I spent my high school career at Haynes, a public magnet school in Metairie. It's not "Haynes Middle School", or "Haynes High School", but rather "Haynes Academy", as it spans sixth (and starting in 2010) to twelfth grade. Haynes boasts a newly added upper class, a mingling of dwarfish hordes of children with what one could argue are young adults, a large, diverse faculty which seems to actually try to avoid cooperating with one another, and an administration that's just as incohesive as the rest of the school. Because of these factors, I always felt that my school was really at odds with itself, both in its internal relations and in its appearance to the rest of the world. Bringing this all to Botchan: I have seen seedy academic politics firsthand and feel like my experience helps me to understand and appreciate the film.
Red Shirt
The vice-principal at my high school was really nothing like red Red Shirt, contemptible in his own ways, but far from vain and manipulative. He most enjoyed spending his time issuing forth Catholic school levels of strictness on the most negligible offenses like untucked shirts, missing IDs, or students who arrived a few minutes late. Our principal, however, was certainly comparable to Botchan's in some ways. Though he was an extremely likable and jolly man, he suffered from being too much of an appeaser, we never really saw exercise his power to the fullest extent, and he would rarely, if ever, involve himself in affairs or disputes between the faculty. We had our fair share of Weaklings, who never had much to say about anything; of Clowns, who would ally themselves on friendship rather than any kind of reason; a few Porcupines, who would speak out against misbehavior to no avail; but, we really only had one Botchan, and she left after one long year of head-butting.
I don't think we had any of these.
We did have one teacher who, despite not being vice principal, seems to be more Red Shirt than Red Shirt is. Out of respect for my classmates, and because I don't feel like devoting any sort of brain power to such an unpleasant person, I'm not going to go into great detail on this woman. However, in a parallel to Botchan, there was a particular...incident...a year or two ago involving our Red Shirt and a few strategically placed eggs, but unlike Botchan's lighthearted 'all has been resolved' ending, I believe the great heroes behind this incident received some unfortunate repercussions. Shame.
My principal was alot like badger too. Perhaps he wasn't as legitimately bad, but he was a pretty dull and borderline stupid guy. The comparison of the two makes me wonder why some principals tend to be lazier and less involved than their underlings. At my school the whole show was run by the disciplinarian (which says something about the school's priorities). All speeches and whatnot went through him and he was the true authority of the school. Our principal's only apparent job was walking around the commons calling everyone "sport" because he didn't know our names. Perhaps a principal's laziness comes from his inability to move up in his school's administration. There is no one worth impressing, so they carry themselves in a very unimpressing fashion. I just find it interesting that as soon as someone is recognized for doing a good job, he often ceases to perform. A person's reaction to attaining authority is usually a good indication of why he strove for it in the first place.
My principal was alot like badger too. Perhaps he wasn't as legitimately bad, but he was a pretty dull and borderline stupid guy. The comparison of the two makes me wonder why some principals tend to be lazier and less involved than their underlings. At my school the whole show was run by the disciplinarian (which says something about the school's priorities). All speeches and whatnot went through him and he was the true authority of the school. Our principal's only apparent job was walking around the commons calling everyone "sport" because he didn't know our names. Perhaps a principal's laziness comes from his inability to move up in his school's administration. There is no one worth impressing, so they carry themselves in a very unimpressing fashion. I just find it interesting that as soon as someone is recognized for doing a good job, he often ceases to perform. A person's reaction to attaining authority is usually a good indication of why he strove for it in the first place.
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