By SBHS Senior

Have you ever just stopped to look around  and just take in everything around you?

Not many people bother taking time, even if it were just a minute or even a couple of seconds of their day to step aside and observe the environment that they are a part of everyday. If you were to do this, you’d be surprised at what you are able to notice. There is so much going on all at once that it becomes hard to focus on one thing. We constantly complain about the negative things that make up our school environment but never actually look at the problem. Sure we observe the lack of school spirit, students loitering around campus, trash littered everywhere, but we overlook the problem that lies beneath it all.  This problem can be explained as a lack of motivation, and even more so – students not caring. Despite the several groups on campus that actually make an effort to stop these problems, like Power to Change who do campus clean-ups, or those teachers who actually tell loitering students to go to class, or even ASB who organize Pep Rallies and ICC Days, there really isn’t anything or anyone that can get through to students to make them care.

The reason for this is because those who don’t care aren’t given a reason to. There are no consequences for misbehaving or no reward for doing the right thing. When students aren’t given reassurance or reinforcement for what they are doing, the effect begins to wear out until ultimately they don’t care to even try. This goes for academics and an overall view of school and everything that is a part of it. Until we open our eyes, and become aware of the real problem nothing will change. Until we come to terms with the problem and do something about it, we will still have trash everywhere, kids ditching, fighting, a lack of school spirit, a lack of motivation to try their best,  poor grades and so many other issues.  My advice would be to stop mindlessly beating around the small issues and focus on changing not only the school environment, but actually changing the way things run around the campus. It won’t be an easy task but it’s not impossible.