The Anarchives: The Best Of Volume One. Jay Terpstra jterpstra@trentu.ca Welcome to this year's final edition of The Anarchives. In this issue you will no doubt find many more interesting stories, provoking articles and imaginative ideas scattered through the advertisement-free pages. There have been four issues of the Anarchives, each one gaining bigger acclaim than the previous.The acclaim is a tribute mainly to Jesse Hirsh, Noah Dubreuil, Gregory Kalyniuk and myself, Jay Terpstra who with the help of others concieved the life of an unexpected medium formed out of a spontaneous reaction against the cesspool of dried-up knowledge that was and still is drowning us all. One of the original edicts of this paper was to provide a forum for radical and alternative thinking. This shouldn't be misconstrued as a political message. Rather it is instead offering students a resource for the purposes of expressing their own unique thoughts, something I have already discussed as being repressed in the classrooms at Humberside. Independent ideas are never wrong or right or simply left or right. They just are. More importantly they are true expressions of raw human thought without the restrictions of instruction or guidelines. The reason The Anarchives has been so widely recieved by various people and assorted cliques is because this paper is a direct reflection of actual true thought of people with limited access to free expression. School fades the independent thinking mind. Too often the content and structure of assignments are pre-concluded by teachers. Teachers dictate what they expect and we dutifully give them exactly what they want in order to make us all look good while accomplishing very little. The Anarchives is not so arrogant as to make any demands or restrictions on any writing. We believe in 100% free speech not available in the school, the Garnet, the mainstream media and most homes. The Anarchives train does not roar through any tracks of material ambition or ego trips. Quite the opposite the ride through this paper is diverse, multifaceted and almost muddled like a typical teenager or all of our minds when they are truly exercised. Anything that is neither borrowed or regurgitated but is rather a product of independent original thought can easily find a place in this paper. Think what you will with a mind free of glut and sameness and write it with the same style and rawness it started out as. Quality is not something that can be defined or inserted into guidelines. Quality is in the eyes of individual readers. Enjoy the read. DESTREAMING: A REBUTTAL by Jay Terpstra and Gregory Kalyniuk Next year, high schools across Ontario will experience a change in structure with the implementation of destreaming. Destreaming acts in the elimination of the three stream level directions in grade nine, and as a one year continuation of elementary school-like placement. The quality of an elementary school education may well determine which of these directions a student is streamed into. There are doubtlessly thousands of students each year who are streamed into lower level courses before realising their full potential. In many cases, the reason they do not realise their full potential is because their elementary school failed to provide an environment in which mental and social development were properly emphasised. Indeed, in many cases streaming is a negatively reprecussive fork in the academic road for students who haven't yet realised what they are capable of taking on in life. Destreaming aims to integrate students in the above situation with better adjusted students in grade nine instead of immediately segregating them; in essence, giving them one more year to realise their potential in a more hospitable learning environment. In the November/December edition of the Garnet (Humberside's official school newspaper), there appeared a well-written article by Brian Gardner on the above topic which unfortunately presented an elitist, condescending, poorly thought out argument against the implementation of destreaming in grade nine, an opinion which is all to common among many narrow-minded Toronto students. The rebuttal you are now reading is in response to Gardner's ridiculously overblown negative predictions for the effects of destreaming. We intend to expose this article for what it truly is: a groundless travesty of an analysis, concocted by a person who would have us suppressed, never realising our full potential, rather than growing in an environment in which mental and social development is possible for all. Let us first make clear now that destreaming will only be present up to and not beyond grade nine. It is quite clear that Gardner anticipates a life full of cut-throat hierarchies and class systems after high school, but it is depressing to think that he would want such principles to prevail in public schools as well. One strong argument for destreaming is the statistic that shows an incredibly large number of young minority-background children being dead-ended into the basic level direction (that is, being placed in the lowest level courses). There are many junior-level students who have yet to develop their minds and discover who they are and what life is all about. To stream students into near-irreversible directions at such a young age shows a lack of effort and insight by the system. How many potentially bright children have had their glimmer of potential stomped into oblivion by this inconsiderate system upon entry into high school, or, more importantly, still in elementary school, by ill-equipped elementary school teachers? Destreaming is not the catastrophic end