I thank Studyrama for publishing this opinion piece.
Endless advice and an avalanche of ‘don’t do this’ and ‘do that’ unfortunately do not stop our high school seniors from preparing poorly, or not at all, for their baccalauréat. With Nietzsche, they take a hammer to morality… and common sense.
Much to the despair of their old folks (parents), who earned the Holy Grail with difficulty and a great deal of work, because ‘it used to be hard’, ‘it used to be better’, ‘before… was before’, our seniors, with Kant, know things only in terms of what they put into them. Which is to say, not much.
Much to the despair of their parents, who secretly hope to be able to announce proudly to their colleagues at the office that their child earned a ‘nice little mention Bien’ — honors they themselves never received — the students prefer, with Gide, a ‘discouraging modesty’, far removed from the laurels of pointless, insipid glory. But at that age, what has any flavor…
To the despair of their parents, who embellish a past in which high school was one of the best times of their lives, the students reply with Cesbron and die of boredom in a school that feels like a prison… where, nevertheless, they are never without their phone, their friends and a suitably melancholy mood…
To parents I say: refrain! Refrain, dear parents, from giving advice to the high school senior you house free of charge. They do not listen, having heard you far too often. They are utterly convinced that you understand nothing, with your Kantian ‘categorical imperatives’, and, worse still, that your aim, morning and evening, is to disrupt their peaceful, harmless ‘cloistered existence’. By which I mean: a locked door, a bed, a phone and foul-smelling bags of abandoned food.
Dear parents, simply print this opinion piece and leave it on their bed. Between a Lomepal track (an intelligent rapper), a story, and with our Roman ancestors: ‘Come what may!’
Dear high school senior, here are seven quick tips from a geezer (an old man), a former inmate of high school.
Tip #1, with Bachelard, alcohol is ‘oblivion and death’: do not drink a drop!
From one week before the first exam until the evening that marks the end of the last, do not drink alcohol.
To be clear: wine, beer, whisky and Coke, and Aperol Spritz are alcoholic drinks; yes, yes, seriously.
Why? Because it increases your fatigue for several days, even after just one drink. It overloads your liver, which must regulate your blood glucose (sugar) for your brain, which needs sugar more than alcohol. Finally, it reduces your ability to draw on your memory by 50%. Three consequences that harm your exams and your studying, if you dare to study…
Tip #2, with Alain: ‘To deprive yourself of sleep is to deprive yourself of wakefulness’: sleep!
Going to bed early lets you get up earlier. The first day is difficult, especially if you are duty-bound to Instagram and WhatsApp until 2 a.m. But make an effort; go to bed by 11 p.m. at the latest.
Why? Because sleep lets you tidy up your brain, and, unlike your bedroom, your brain tidies itself while you sleep. Here is an example. Imagine 100 kids (young people) like you in a huge hotel for high school seniors. The baccalauréat is being held in the middle of nowhere, and you are all staying in the hotel for a month. Imagine, if you can, the chaos (mess) in each room. Try to picture them one by one. Difficult, isn’t it? Now imagine having to inspect them one by one, for seven to eight hours straight, and attempt a cleanup like your old lady (mother).
Doubly impossible! First, your fellow seniors would never let you into their rooms; they would resist. And second, 100 rooms is a lot.
Well, your brain is in the same state every evening. It has only the night to inspect and tidy all 100 rooms. It must put everything away, even what your conscious mind wants to hide because you have not yet digested it: your teachers’ nasty remarks, the friend who made fun of you, and so on. In other words, it has seven or eight hours for a complete cleanup. Take two hours away and it is lost; it gets angry and shouts at you like your old man (father), who steps in when your old lady is at the end of her tether because of, precisely, the cell you call a bedroom… Get it? So, remembering that, unlike your bedroom, your brain tidies itself while you sleep, not sleeping is suicidal. Unless, of course, you love your mother coming into your room. If that is the case, you need to see a doctor…
Tip #3, with Ovid, choose ‘silence and Morpheus’: airplane mode from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.!
Be original! Give your phone a break at night. Step out of the world and retreat to the edge of reality. Dare; cross the Rubicon and join the pure-bloods!
Why? To sleep. To sleep peacefully. Something you do with your eyes closed and heavy eyelids. It is the only action that requires no effort. Fit for a king, isn’t it?
Tip #4, with Lobachevsky, ‘change your paradigm’: change your surroundings!
Change your habits, kiss your mother, read a book, change your shower time. If you shower in the evening, shower in the morning (and vice versa) throughout the exams. If you never shower, give it a try; water is not just for watering exotic plants…
Why? Because your body needs to feel the difference. It needs something new. It must sense that the time has come to succeed, or that the situation is serious… Changing your habits lets you reclaim your environment. It is an awakening to life and the world around you.
Tip #5, with Montaigne: ‘It is not a body we train, but a human being’: exercise!
Run around the neighborhood (10 minutes), do 20 push-ups, do 25 sit-ups with your feet hooked under your bed, arm-wrestle all your little brother’s friends 30 times, and climb up and down three flights of stairs 10 times in a row.
Why? Not to build muscle — your philosophy examiner could not care less, as you will tell me is true of many other things; not to sweat and give yourself the chance to take yet another shower; not to break your brother’s arm, even if he deserves it; but simply to train your concentration on a straightforward goal: that impossible twentieth push-up or tenth climb to the third floor. Physical effort strengthens your capacity to withstand effort (by developing the relevant areas of the brain), reduces pain (through your nervous system), and produces dopamine (dopamine is powerful stuff, far removed from your friend’s carcinogenic rubbish…). In other words, you sweat for 10 minutes, and your brain can breathe for a whole day.
Tip #6, with Sartre: ‘Hell is other people’: forget your detractors!
There is no point claiming that everything is decided in advance, and that the social determinism imposed on you by your parents excludes you from success. Be strong, disregard fear, escape reproaches. Forget your bewildered teachers’ dubious incantations. You are the best! Of course nobody knows it. What if this were the day of revelation? What if you showed them that you are not ignorant, that you can speak, write and even count? You are worth far more than your dreadful report cards. You are not the hero of a Greek tragedy; you do not die at the end of high school!
Why? Because if you do not believe in yourself, no one can do it for you. You are your own best advocate. You are the only person who really knows your abilities. Other people know only their own, and even then…
Tip #7, with Kant: ‘Discipline transforms animality into humanity’: make the most of your time!
During exam preparation (a vague, absurd concept describing an ill-defined period outside prison, during which you must freely choose to learn your lessons, do every exercise in your textbook and practice every kind of exam), avoid wasting time on things you can do after the baccalauréat or have already done (with the exception of showering).
Why? Because even if you do not study much, or for long, or for a penny, make the most of your time. It is Pascal’s wager: perhaps it will be pointless, but since the effort is not insurmountable, you are better off studying, because if that topic comes up, the benefit of your effort will be enormous.
So bet on your success, not your defeat; you have everything to gain.
Good luck! Luck is a little treasure that benefits only those who find it 😉