It was after my graduation party from high school, and I was opening
cards. I came to a card from my Uncle Tom (linking for surrealism).
Now, Uncle Tom would always give humorous cards, usually with a Far
Side sort of bent to them. The card went something like this:
Outside:
Congratulations on graduating! Now you can look forward to something...
Inside:
...never having to ask for a hall pass to go to the bathroom again.
While the card made me grin, I can't help but wonder what it says about the United States
that the bathrooms need to be restricted. I'm not just talking about
authoritarian control of students by a school -- I'm also talking about the
students seeing the bathroom as a convenient escape. Those of us who
have a legitimate need to use the bathroom are punished
for those who would do anything to avoid class.
It seems that the bathroom is a place where one does not believe one
is seen by others. What evidence do I have? Look at most public
bathrooms -- toilets not flushed, debris of questionable origin
everywhere. Now, I find it hard to believe that there are that many
unruly children causing this. In fact, if I recall correctly, the
bathrooms became worse as I moved from elementary school to middle
school to high school.
Perhaps the problem is that we're not properly socialized with respect
to the bathroom, that we need to get over the secrecy and
disgust with which we regard normal bodily functions. After all, look at things
like urinal etiquette. On that note, perhaps it's
just that my experience is largely with men's rooms, and ladies'
rooms are cleaner.
Update from my inbox: dustfromamoth says ladies bathrooms aren't cleaner (at schools anyway). haha