to all as Gardner arrogantly concludes; it is simply a minor attempt at solving a major problem. Let us consider the phenomenon of dead-ended minority-background children. Various complex sociological factors are at play in making their education of a poorer general quality than the education of more privileged children, language skills and life experiences being just two possibilities. Many less privileged children are streamed into the basic and general level directions to go on to become our future exploited prolateriats, performing menial tasks; certainly not the "alternative" artwork and craftswork that Gardner seems to believe basic and general level students go on to do. Destreaming's objectives are quite simple and minimal: because there are fewer high schools than elementary schools, high schools will have enrolled in them students from different elementary schools and different backgrounds. Destreaming hopes to allow these students to integrate and benefit from their mutual differences, over the course of one school year, thus allowing the less privileged to make the grade for advanced level placement in the following year. A slightly larger number of minority-background students will successfully take the advanced level direction because they are given one more year to develop and realise their ability. Carola Lane, the Assistant Deputy Minister of Education, has said that destreaming should never be construed as a program in which "good students" help "not-so-good students." However, Gardner seems to bestow these roles upon students in a patronising and insulting manner. After Gardner says that he doesn't believe that "good students" should be forced to take on the responsibility of "tutoring" "not-so-good students," he goes on to say that enriched classes offer a special environment where the students enrolled share common interests and goals, and that a person having different interests and goals inserted into such a class would destroy the learning environment. For someone who professes to write about the real world, Gardner would seem to prefer being in an elitist atmosphere where there is very little diversity of people and thought; a perfect place to build self-serving pompous attitudes. He insults anyone who has ever been involved in an enriched class when he says that such students all think and work in the same way. Such an environment would be reminiscent of Nazi Germany, if not to the dystopian vision of such science-fiction classics as Fritz Lang's Metropolis. For someone who obviously has a deep interest in school, it is unfortunate that selective rewards are Gardner's priority, leaving the desire to learn to be seemingly lost. Learning should not take on the form of a rat race in which students are in continuous competition for recognition, but rather it should be a process in which the student stimulates his own mental/social growth through the successful accumulation of useful knowledge. We would certainly not expect anyone believing in the former example to be capable of ever understanding a topic as complex as destreaming. The day that grades one to nine symbolise the Olympics is the day that the school system is truly defunct. The Olympics are a competitive institution of elite athletes who dedicate their lives to attaining the gold medal. We would think school to be an environment in which individual growth and learning are encouraged, especially in the early grades. If Gardner prefers a more competitive, selective atmosphere, we would advise him to immediately transfer to U.C.C. or to a school in Japan, where competitive schooling is so strong that "not-so-good" students often commit suicide. In a recent issue of the Globe and Mail, freelance writer Scott Nesbitt revealed that thirty percent of Japanese students are streamed out of academic courses by the age of fourteen, their dim futures already written. Both of us agree that if we had been schooled in Japan, we would either now be working low-paying, menial jobs, or we would have (and this is a worst case scenario) already killed ourselves out of grief. Because we were given a chance in an unstreamed elementary school system, we benefitted from placement in a collegiate school, and we can both look forward to post-secondary education. However, in Gardner's preferred world, both of us would be denied future education because we would apparently "not belong in the same classes as . . . future doctors and engineers any more than a sumo wrestler would belong in the national ballet," to quote our elitist counterpart. It is the insulting condescension of Gardner's article that is most unfortunate. He says that it "would be much better not to mislead these people." In other words, if an eight-year-old boy has a difficult time articulating what he did on the weekend, or cannot grasp mathematical equations as quickly as another student, then the system should adopt the responsibility of telling that child that he is of a lower intellect, and streaming him accordingly. Being streamed into a lower direction will only reinforce this message, convincing him that he could never cut it in university or even in a community college. But Gardner insists that this is a mere "alternative," something determined by a difference in strengths and weaknesses in certain fields. We would like to point out again that basic level students do not predominantly go on to do artwork or craftswork. Such students go on to take the most demeaning of jobs, being paid pittance and exploited for all they are worth. Would Mr. Gardner please care to explain how it is that students with "different abilities" possess a certain "talent" to (for instance) empty the contents of a trash can into a truck full of trash? Perhaps if he performed this task for a day he would realise that it is not an "alternative," but a dead end. Perhaps one of Gardner's most ignorant pieces of pseudo-analysis is the statement made that "the world does not function on nuclear physicists and lawyers alone," right after setting forth the opinion that not everyone should go to university. Does he really believe that universities only offer courses for future nuclear physicists and lawyers? Is university just another step in Gardner's competitive world, the step that bridges the way to the big career, and to the continued corporate rat race? Students whose ambitions include writing, visual arts, film, journalism, educating and just plain accumulation of worldly knowledge all belong in university. It is our belief that everyone should aim to go to university, not nessecarily to learn a profession, but simply to evolve into more cultured beings. To sum up his article, Gardner says that "it is [the] very fact that people are different that makes life interesting." We agree with this, but not with the underlying message that Gardner has so craftily interwoven into this ambiguous statement. Gardner would prefer these different people not to interfere in his Olympic-like ambitions, but rather rank many levels beneath him in a class system, disadvantaged in that they never reach their full potential. Gardner's attitude reminds us of Anglican Archbishop Findley and his comments about homosexuals, how he has dined with them many times but would never consider allowing them to work in his church. Yes, people are different; but you, Mr. Gardner, want this difference to dictate which social class we are streamed into, and under your rules, both of us would rank many levels beneath you. It is unfortunate that Gardner views grades one to nine as a place to start building hierarchies in which various people can be put into permanent ranks and roles. We would prefer to look at the interests and abilities of students as simply different and without order of best to worst; an abstract, unmapped -archy of roles and abilities, if you will. In other words, it is great that people are different, but that should not mean that they should be segregated into social classes. In a classroom full of diverse opinions and interests, the student will learn and develop more completely than otherwise. Perhaps the reason that it is so difficult for even the most esteemed students of Humberside to grasp the concept of and reasons behind destreaming is because of the high reputation of our own school, with its complete range of advanced level courses and handful of token general level courses (and the absence of any basic level courses). It is our opinion that the elitist, condescending views and attitudes of people like Brian Gardner are the exact reason why destreaming should be mandatory up to and including grade nine. THINKING ABOUT HUMBERSIDE "Schools teach you to imitate" Robert M. Pirsig by: Jay Terpstra Recently I was talking to a concerned parent who wishes he had never sent his son to Humberside because, and I quote "He was never provoked to think". I found this an interesting statement and, being a Humberside student myself, I struggled to think about it. I came up with certain reasons why Humbersiders are easily programmed not to think. One is the slave mentality engrained in students from grade one, drastically affecting the minds of students who have realized that the sole importance of school is high grades with or without (often without) real knowledge. This mentality is upheld and maintained by teachers who are unwilling or unable to put the emphasis of their courses on education as opposed to information feeding. Consequently, open and thoughtful minds are narrowed to a repressive subservience for the mainstream. I can remember being forced into senseless discipline in grade school and thinking to myself that by the time I reached the school where my brother and all the other big people went, I'd be treated with respect and given freedoms. I now realize how naive I actually was. One day last week I had a class that ended a t 3:10. The teacher said she was finished the lesson but couldn't let us go because she was afraid we would disturb other classes. We, being mature OAC students, old enough to be fighting a war as part of an army. As I was waiting to be told to line up in a quiet straight row I wondered if every other class in the school was waiting impatiently for five minutes to be up as they did nothing. I realized after the teacher told us to just sit till 3:15 that much of my school career has been spent as if I were doing time for a crime. Since I wasn't allowed to leave and bang on other classroom doors making funny noises, I decided to get out my agenda book. I had a maximum 500 word essay to write which demanded an "extensive bibliography" even though there would be no room to quote or make reference to practically all of the materials. Then I wondered what to do for an independent study project, quickly realizing I should first read the seven page instruction booklet so as to understand how I could independently do a project so dependant on department guidelines. After exiting, I immediately related to expressions of other regiments of boredom and exhaustion floating down the hall. And one therefore learns self-confidence as a student only by seeing that one's questions, not one's current store of knowledge, always determine whether one becomes truly educated. Grant Wiggins It is depressing to reflect on what is actually