I dont know how many of you are familiar with the song "Mad world" originally played by tears for fears, but Gary Jules did a much better job with it. The song is the theme song to the movie Donnie Darko and it creates a feeling of lonelyness in the listener. The song itself, I believe from reading the lyrics, is about the way we live our lives and how it destroys us as people. Social groupings in the world have dug trenches around people keeping them from widening their cultural ranges. Whats considered cool has become the new standard for who is acceptable and who is to be denied friendship, the youth of the world is being controlled; not only by the media but by over protective parents, schools limiting aducation plans and altogether limiting creativity and the values and perspectives of a generation long past their days of childhood and creative outlook.

I myself can't say that i have had many experiences, any at that. But i can say that as someone who has recently been through the educational system, I am outraged by the walls put in place to keep wandering minds focused on what is considered "important". Private schools are becoming too expensive, and public schools have no real schedule aside from to prepare students for standardized testing. I have never seen nor have i considered myself to be a standard person. There has never existed a person on this planet who was "standard" without the help of a labotomy.

The human mind exists for three main functions as far as i am concerned; to accumulate knowledge for personal gain, to evaluate situations and ultimately determine how to react, and to allow the expression of emotion to be comprehended. Even in art and other supposed creative classes in schools it is very rare that you find someone truly willing to help students express creativity and emotion. Art has become a more visual form of math, writing classes are slowly transforming into study halls. Chorus, band, and theatre are our only real hope, and they are rapidly being destroyed by the dogmatic, creatively shallow minds of the people in charge.

i understand in ful why adults with degrees are in charge, and they should be the ones making decisions, setting the rules, and providing us with what we need to become educated adults ourselves. But when they decide what we need is a very precise list of classes that lack imagination and creativity because they keep us from focusing on achievment. Then i think they need to be put in place and ba forced to distrubute their power. When i was in junior high recess was taken away from us because it was believed that it got in the way of our learning. In what way is being active and social bad?

If that is the case then sports are wrong and shouldn't be allowed because there is not enough time being devoted to draining our thoughts and imagination. I think that if they had the money it would just be easier for all students to be given a mandatory labottomy, I mean that is really all schools are accomplishing by taking away our artistic classes.

When you can't get into an art school because you don't know the chemical reaction of Potassium and Chlorine, there is a problem. It doesn't matter that you can recreate the sisteen chapel in 15 minutes, or that you can write a play that rivals Hamlet. When you cannot accomplish your goals because you are not the perfect student, there is a huge problem with your educational system.

To get back to my original point, which i have strayed incredibly far from. The song "Mad World has a verse which says; The dreams in which I'm dying, Are the best I've ever had. I think this is very appropriate seeing as how a life lived not for the happiness of the beholder, is a life not worth living. i recently said something to myself, in a non-psychotic way, "what are dreams when there is no hope" dreams cannot exist without the hope they will be realized. If schools cannot or will not provide our youth with what they need to fullfill their dreams, there is no question that anti depressants will see a soar in prices.

The world has gone mad in may ways, and to see that our worlds future is a barren, bleak world where there is no laughter, no imagination, no hope; it makes me wonder whether or not i even want to grow up, it makes me wonder if i even want to be a part of something so ugly and depressing. I can't sit here and say that the word today is a depressing horrible place. The truth is it's wonderful in many ways. But I can say that with enough time put into draining all hope and life from kids today, life can become as dark and depressing as the saddest of love stories. That is how people should look at their lives, as a love story. If we could see life in the beautiful array of colors it can be drawn and allow minds to create and imagine, the world would be a cheerful and hopeful place where there is no happy ending; but rather a happy forever.