The Golden Rule

Our lives are full of mystery. Like, is a poem never written down still a poem? If a tree falls in a forest with nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound? How did my pajama pants end up in my underwear drawer? How about this one: Where does the Golden Rule go after elementary school?

Remember the Golden Rule? Of course you do, we all do. "Treat others the way you would like to be treated." We heard it a thousand and one times during elementary school, but when we reach a certain point, it seems to disappear.

I'll start with this: I go to an alternative high school. Mankato Central Alternative Learning Center is what it's really called. It's situated on the third floor of a building that was never really seen as being fit for the job of being a school, so it's a community center instead. The nearby "normal" high school sends us very cold hot lunches with smaller proportions than one would feed to one's kitten. It's very inner-city. Have you ever seen Freedom Writers? It's kind of like that, only the teachers are rarely ever able to gain control of the pupils.

I have a group of close friends. We were kind of obliged to bond, because nobody else in the school seems to pay us any attention. We're not pregnant, and we didn't smoke or drink ourselves stupid, so we don't exactly fit. In fact, I get along better with my teachers than with most of my classmates.

On to my point. I have a friend who showed up to school a couple of days in a row in his girlfriend's coat, because he had given her his own coat to wear when she was cold. In our 2nd period class (we have 8 periods a day), this little group of three guys started picking on my friend behind his back, but loudly enough that my friend and I could hear them. They were calling him gay and a faggot for wearing a girl's coat. When my friend confronted the boy in the group who's really the alpha-male of their clique, he was met with immature hostility. Said boy claimed that "I'm cooler than you." For some reason, he seemed to think that justified his rudness.

I've dealt with the same kid in multiple classes. He loves to make fun of the kids he knows are smarter than he is. He and his friends pick on me all the time. For example, they call me a Nazi because I can speak German. They call me either a slut or a lesbian because I hang out with guys a lot. The list goes on. The worst part of it is not what they say about me, it's simply that they say it about me. I'd have more respect for them if they would say things to my face, you know? If they don't have the Hoden (German for testicles) to say it to my face, they shouldn't say anything at all, right?

Again I ask, what happens to the Golden Rule after elementary school? Once you start splitting up into cliques, does common decency cease to exist?

I'm sorry this is so long. I just had to say something. If you read the whole thing, thank you.