By Anya Bayazitov
Wayland High School recently featured in a popular news site that you might have heard of, for it is a common resource for teachers and students here at the middle school. The website is called Newsela, and the reason we are in it is not because of an amazIng sports game, or a COVID outbreak (thankfully!), but actually a Wall of Rejection. Yes, Wall of Rejection.
Not the exact thing we want to be in the paper for is it? Actually, it’s not as bad as it might sound. The Wall of Rejection is a wall covered in rejection letters received hung up by the students, as a way to cope. It was initially named the Wall of Shame, but was renamed to the Wall of Rejection to make it more friendly. Either way, it is a good way to wear your rejection loud and proud and prepare yourself for your future, even if it is not the future you might have initially been hoping for.
A way that it can help students deal with their rejection, beyond the satisfaction of pinning it up, is that teachers and students leave comments on it to hype up the person who received the letter, helping to calm their nerves for when they receive their next letter, whatever the result may be. Some are even writing jokes on their own letters, one student responding to a very short and simple letter, Did I get the shortest letter??. Teachers write messages such as “They don’t know you.”, or “You are awesome!” to help everyone stay motivated.
This is the “Wall of Rejection” in the Wayland High School!
At first the Vice Principal was skeptical of the idea, and didn’t see it as a positive thing. After changing the name to the Wall of Rejection instead of wall of shame, and understanding more about how it helped the students cope, her view on the wall changed, and she became a big supporter of it.
“That’s super nice of them to be thinking about others and how they feel. If I got rejected and saw that, I would definitely feel better.” was the response of a WMS student after reading the article.
Some people thought the opposite, saying that the wall is weird, and that they would never want to be a part of it.
“Why would you want to show off being rejected?” One skeptical 7th Grader questioned.
After reading the article, hopefully you are no longer confused about the odd reason for our town’s Newsela feature and now excited that one day you will be able to admire the wall for yourself.
If you would like to read this article yourself, the link is https://newsela.com/read/admissions-stress-wall-of-rejection/id/2001027676/