School Orientation - educative or bullying?

[chisa-chan]

Ow, that hurts.

Once again, I got through the orientation session in my new school two weeks ago. I only participated on it a half day, since I got sick when our seniors commanded us to do push-ups. (And a senior shouted on my ear back then. How immoral.)

Just wondering, what are the activities in your country when you entered new school (i.e. elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, and high school to university)? Those seniors always give excuse that they do educative things, but in reality, it is not more than bullying, IMO. You do push-ups, being intimidated without clear reasons et cetera.

A sentence that I remembered most while the orientation session.

Jangan jual pesona, siswa!

Rough translation: No need to sell your good look, students!
Well, but they did.

[monele]

I was really scared when I heard there would be some "initiation" when I entered college... but it was actually pretty tame and ended up being a great day. There was lots of walking around to get to know the campus layout, and then a long session of games in one of the big classrooms (with singing, some dares...). The good thing is that they didn't force those who didn't want to get into it, and unless you were boasting, they were nice with you. And it did help get to know some people better and feel at home.

Now, though, as I said... I was really scared at first because all I heard about such events were bad things about rapes, fights, forcing, humiliation, etc... I absolutely don't understand why this would considered "okay" by anyone.

[MoonlightBomber]

In Philippine college life, fraternities are commonplace. But there are some of them which do not uphold the original sprit of brotherhood. Instead, they initiate new members by inflicting physical pain. That is called "hazing".

And, oh, chisa-chan, does your country's school system have the equivalent of a student-formed, military-sanctioned army reserve force, like we Filipinos do with COCC (high school) / ROTC (college)?

[Twar3Draconis]

There wasn't much when I entered High School. When I got to the second year, it all started though.
Upperclassmen would tell the new students that the first year cafeteria was in the basement of the other building, of course, we had no basement in either building. Then there's telling them to do things that were supposedly things that we do at the school. With this as well, it was ludacris and no one in their right mind would do it.

[PyTom]

I can't recall any bullying at orientation for any of the many schools I've been to. Orientation consisted largely of a series of boring-yet-informative lectures about how certain school procedures work, a keynote that was a complete waste of time*, and a couple of games in which you'd get to know a small group of people that you'd never see again.**

* The topic of the most recent was on how noble protest is. This is a completely stupid topic, since protesting is not an inherently noble activity. It can be noble, depending on what you're protesting for... but just because people march around with "End Women's Suffrage" banners, it doesn't mean that they're somehow noble.

** At least, in a fairly large university.

[lordcloudx]

I guess there was CAT in high school and ROTC in college but since most of the high-ranking officers came from my class, there wasn't really any bullying. It was kinda fun pretending to be members of the military.

[papillon]

My school used to have freshman initiation, although they kept tightening the rules and toning it down and it might be gone entirely by now.

In the case of *my particular class*, however, freshman initiation was a good thing. The ridiculous stuff we went through had the desired effect of making a highly cliquish class that did not get along actually talk to each other, have a common experience and a common 'enemy', and so on.

Basically for us it was about a week where you were required to dress in a ludicrous fashion (do your hair in ten braids on one side and ten unbraided tails on the other, wear a garbage bag, cover yourself with polkadots, things like that) obey silly rules (never show your back to a senior, never be taller than a senior, recite all seniors' full names on command or have to do something silly in punishment) and carry out bizarre requests, which for us mostly consisted of being asked to write love letters to embarassing subjects, like the few male teachers at my school. At the end of the week we were 'kidnapped' and taken to a ropes course for fun and games (which for me was more traumatic than the yelling!)

[PrettySammy09]

At my school, we have a crew of upper classmen that welcome the Freshmen. I'm a member of that crew. :3 We try to make the experience of transitioning into High School a pleasant one. We will NEVER make Freshmen do push-ups or some ridiculous thing like that. That's just a power trip that stupid upper classmen need to feel superior.

[papillon]

oh, forgot to mention - while all the lowly lowly freshmen were required to follow all these crazy rules and respect all the seniors, you were also 'assigned' to one of the seniors, whose job it was to defend you. If you're with YOUR senior then she can tell the others you don't have to follow the rules. And you and your senior trade presents and stuff.

So everyone's being nice as well as being shouty.

[DaFool]

I just got a Marimite flashback with papillon as petite soeur.

[Recca Phoenix]

Never had anything like that in public or private school. not in college, either, but it's common on sports teams in college, military schools, and fraternities. At the girls' school I went to there was never institutionalized bullying on the first day, but the seniors would make us bring them food if we stepped on their lawn. And the girls were mean as hell most of the time to people who were different. Boys' schools aren't much better I imagine. Or any schools really....

[papillon]

I just got a Marimite flashback with papillon as petite soeur.

And considering my tastes you'd think I'd *love* Marimite... except the only time I've seen an episode of it it was godawful boring.

[azureXtwilight]

Ow, that hurts.

Once again, I got through the orientation session in my new school two weeks ago. I only participated on it a half day, since I got sick when our seniors commanded us to do push-ups. (And a senior shouted on my ear back then. How immoral.)

Just wondering, what are the activities in your country when you entered new school (i.e. elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, and high school to university)? Those seniors always give excuse that they do educative things, but in reality, it is not more than bullying, IMO. You do push-ups, being intimidated without clear reasons et cetera.

A sentence that I remembered most while the orientation session.

Jangan jual pesona, siswa!

Rough translation: No need to sell your good look, students!
Well, but they did.

I had it too, a week with those bullyings, my seniors keep on angry at me with no reasons.
I pretended to be sick so for two days, they don't get mad at me! XD
Now I'm one of them and this year I'll bully those kids back!
(Uhh, that's too mean)
This one is what I remembered :

Kau ini jangan sok di sini, dek! Kau tu nggak ada apa-apanya!!!

Means : You don't have to be proud, kid! You're just a piece of crap!

...And two days later they shocked when I got the first place at school exams! Heheh, those good 'ol days...

[LVUER]

Actually, it supposed to be very educative. You become to know the campus life, refine your temper, patience, moral, and team-works, etc.

But now, I would say, "erase school orientation from dictionary!", well, at least in my country. Since it's now become place for seniors to unleash their angers, taking revenge, and bullying juniors.

Until now, lots of people died in school orientation. So it is normal for a student to be afraid of school orientations.

[azureXtwilight]

Actually, it supposed to be very educative. You become to know the campus life, refine your temper, patience, moral, and team-works, etc.

But now, I would say, "erase school orientation from dictionary!", well, at least in my country. Since it's now become place for seniors to unleash their angers, taking revenge, and bullying juniors.

Until now, lots of people died in school orientation. So it is normal for a student to be afraid of school orientations.
Actually, it supposed to be very educative. You become to know the campus life, refine your temper, patience, moral, and team-works, etc.

But now, I would say, "erase school orientation from dictionary!", well, at least in my country. Since it's now become place for seniors to unleash their angers, taking revenge, and bullying juniors.

Until now, lots of people died in school orientation. So it is normal for a student to be afraid of school orientations.

Yeah, basically in my country.
It didn't educate, in fact it didn't.
They used force, in my country, in a high school named IPDN, juniors died because of seniors bullying, that's a schock to our people back then...
...........Ouch, it hurts, REALLY hurts.