You cannot stop believing!

My students in my English class did not believe I would do it.

See, we were having a lesson on writing proposals. Figuring it would be more meaningful if they could write a proposal about a real idea, to a real person, I told them to address it to the school principal. And they should propose something that has been burning in their hearts.

But they gave me the sceptical look. The school has a student suggestion scheme but it appears the students have lost faith in the system. More often, they explain, some feckless teacher whose job is to go through the suggestion forms would chuck the more 'outrageous' suggestions, and settle for the safe, gutless ones. And the principal would not even get a chance to see all the suggestions. What is the point of speaking up when there's a censorship board who muzzles you before the principal even knows you have opened your mouth?

The point is, I say, my eyes flashing, that you never stop speaking up for what you believe in. Because if everyone thinks like you, then nothing in this school will change. So what if you hit the wall in your first few attempts, you just have to keep at it, until you wear them out, until you manage to get someone up there to at least acknowledge that you have a point, even if they don't have the guts or the means to implement your radical idea.

So I have now, 54 proposals in my hand. And I must say some are really good stuff.

And I'm giving them to the principal tomorrow, and hoping he will read some, if not all of them. And that he can see that my students, and I, are really serious about having our voices heard. Wish me luck.