As “Monty Python” repeatedly states, “And now for something completely different.” We all know that LT does a number of things very well, and we live in a nice community. Yet there are some things, little and big, that continue to annoy me around LT. Enter the hundred-word-rant. Each paragraph in this column is exactly one hundred words on a problem around us. They are not in specific order, and please take no offense. Although I may be preaching to the choir or raving on about a topic you do not care about, please give these different ideas some thought.

We have all had it happen before. Sitting in class, trying (sometimes) to study and work hard, when the call of nature hits. Yet many teachers only allow students a couple of hall passes each semester. Teachers may have good reasons to limit us. Some students abuse the hall privilege, using it to cheat or for other illicit activities, which costs the rest of us. There is a very easy solution to this. We are (almost) legal adults, so it would not seem a big stretch to give adult privileges to us. Just also give adult punishments to the violators.

Halloween is drawing near, and little children will be walking from door to door, asking for candy. To put it bluntly, LT students should not be among them. We are close to (or are) legal adults, and should not be trooping around from door to door like 6-year-olds. If you want candy, buy it, it is not that expensive. Or steal it from a younger sibling, neighbor, or the random kid you see walking down the block. Long story short, if you show up at my house asking for candy, chances are I will hand you a draft registration form.

A couple weeks ago, sitting in English class, I was told to start writing an essay in class about the theme of our book we were reading. Now, I take a while to come up with ideas to write about. It took me 30 minutes to get the idea just for these hundred words. Students cannot be expected to be able to crank out perfect and analytical thematic statements without some trial and error. I spent the entire period staring forward at my blank piece of paper. Teachers need to be considerate of and help students with severe writer’s block.

Learning targets. Flipped classrooms. Cooperative learning. Differentiated instruction. While these educational buzzwords may be meaningful to teachers with education majors and years of teaching experience, students do not know what these mean and, frankly, do not care. Sometimes these methods are not even effective. For instance, a peer assessment is only as helpful as the peer assessing you. Let’s focus on the topic at hand instead of distracting students who may already be struggling with these abstract concepts. While the teacher should keep these topics in mind, they do not need to be taught to the student. The lesson should.

Where did all of the books go in the library? Do not blame the librarians, blame students. I know that there are much easier ways to research or find facts than books; we have everything from Siri to Wikipedia. Books and reading, however, have been the main method of learning for thousands of years. We cannot just throw them away for something only decades old. We do not need to go cold turkey to no technology, and I love my iPhone as much as the next guy, but we should not throw away a valuable source of knowledge and heritage.

Finally, please stop complaining. Or at least give it a purpose. My parents always told me “Only complain to the degree that you are willing to fix a problem.” If you do not care enough about that issue to fix it, then you should not be complaining about it. Do not complain about the homework load from the five AP classes that you chose to take. Stop whining about that club or sport that no one but you is making you keep doing. If there is a serious problem with something, then you can complain. You can also fix it.