A Majority Decision Doesn't Always Mean It's Right
Every year throughout middle school when classes ended and summer began, my mother would send me to summer camp. Due to her heavy work schedule, she didn’t have enough time to take care of me, and since the summer camp was run and created by my middle school- she knew that she could trust the teachers watching over me throughout the hot sunny months. An educational yet action-packed experience all packed in one; we had math and English classes in the morning, and activities ranging from karate to craft making in the afternoon.
One of the classes that my peers and I hated the most was interpretive dancing. Not only did we constantly have to contort our bodies in weird shapes against outdated traditional music, it was embarrassing to pretend to be an unhappy tree, or even a cheerful rock. Most of us simply didn’t know what we were doing, and compared to the cool moves of karate and the beautiful things that we made in art class, interpretive dancing seemed unexciting and boring. The day before summer school ended, the instructor told the class that due to a severe traffic jam on the Manhattan Bridge, almost all after school activities would be canceled since most of the teachers were absent. She said that we had a choice to either play outside in the park till the day was over or instead go to Interpretive Dancing class since the teacher had made it to school on time. Most of the kids automatically raised their hand in excitement, telling the teacher that they all wanted to play outside instead of going to class.
Although the majority agreed to this conclusion, I disagreed, believing it was not right to disrespect a teacher just because we didn’t like his class. “Hey guys, I think that we should go to class instead, it’s the last one for the summer anyway so let’s just finish it off strong!” I said. “Are you crazy? The teacher is weird, we’re all sick of acting like idiots on stage, we all want to go play!” said one of my peers. “But, it’s disrespectful to him. He’s expecting us and he had the decency to come all the way here despite a traffic jam because he didn’t want to miss our last class together.
He put in the effort, and we should repay him back.” “You’re being dumb. We don’t care what he thinks, let’s just enjoy the last few days of summer.” “NO! It’s disrespectful to him and it’s only a 45-minute class anyway. I can play outside anytime I want, but to be so bad mannered towards some else is just mean. You all can go play, I’m going to the class.
” With that said, I angrily marched upstairs to the dance studio by myself, not caring that although nobody agreed with me, I knew that I was making the right choice. Just because fifty people say that something is right when it’s not doesn’t make it right; just because a hundred, or even a million people agree on something doesn’t make it right. As I slowly made my way into the room, I suddenly heard footsteps behind me as students from my class begrudgingly followed me into the studio. “What are you all doing here? I thought you all agreed to go play?” “We did, but you made a good point. Just because the majority of us agreed to do something, doesn’t mean we should.
And anyway, it’s only a 45-minute class anyway, right?” ” Right! I’m glad that all of you changed your mind!” I said with a smile as we greeted the teacher and walked to our spots on the shiny slippery floor.
