A letter to a letter

Dear Anthony Michael Hall's letter in The Breakfast Club,

You are wrong. I'm sitting here monitoring a Sunday morning detention -- yes, I'm the "bad guy" and I realize how wrong your letter is. Every person here is here because this consequence was reached as a natural outcome of chosen behavior. That's great and you admit as much. But then you object to being asked to define yourself. You push that off and claim that "you see us as you want to see us." What a load of self-pity. We see you as you present yourself. We see the version you want us to see. You are who you tell us you are and maybe, sometimes, you should take some responsibility for the image you portray which forces us to see you as we do.

We aren't making things up. If you are a jock, then we see you as a jock if you define yourself as a jock. Did you notice that no one else in your breakfast club was wearing sweat pants? Or defined himself by his being on a team? The modes of dress, language and behavior, those written and unwritten social codes which advertise being make it clear how each person in your group wants to be seen. Could the wrestler have shown up in slacks? Could the criminal have worn a tie? The princess, a leather jacket? Yes. Did they? No.

And how we see you is not the end result of a single interaction. Educators get to interact with students every day and don't jump to conclusions about character without extensive evidence based in experience and an evaluator's eye. One of you calls himself a "brain." What classes is he in? What are his grades? What it his general behavior, his extra curriculars, his friend group? Is it true that "each of us is a brain"? Maybe in some sense, every student can think and learn, but our differences exist. They all asked the 'official' brain to write the letter. They are buying in to the conventional wisdom and exploiting exactly what you seem to think is wrong, when done by the teacher. You don't want to be seen as the brain, but you let them see you that way.

So stop feeling sorry for yourselves, write your own letters and craft your own images. Tell us who you think you are because maybe you will realize that we can't judge you by anything other than the clues you give off and this letter, this opportunity, this chance to redefine yoursef shouldn't be wasted. Who do you think you are and how does that differ from what you have told us before now? What can we all learn from this detention? Your little bit of soapbox moralizing and 5 cent philosophy brings no one closer to understanding the self or the other. It was a cheap way to make you feel good about yourself without having to do any real thinking.

And by he way, tell your writer that tomorrow, the jock and the basket case will date, the criminal and the princess will date and you will still be on the outs, hanging with the brains until they need you to write another letter.