Since the dawn of systematic education, the ultimate goal of any student is to participate in a diversion to keep them mentally sane throughout the duration of a seven-hour school day.  Students have not only sought such distractions, but have creatively developed new, stimulating games to indulge in while their teacher is delivering a repetitive lecture.

As a young child in elementary school, it was easy to be discouraged from paying direct attention to a teacher’s lesson plan.  In fact, one of the most vivid memories I have as a student at that age was playing small quiet games with classmates while the teacher dragged on.  A popular favorite among all students was the quite exciting game of classroom tag, that annoying pestering “You’re it!” “No, you’re it!” pastime.  For hours on end we would repeatedly tap each other on the arm or hand to signify the transfer of being “it.”  The game refused to finish because nobody contained the maturity to put an official end to the chaos.  If you were “it,” and simply called it quits, you would be shunned as the party pooper of the class.  It would be treason among your classmates to back out of such a challenge.  In fifth grade, I recall playing an extremely aggressive game of tag during class while the principal of the school was conducting a teacher evaluation.  To say the least, following that particular class, we were punished accordingly.  But that didn’t stop us from playing the same exact game the next day.  After all, kids are supposed to be kids…right?

Entering middle school, it was assured that such immature games to distract us from class would be diminished.  However, that was quite the contrary to reality.  A new surge of entertainment swept the school in mass numbers, to the point that the school rules even had to be altered to accommodate the rebellious behaviors.  With the participation in higher level math courses, a graphing calculator was required to do the new level of work.  The resources of a graphing calculator brought a large domain of calculator games that were effectively played for hours at a time in every class, not just math.  All throughout our classes we students were busily looking down at books in which secret calculators were hidden and furious button mashing occurred while we tried to defeat the evil space invaders and advance to the next level, all while trying to learn the main themes of “Romeo and Juliet” or how electricity works at the same time.  The portability of the games was a pest to teachers and everyone played them, there were no exceptions.  It was easy to do and easy to get away with, and for the meantime kept everyone entertained during the long classes.  So what did the school do?  They enforced new rules that would have your calculator taken away for months at a time if caught being used outside of math class.  But once again, that failed to stop the rebellious calculator game playing among middle school students.  After all, kids are supposed to be kids…right?

Entering high school, everything had supposedly changed.  Minds were developing and people were maturing and classes actually counted toward credits and reflected on records for colleges.  It was time for people to make a serious commitment in school.  Students took advantage of reading the Washington Post newspapers that were generously provided for free.  However, contained within those newspapers was an array of mentally stipulating crossword puzzles.  Suddenly, every student in sight had torn-out crossword puzzles and stashed them inside every sleeve of every book, eagerly attempting to complete the challenge that was set out for them.  Annoyed once again were the teachers, who failed to diminish the problem.  It seemed to be a never-ending quest to find activities to divert our minds away from class time.  But maybe we were just new to high school, still maturing young adults that had not yet seen the light.  After all, kids are supposed to be kids…right?

Entering senior year of high school was a major change.  Suddenly, all my peers and I became the eldest of all students, and we were expected to be the most tolerant and educated.  With college applications to complete, good grades to obtain, and the planning of our futures to be figured out, there wasn’t supposed to be enough time to be a kid.  And yet the need to draw ourselves out of attention still persisted.  A new craze swept the grade, in the form of a clever number arrangement game referred to as “Su Do Ku.”  Seniors across the campus were deeply obsessed with completing these number obstacles each and every class.

Why is it that each year brings a new fad to draw our attention away from class?  What happened to the times where kids could just daydream to escape reality, and use imagination rather than physical games and challenges to divert ourselves?

It seems that people never truly grow up.  Everybody retains a sense of their inner child, just urging to be released.  The day that people lose their ability to daydream, is the day they lose their inner child and begin the transition into the life of the elderly and senile.  I plan to never lose that sense of inner child, or to daydream because kids are supposed to be kids, right?