If You're Going To Ditch...
Is it still breaking the rules if everyone knows you’re doing it?
My kids’ High School has this tradition near the end of Senior Year called “Senior Ditch Day”, where kids skip school and just hang out. Now, this was never a thing when I was growing up (I didn’t grow up in the US) but it seems to be here.
The thing I find funny about it, though, is that everyone knows - parents, teachers, everyone. There’s no subterfuge, no covert messaging, no danger. Seniors just take the day off and everyone’s fine with it.
So, is it really “ditching” school? (Or as the Brits would say, “skiving”?) It seems to me that if everyone’s in on it, then it isn’t really ‘all that’.
Because, surely, the idea of breaking a rule is that you actually break it?
That you risk the odds - that you risk something - and then deal with the results, whether it’s the exhilaration of getting away with something ‘illegal’ or the despair of getting caught.
To be clear, I don’t mean to endorse skipping school (I don’t). But, from a philosophical point of view, isn’t the point of pushing boundaries and doing something illicit, about making some sort of point, to yourself or to others?
Whether it’s taking back control from a system or structure that you believe is trying to contain you or making a personal demonstration of our independence or simply a chance for adventure, with all of its accompanying risks.
Surely, that is why we take risks? To go against a sense of established order and do what we want, be who we want to be? To gain that personal satisfaction, no matter what the rest of the world thinks?
If we have to get permission to do so (explicitly or implicitly), it really isn’t breaking the rules - because you’re still following someone else’s rules.
I guess the point is, if you plan to break the rules, break them.
Don’t tell anyone. Don’t ask for permission. Don’t allude to it.
Just do it.
