Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

There were several things that happened with the student leadership training that were not according to plan. First of these was the sessions starting late because the students were arriving late. This is attribute to the fact that the groups were not given a sense of solidarity that they were given during last year's training, where for their entire stay they had to wear the same colored shirts as their group mates, and they were required to show up at all venues together and early, and in fact, had to do the same for meals.

This time around, during their meals and break times, the students hung around with their batch mates and course mates, even though ironically during the “dream for the school” session on the last day, some of the students expressed wishing that in the cafeteria this kind of division would not exist.

This is also the first time that some of the members of the groups were already either in the session hall or in the dining area and waiting for their group mates before they could cheer.

Even their seating arrangement inside the session hall was according to their friends, and they only went to the sit beside their group members when they were requested to do so for some activities, processing or sharing of experiences.

My co-facilitators also rejected the idea of giving the students even the small prizes of bags of candy for their effort. They said that recognition should be enough for them.

As it turns out this wasn't the case as the participants own immaturity was displayed again and again in their negative reactions to the lecture sessions and their suggestions for what their organization could improve in the school (in the dreams activity again) were mostly complaints about the school facilities.

There was even one instance that, in my personal experience, because of one instance in the middle of last year that I was not able to be there for the students when they were supposed to be going for their academic advising in the middle of the term break – which was not again repeated and was only due to circumstances where I had no control over my transportation back to the school – was given as the example for why the enrollment system must be improved.

The only real examples of negative culture that they were able to come up with was the divisiveness between courses and by batches, which unfortunately was not handled extensively enough for my taste due to the personal and emotional issued involved, including the student facilitators, which they did not want to bring up and defend themselves on to complicate the issue.

Session 1619 believes their role as student leaders is to complain about the lack of facilities in school. Class dismissed.