valued at Humberside. Two events come to my mind. One is the first day of my high school career, four and a half years ago, when a principal told a gym of small, scared and unsure teenagers never to ask questions that weren't well thought out and at the high school level. My next memory is of the annual honours assembly, honouring those who obviously asked only smart questions. I use these two images because they so vividly illustrate what is so backward about Humberside. First of all, the student is told in no uncertain terms to only act on concepts they are absolutely sure about thus creating a perfect environment for close-mindedness. The most common, convenient and beneficial-to-grades class practice is to shut up and only dish out what the teacher wants to hear. I know from person experience that a student can achieve high school success while learning very little. The grades are presented as the all-mighty, dictating both intelligence and potential. For several hours every year those with high marks are used in the administration's day of show and tell as shining cadets for everyone to look up to and strive to emulate. Grades really cover up failure to teach. A bad instructor can go through an entire quarter (term) leaving absolutely nothing memorable in the minds of his class, curve out the scores on an irrelevant test, and leave the impression that some have learned and some have not. - Pirsig The majority of the courses I have taken at Humberside depend solely on the grade to give them purpose. Let's use an OAC law course I have taken as a premier example. After finishing this course last year I was given a low mark and realized I had wasted an entire year since I gained only trivial knowledge and probably wouldn't use the course as one of my six OAC's for University. We spent the whole year obediently copying down notes from the board that were directly taken from the textbook. At the end of each chapter we would have a monotonous quiz testing factual memory. My ISP was interesting but counted for a very small portion of the final mark, leaving my fate to multiple choice questions and fill-in-the-blanks. I have to ask what would that class have been without grades? It would either have been non-existent or unattended. Looking back, I wonder why the teacher didn't just tell us to read and memorize the textbook at the beginning of the year and return to class in December for the exam. Again, this is a perfect example of how Humberside generally fails to provoke thought or quality education. Unknowingly, children and young adults can be seduced into believing they will climb to the top if they eradicate their creativity. Because they are unable to think or feel for themselves, they fail to recognize the power drive that has destroyed the teacher's creativity and is now destroying theirs. - Marion Woodman The student's mind should be respected and nourished with freedoms and mediums for expression. Imagination and creativity are key to individual development and evolution. To encourage creativity, the school should allow and value more independent work and less structured and narrowed assignments. Teachers should treat students as mature people and show the students that she or he is interested in the subject and willing to change or improve course structure and content. Instead of honouring grades to work that is not reflective of true thought, the school should honour original work and creative participation in the learning process. Unfortunately, however, competition and reputation-minded administrators will continue to plague the system. What needs to be realized is that the public school system is the only relatively free institution where the tools for education are available but severely misused. The only solution for students comes from a favourite quote of mine from Mark Twain: "I never let my schooling get in the way of my education." The Last Day of Consumerism by Jay Terpstra I wake up to the blurry vision of my saviour, a new bottle of Roalids sitting on the top of the dresser. Gulping a couple down to relieve the build-up from the Pizza-Pizza special I had the previous night I lock my hands together and pray to my almighty 12 CD changing mega-booming stereo machine. After my morning ritual I remote control some tunes and make my way down my personal elevator to my kitchen table where my chocolate cereal waits. Once I'm dressed I enter my Ford Mustang and tell nobody in particular that I have driven a Ford lately. Since I'm headed east along the Gardiner I'm confronted by the uninvited sun. So I place my Ray Ban sunglasses over my eyes and slap some Coppertone sunscreen on my cheeks. Satisfied that I'm protected from the evils of the sun I accelerate to 160 Km/h. Once in my office I help myself to a cup of Taster's choice and listen attentively to a colleague who just read on an article on the new microwaves that can cook a meal in just under 2 seconds. A convenience not to be missed. After working all morning formulating ideas for an advertisement of the new Toyota's I check into the Y for my regular squash game with my friend Dan. He is wearing new squash pumps from Nike that are made out of material that fits every corner and curve of your foot. It kind of molds around your toes right down to your heel for ultimate comfort and protection. After the game we relax at MacDonalds which just brought back their annual bacon, double cheese special. On my way home I shop for my son's birthday and get him some full size Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who kick and punch on touch. In addition I got him a high-powered water machine gun