On the Efficiency of Challenge Day

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It’s been a few weeks, and the “Challenge Day high” (as my English teacher affectionately calls it) has pretty much dissipated. I participated in this school-sanctioned cry-time last year, but an event in the past few months brings it back to me. What that annoying week of blockades tries to do is bring the entire grade together as humans. For those who haven’t experienced it, let me describe it for you. For one day, you skip all of your class in order to talk and cry to a group of people about past struggles. In a less cynical view, Challenge Day is a day for understanding, love, and making friends with the people that aren’t necessarily giving off an amiable air. But as for myself, I was given the amazing chance this summer to go to China with a small group of 8 (including two teachers). Perhaps it was the foreign air, the personal experiences we forged, or the duration of the two experiences, but I feel that my experience in China was more efficient at making friends than a 6 hour intensive therapy session.

One point that a fellow China-mate (and now friend) has brought up is the idea of past versus present. Because people in Challenge Day are relating to their peers about their struggling past, it brings a different sort of experience. Going to China (or any foreign country) is much more introspective, because even though you live in the present, there’s a certain amazement and wonder that forces reflection. Going ahead with life is better than trying to cringe about the past, as I’m sure many people believe in. Trying to dispel judgement and stereotypes is a great idea, but did it really work? I don’t see a change in the way people judge each other in the hallways, and I can especially feel their eyes searing into my unfashionable sweater as if I’m a freak of nature. So no, in this aspect, Challenge Day did not help. One of my friends noted that people still ridicule her for being outspoken, boys still find her amusing when she rants about her favorite classical composers, and even if people are more compassionate, they  don’t act like it. Acting on intentions is another thing that needs more discussion. You may say that you are a good person, but if you talk behind the backs of teachers or steal mechanical pencils from your classmates, you’re no better than someone with the worst of intentions. Well, maybe slightly better. But not completely.

Another difference the two experiences had was their durations. I did go to China for two weeks as opposed to the 6 hour event that was Challenge Day, but people have had life-changing before-and-after sort of experiences that have happened in a few hours. So, if Challenge Day tries to compress that sort of experience, they better do it right. I didn’t feel a personal connection to the people I was supposed to bond with, and sometimes, they don’t even greet each other in the hallways after that fateful day. Time is relative, and if you can stuff as much meaning into a small space of time, great. But as most people can note, small matters of genius that take place in an instant are so rare in history that you could probably collect a list of all of them. I admire that you(creators of challenge day) are trying to accomplish something dreamed about by the greatest minds of history, but do you realize how improbable it is that one day will affect a majority of the projected audience? For most, a trip will be more affective than a 6 hour counterpart.

One of the major problems I found with Challenge Day was how isolated we were. Most of them are carried out in gyms, with taped up windows and blockaded hallways. This isolation from the outside world, when you are trying to advocate for the awareness of reality, is really ironic. Instead, why not have a school camping trip? That’s worked well enough for various schools, taking their children to monasteries or forests where they can learn to deal with physical and psychological stress. In addition, putting your needs behind that of the group proves to be a valuable experience. In China, we had to wake up early to get to our group activities on time, which meant making yourself less important and putting yourself as a part of a whole (which, though Emma Goldman disagrees with me, there are some pleasures in being part of a community).

In conclusion, please reconsider the choices you make to provide a better school experience for your children. Think about the other options, the ones that might actually bring people together, the ones that promote things like community as opposed to solving individual problems. Live in the present, stop dwelling on the past, and instead absorb all of the new information that is coming your way at high speed, begging for your attention.