If school wasn't compulsory, would you go to any of the class you have no interest in without any academic tests? No.

Would you go to any class of a hobby you don't care about? No.

Vice versa, if school is compulsory (which it is), we don't consider our interests, even if there are stuff that we are interested in, when we have to attend all classes regardless.

We mostly pay attention for academic results instead of our curiosity or desire to aquire knowledge, which is the complete opposite of what schools advertise that they'd achieve.

We never stop to truly ask if we actually hate a subject, or do we just want to learn at our own pace.

Homework contributes to that hatred.

Which poses another question: do we hate learning, or do we hate repetitive, stressful, and meaningless learning?

I hated maths because of the sole focus on academic results. I didn't hate logic or solving problems. In fact, I loved them. I loved reading logic related books. I never had a chance to truly reconsider the meaning of mathematics.

This is also another reason why people usually can't easily choose elective subjects. A lot of people I know either go for the subjects they can make the most money out of, or just anything they don't hate. If we never knew what subjects we liked, how do you expect us to know what we will do in the future?

Often, people “like” the subjects that they're good at. It's usually because they don't have as much stress as they do with the subjects they're worse at.

If you were given a chance to read a book on a subject that you like, with the contents being just easy enough for you to barely understand (promotes self learning) and isn't in any secondary curriculum, would you choose to read it?

Turns out, if we don't have any academic motivation or stress, we don't actually like a lot of the subjects we claim to do.

I'm not now. I'm flawed and imperfect and “worse”. I'm depressed and stressed and suicidal. I'm not good enough. I will never be good enough because I was “perfect”.

I don't want to be “perfect”. I don't want to go back to who I was. I was confused and my life had no purpose except for work and get good grades. That's it. But yet, people want me to be that person again. That kid trying to suppress the suffering every single day and hide it behind a mask because I couldn't show my “imperfect” side. “You know I be wishing I was dead but I mask it”. (OOC: Trauma - BoyWithUke)

They say I'm letting myself go. That I don't care about my academic results anymore. That it's not the only thing I have in my life. That I don't have to live for nothing but an arbitrary score. I'm so tired of people treating me now as that version of myself. We are not the same person.

Sometimes I wish that I wasn't “gifted”. Maybe I'd be able to live a normal life. I remember being asked if I would rather have my overall rank above 10 (I almost always got top 3 at that age) or have amazing friends. I thought that was a trivial question. I didn't expect so many people to choose their academics over their social life. They said that I would never be able to understand them because I'm an academic machine.

I get it. The incomprehensible amount of academic pressure is a stereotype. I know that people value our academics too much. I've heard relatives and parents of classmates offering them thousands of dollars or some other material gifts if they reached their academic goals set by adults. I never got anything really. It was “my duty to try my best in exams” and “if I wanted to I could rank the lowest in my form and they wouldn't care (spoiler alert: they did)”.

(OOC: THANK YOU FOR MY FRIEND (you know who you are <3) FOR ACTUALLY TYPING THIS EXAM ESSAY A YEAR AGO I WROTE IN AN HOUR FROM PAPER WITH MY BAD HANDWRITING TO ACTUAL READABLE TEXT)

Some people believe that the demerit system at school should be banned. I believe that the demerit system is not the best option to punish students.

Firstly, the demerit system leaves permanent records. Almost all students have received at least one demerit record during the years of their education. Students who have changed for the better will still always have the records, as they cannot be erased. This may affect their future regarding them pursuing higher education or finding a job. Some may argue that the amount of demerit records of students reflects their personality and behavior, but I believe that everyone has the power to change for the better, if they want to, and that we as a society should offer them the opportunity and a clean slate of records to do so, rather than forever judging and stereotyping them based on their childhood, which is why the demerit system should be banned.

Secondly, students do not care about being punished. The demerit system at school copies the legislative system of society to punish those who had done bad behaviors. However, society uses fear and grave consequences to discourage people from commiting crimes, while the school demerit system has much less consequences in comparison. Students who often break the school rules and receive records do not fear getting more records or the punishments and consequences. They will continue to break rules regardless. Contrary to the original intention, the demerit system only truly 'punishes' those who do not want bad records and will do their best not to break rules, out of their desire to be a good student and act out of fear some argue that a solution to this would be to enforce harder consequences and punishments but I do not find that useful. Harsher consequences will lead to more students getting demerit records, which not only worsens the situation mentioned above, but also decreases the value and importance of these records, since they are so common. For students to learn their mistakes, they have to care about improving themselves. The demerit system in school only makes them annoyed, and it only punishes those will good intentions, and it should absolutely be banned.

Thirdly, the demerit system does not educate the student. It is of the most importance that students understand and desire to better themselves. I believe that they can never change for the better if the above condition is not met. I agree that it is not easy to educate misbehaving students into respecting and complying with regulations, but it is better than telling them that they have to comply with those rules solely because they may get punished if they fail to do so, which is exactly what the demerit system tells them. Students believe that respect is earned and cannot be obtained in any other way, and I believe that school should earn their respect by also respecting them rather than oppressing them whenever they try to 'test the waters' or to speak up against the schools. Schools should show them that schools are not superior to students and students are not inferior to schools in terms of power, and that the relationship between schools and students is a mutually respecting one, which the demerit system is failing to show, as schools punishing students hints that schools are superior to students and that schools can wield - and often abuse - their power in order to suppress students' voices.

The demerit system worsens the relationship between schools and students, devalues education, and affect students' lives forever. It should definitely be abolished and replaced by proper education and mutual respect.