complete with back pack supply from Fisher Price. On my way out of the "Shoppers Paradise Mall" I sweat with the burning heat of the mid afternoon sun and gasp for air. Luckily I have an instant cool air conditioner in my car and an air mask that I put in myself when it was clear that since Brazil was gone and forests became in serious danger of extinction that the air supply would be a little lower. Back on the Gardiner, I tune in to the CBC news and am comforted by the calm soothing voice on the other end of my new Sony speakers. Unfortunately though, he is telling me that the world has a maximum 4 hours left of existence. The news update is very interesting, full of experts and polls and statistics. The broadcaster states that the exact time of the world's destruction depends on whether the nuclear war breaks out before the air supply runs out. Experts agree that the threat of war is somewhat more immediate due to the fact that it would only take a second to blow up the world whereas oxygen tends to diminish a little more gradually. However a proffessor from UCLA insists that its unrealistic to think the middle East could attack the West. He ascertains that the air supply in the middle East has most probably already dissolved, leaving Washington as the only serious nuclear threat to the world. However, a government spokesmean from the White House assures the panel that the government has set a mandate for war in the next 5 hours if officals from the Middle East doesn't remove their specialized sattelites from the moon. "And after all", boasts the spokesman, "we never back down on our promises". I arrive safely in my driveway just as an ad comes over the thinning air about the new microwaves going on sale this weekand. You remember, the one that cooks a dinner in just under 2 seconds. Entering my home I'm suddenly filled with exhaustion from my long day. Relaxing on my soft leather couch I turn on my wall size Sony T.V. and am swept away by sensationalized soap operas of unreal reality. Hours later when the news starts taking over the soaps I suddenly remember the awful mess the world is in and decide to get up for a drink planning to come back for a CNN update. I open the fridge and to my relief there's one recyclable Classic Coke can left, sitting majestically on the top shelf. Opening the can to a heavanly hiss and an ocean spray I become calm and comforted by the fact that whatever happens there will always be Coke. What more do you need? The Destructive Socialization of Males by Jay Terpstra The so-called 'gender war' has reached new levels of controversy and heated battle as the movement towards equality of the sexes is still tested everyday in North American society. The reason for this is because no matter how much women's roles, ambitions and desires change and evolve for better or worse, one thing has not changed: men still rape and exploit women as readily as could have been expected a century ago. First of all I want to establish that no man is born a rapist. Rape is a conditioned power-tripping sex crime that is encouraged by mainstream soicety. Traditional feminism understands that men are at the centre of the repression of femininity and women's rights. This core influence can be reformed. Anti-feminism feminist Camille Paglia, accuses feminism of "social constructionism". However Paglia's idea that men are born wild animals oblivious to any voice of reason is a statement of defeatism and denial. Paglia arrogantly claims that "generation after generation, men must be educated, refined, and ethically persuaded away from their tendancy toward anarchy and brutishness". I for one resent the idea that I would kill and rape if not for being "refined" by others. Quite the opposite, I believe that brutishness and aggressiveness are taught and ingrained into males by a society I wouldn't consider "ethical". In her insightful book The Rites of Man, Rosalind Miles documents how male babies are almost always favoured over female babies and treated with more care and tenderness. For example Elena Belotti, a professor of psychology found that a boy is allowed to "attack the breast" for milk while a girl is considered "greedy" for wanting more. Similarly boys are encouraged to explore more freely than girls and are permitted to play with their genitals, "a source of complimentary jesting, pride and attention". Traditionally many mothers have comforted male infants through sexual touch. Freud justified this by saying that this offered a child "an unending source of sexual excitation and satisfaction from his erotogenic zones". Men are bred to seek satisfaction whenever they feel like it regardless of the circumstances. Subsequently it is easy to understand why sexual violations of women are the most common crimes. Not surprisingly a study done by UCLA found that 50% of 14-18 year olds thought it was acceptable for a man to rape a woman if he was sexually aroused by her. In a survey documented by Naomi Wolf in the shocking and important book, The Beauty Myth, 1 in 4 girls in grade 13 across our fine city of Toronto reported having been raped. In a study done at UCLA in 1986, it was discovered that 58% of college men would force women into having sex if they could get away with it. These educated men obviously have no appreciation or care for women as anything more than slabs of meat to be devoured. This is not genetic, this is conditioned by patriarchal authorities. A boy is taught early on in childhood that to become a real man is to divorce himself from everything female which is translated into everything soft, humane, dependant, weak and emotional. Michael Kaufman, a