lessons. No lies.

(The principle frowns.)

Principle:  Okay. ‘Johnny disrupts lessons by disturbing other students who are trying to work’. How about that?

Johnny: Sir, I prefer the term “having constructive discussions with my classmates” to consolidate my knowledge. They never complain.

Principle: And how do you explain your ‘forgetting’ to hand in homework on time, seven times already?”

Johnny: It’s not handing it in late Sir, it’s me taking my time on my work and making sure I put a lot of effort into it. When Mrs Briggs marks my paper, it’ll be easy for her because of my immaculate work.

Principle: Oh Johnny. Failing tests continuously?

Jonny: I’ll let you in on a secret Sir. (He leans forward, whispering). I’m not really failing. I’m pretending so that when I get straight A’s for my finals, Mrs Briggs will be very proud of me.”

Principle: You’ve been eating in class Johnny? Unacceptable, I…

Johnny: No, no Sir. I need energy to be able to learn and the way to do that is to take in glucose which will then be used for respiration by my metabolism, providing me with energy.

Principle: And not participating in class since the beginning of the school year? Johnny! I am disappointed in you!

Johnny: Listen Sir, no need for the hullabaloo,   I do that so that I’m able to absorb everything Mrs Briggs says. Being clever, like me? It’s hard.

(The principle is so dumb-struck that he can’t even move. Johnny stands up and leaves.)

#R.T.S.