Freedom in the Law?

The picture is a row of tables outfitted with computers for the purpose of taking exams. It’s a trigger for all Choueifaties (graduates of private schools using the SABIS system) of the horrors of the multitude of exams piled on to us week after week in order to drill fragmented and out of context equations and facts into our heads. It was the symbol of total obedience to the system, where intelligence can be tested and grades are the most important thing in our lives (because of the values the system taught us). The blurriness of the picture hints at the way the photo is just a memory.

The text examines the question of whether a man is more ‘free’ in society than outside it and whether the society is just in the laws it enforces.  Rousseau asks questions that make you rethink your thoughts on society but at the same time he’s not very confident in the quality of his work, stating it is “the least unworthy of being published” (113).  At times its almost as if the author feels his entire writing is a joke, punctuating possibly sarcastic remarks with exclamation points. Later he sounds like a genius trying to explain his ideas to a pupil even saying, drawing out and defining each term he uses.  In contrast he assertively compares the disparity between validating an order and simply giving an order, explaining that to give an order a reason is to give reason for a person not to follow the order (Rousseau 114). Overall the idea he conveys makes a lot of sense in the most ideal of situations, but the world is messy and it is hard to believe that we will ever find the ‘ideal situation’ in which his ideas can be applied perfectly.

Rousseau’s ideas however can be applied to the rigid system that forced students to learn by tests rather than actual understanding. The usually freezing death hall we spent at least 7 hours of the week was a clear representation of the system every student and teacher agreed was insane. They always complained about the amount of exams but did they ever try to change the system? Students were given no reason for why they had to take so many exams, and therefore, had no justification to stop taking them. A student could be homeschooled and learn the same things as those at a test-taking academy, but would they feel the joy of actually passing an exam? Would the homeschooled student be able to track if they were making progress the same way a student taking exams could?

The mere idea of an educational system with no exams is easily rejected as ‘impossible.’ Is it right to force students into a cold hall to examine their intelligence through a game of memorization? Or does being 'just' really matter if you get the job done: getting students to memorize information?

Works Cited

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "The Social Contract." Shifting Narratives: A Reader for Academic Writing.  Ed. Sinno, Zane S., Bioghlu-Karkanawi, Lina, Fleszar, Dorota, Jarkas, Najla, Moughabghab, Emma, Nish, Jennifer M., Rantisi, Rima, Ward, Abir. Beirut: Educart, 2015. 593-598. Print.