writer and professor at York University says that masculinity is in fact not biological at all. It is a learned "reaction against passivity and powerlessness". Masculinity is taught every day through sport and exercise where children are encouraged to be brutally aggressive and taught how to recieve and deliver pain. Many boarding schools around the world still promote strong physical discipline to prevent boys from growing up "weak". Most people know all too well of the big brother beating up on the smaller and younger sibling for purposes of toughening up the young one into being a strong person and possibly a criminal. The message to young males is clear; physical might is the way to achieve power. Men have been socialized to repress emotion and subsequently express their repressed emotion with their fists. At a Toronto mandatted group for assaultive men almost all of the convicted abusers used physical violence to counter arguments with their wives that they felt inadequate to compete with at a verbal level. Most men are taught to keep feelings hidden inside because of the shame most would have to deal with at not being the masculine man. Consequently and not surprisingly many men express themselves through physical might or intimidation. Men must realize that the phony masculinity taught by parents, schools and mass media is destructive and repressive. Men must learn to embrace and express everything that makes them feeling human beings. Men must learn to advance past the repressive, primitive traits of masculinity. Institutions that promote violence and sexism must be transformed. Society must stop promoting man as the hunter; the jock; the invincible barbarian, while portraying women as the hunted; the fragile beauty; the complacent victim of masculinity. Men have to stop limiting their existence to the lonely and primitive football field and should start appreciating sex as an equal wonder of nature rather than an act of pride and cheap accomplishment like a winning touchdown. Men in power are too outnumbered to achieve continued success in fooling women and themselves. However, failure is far away when you consider that the highest paying, most accessible jobs for women are prostitution and modelling. As part of a controlling strategy of fearfull institutions, women are trapped by constant images of neccessary unhealthy beauty to achieve success in a world where women are encouraged to stop eating and aging. Naomi Wolf points out that as a way of keeping women down,. they are encouraged to take on careers but not at the expense of the home and child-rearing. Repressed sexist men in power are finding new and more decietful ways to keep women under their masculine wrath. Men continue to destroy themselves through conditioned masculine madness while women continue to fall victim, despite gains made by the feminist movement. It's time to start communicating and sharing with each other so that one day we can all join together as whole human beings. Expressions of the Unconscious by Jay Terpstra Suddenly aware of brutish advances I gaze darkly around the moon stars me as I ride far down mourning and boring through cozy field levels of blue grass Tapering aware into the darkness lighted bu unknown allies of doom I trap and crawl away to the sun Far far hey far off beyond you The sunsetted distance is grinding away crying with tingles of amazement gone through the depths of oceans oceans gone sour with human salt Come over away through suns of carrageen faucets of creel of mud of whore of cooked by heating suns of guitar guitar unworded by mice and more mice going to round and fired down by seas shore of positive archives Moonshined speakers blaring love through the tones of speaker through to the doorstep of mind my obliterated and cringed with undoubtless obstacles of fantasy storming reality in around through and inside mirrors of truth locked and matured with grooving treads of unadulterated cryings over love, me , she, T.V. the sun the moon the school the bank the dark flowers of roaming hills far and beyond my mourning obstacles obstacles obstacles Rhythmic vibrations strike deep causing eruptions of impulse weaving in and out of matter flying around circles of stars crying driving diving flying gazing deep deep beyond the flowers buried deep underneath the crusted sick looking soul far past the decaying bones rotten rotten rotten rotten with time Bugging into phony flesh gazing deep into dirt pools of shallolw truth beyond the fields of growing grass beyond the mountains of soft stone beyond the stars of dazzling light beyond the crying storms of summer the silent lakes of no-voice Overtly undone by sanctuaries of reason and starred visions of matrimony drumming in and around fire blown star lit moonshines driving and as coming of days of glisty flying through the hymns of darkness- darkness everywhere down and far away beyond far way over the mountains Flying fingers of no surrender prounce and perform without care caring over and around by rocks of catastrophe tapering with ice flows Ice flows of mind sink deep under far cries of what it was over my size of tranquility you can feel the sun of the heat flying by going for a run by down at the suns moonshine forth comes the calls of mortal and ultramontane tarantula-like far going around Zeroed into submission fearing emptiness demands new soil craved by dawns of indifference Nothing is whatever something can't be Something is nothing returned with something /-/\-\ The Anarchy Organization | / / \ \ Free Minds For Free Lives ( | ) --|-/----\-\-- yakimov@ecf.utoronto.ca \|/ \/ \/ jterpstra@trentu.ca `_^_'