Flying Fish: Pretty, Shiny Things Never Last

Joyce Lam,
Editor in Chief

On a typical morning, I walk into school with hopes of seeing a clean campus. It’s not that I don’t think we have a clean campus, but there are so many reasons to complain about our school environment. I know that many students—myself included—continuously wish that our school was tidier and, well, less sloppy.
Don’t get me wrong—I believe that though we have a litter-infested campus, the administrators should not be charged with the blame. I am certain that they don’t like seeing trash outside of the trashcan, flyers lying around on the floors and those nasty seagulls arriving on a daily basis after lunch. They want to make Alhambra High School a great campus, but do we really deserve it?
When the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) visiting team came to Alhambra High, our school prepared by cleaning up the campus, re-painting buildings and generally tidying up the school grounds. Though it seemed like our school was just “dressing to impress,” I’m sure that all schools do the same. With this, many students complained and said it was fake and merely an act for the visiting team. This “housecleaning” business is typical for any school; it’s much like having guests come visit your house—you tidy up and present them your best as a sign of respect.
To be honest, it made sense to wait until the week before our WASC visitation to clean up. From what I’ve seen, had the cleaning been done weeks in advance, all the work spent to beautify our campus would have been put to waste.
At the end of the day, I would love to say, ”Yes, of course we deserve great things on our campus!” but the reality is that respect is the ultimate component that is missing on our school grounds. And until we learn to respect our learning environment, we’ll just have to cope with the fact that we don’t deserve to have a shiny, gleaming campus.