Failure "All the cool kids are doing it."

[Brad Shepard]

I hate school, but you got to do it, i need everything i can earn to win in this place we call the United States.

 

[Shock and Awe]

I think the best way to express this is that people, generally, kind of suck. In related news, I was recently told (by a college professor who's written a book on the subject) that this viewpoint was largely responsible for stability of Edo era Japan. So I guess that's sort of okay, maybe. I don't think there's really a solution for this, it's just sort of the natural state of affairs. That said, I really do wish that American public education was an awful lot better than it is, and if it was better more people might pay attention to it. college has been worth the hell that was kindergarten through high school so far, however.

Its not really education that is bad, its the culture. You can't really teach someone that doesn't want to learn.

 

[Cpu46]

Never was a cool kid.

Saw what the 'cool kids' were doing, didnt like it, never did it. Got picked on a bit by the 'cool kids' however it didnt last long since I realy stoped careing about my social life then.

EDIT: From the looks of the other replies i think i missunderstood the topic.

OT: My theory on how stupid people get into good colleges

Rich parents > Spoiled childhood > Stupid kid (usualy) > Rich parents pay for college and kid takes easy classes > Kid gets good job that they shouldnt have in the first place

 

[Gitsnik]

Regardless, I can't understand "normal people" wanting to dick around and not be educated.
I wanted to be educated, I just couldn't handle being social.

I'm perpetually baffled by people who want to be educated. Maybe it's the 6 different schools I tried, but I was always bored out of my mind at school. My teachers were continuously annoyed that I would sleep/goof off/disrupt a class and then score full points on any test that came up.

I can not condone in any form the deliberate failure of a student.

I do wonder, though, if anyone is actually deliberately doing it - "C'mon man let's flunk this test so we can be dole bludgers for the rest of our days" doesn't strike me as something even a bogan would say.

 

[RN7]

This is why the stupid need to be destroyed outright! By creating this social stigmata, being unintelligent becomes a socially acceptable, hell celeberated! thing among the younger generation which is breeding much earlier now. Making intelligence unappealing means only the idiotic genes are getting passed!

It has got to be one of the most diabolical ways to destroy a species I've ever seen. Why couldn't I have thought of that...

 

[jboking]

snip

What about those of us that are smart and know how to manipulate/schmooze people? Success?

Edit: OP - I experienced that group a lot in high school. I didn't really care if they amounted to anything in life or not. If they turn out to be millionaires, good for them. I more laughed at how much they fucked up their immediate life. Watching drama come crashing down on people from a safe distance is a great pastime that I recommend you all look into. Hours of fun, trust me.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I couldn't understand failing intentionally to be "cool," though I can't help but feel as though this holds a bit of water.

these people view school more or less as force labor camp

I felt this way. I still did decent in school mind you, because if you don't get your "served in the forced labor camp" diploma you can't get a job in the real world. But looking at the mandatory high school curriculum, how much of it did you actually want to learn? How much of it will you actually use in your life? In four years, how much more useful information could you have learned on your own?

Is it education all the same? yes. Does it make you "smarter"? yes. However, all the knowledge in the world about poetry, or transcendentalism, or WW2 isn't going to help you in a real life situation.

 

[MeputthecaninthebininHL2]

After reading all of the posts so far I've come to the conclusion that this can all be solved by the Grimes vs Homer simpsons episode. Grimsey kept on trying to punish Homer for his incompitence and great life, and it resulted in his own life being ruined.

Think about that.

 

[Darchrow]

After reading all of the posts so far I've come to the conclusion that this can all be solved by the Grimes vs Homer simpsons episode. Grimsey kept on trying to punish Homer for his incompitence and great life, and it resulted in his own life being ruined.

Think about that.

Yeah but Homer is much more likable than your average "cool" person.

 

[Weaver]

I don't claim to know the causes of this trend, but I do have my theories. Regardless of the cause, I do not believe that many will disagree with me that this is indeed a major problem in modern day society.

I think you may be surprised there. I certainly agree with you - stupidity is a pandemic on society. My friends in high school were what was considered the "smart people" because we actually gave a fuck about learning things. My school was poor, and had an immense amount of substance abuse problems and shitty, shitty teachers. But hell, I still made it into a very respected university through nothing but hard work and I'm about to graduate.

From someone who had to put up with these fools for the majority of my academic career, I just want to say that university or "college" if you're American, will probably be very, very different. Just hang in there and do your best to ignore them. One thing to consider is that if someone jacks around in class your teacher, now matter how they appear, probably god damn hates the kid. If they're bugging you or somehow detracting from your education in a direct manner you should talk to the teacher in private and I feel they'd probably be eager to do something about the kid.

 

[keillord]

Throughout my school life I have been surrounded by people I'm sure many of us would affectionately refer to as "idiots". Almost every day I am amazed by just how unintelligent someone can be. People who are in their last year of nationally mandated education and yet have no idea what the Soviet Union was much less the Cold War. People who never knew that Japan was a major power in the Second World War, or that there was even a First World War. There is even one person in my Political Science class who doesn't even know his ABCs, and yet has ended up sitting next to me in a class that is part of my school's College Preparatory Program. People like this are a nickel a score at my school and tend to annoy the hell out of me. But the one thing I find admirable about some of these people is that they actually try, even though they might not succeed in their endeavor.

In the last few years though I have seen this particularly dim flock begin to thin and have begun noticing a new trend of willfully failing classes growing in my school, as well as other schools as far as I can tell from my social interactions with other people both online and in reality.

Yes. Students who willfully tell their future to fuck right off and fail all of their scheduled classes, all while trying to maintain the status of "the cool kid", as if repeating the same grade and classes over and over again is somehow consider cool by any stretch of the imagination. I'm sure almost all of us in high school at the time have either seen, know, or befriended one of these people. The kind of kid who sits in the back with their cellphone texting all class period then comes up with a bullshit excuse for not being able to turn in their homework they swore they did, or if they have the gall, will outright curse out the teacher knowing they can't do very much about it. From the classes I have been in over the last few years I hove noticed almost all of these people have a gangster mentality and view school more or less as force labor camp or a place meant exclusively to hang out with similar minded friends.

I am aware this trend has existed as long as school or much less civilization as a whole, but it has exploded form just a small percentage of students to an alarmingly large portion the past few years. In a modern day world where jobs are scarce and students in one country have to compete for even the most menial jobs with people with more degrees and better education from a country on the other side of the world, education and skills are key. What's worse is that a lot of these people will find jobs in their life and still have this same attitude towards work. It's because of this that hard working people like me have to serve an increasingly large line of impatient customers while they text in a corner and contribute very little to the workplace.

I don't claim to know the causes of this trend, but I do have my theories. Regardless of the cause, I do not believe that many will disagree with me that this is indeed a major problem in modern day society.

[sub][sub][sub]EDIT: Whoo 4th Gonzo![/sub][/sub][/sub]

This is just showing the decline in society as a whole. I am annoyed by it also. I feel that the worst part is that our society as a whole seems to cater to this trend. We lower standards and make it so these types of people can get a job. By taking away any incentive we are not fixing the problem but making it worse. I will admit though that I used to be just like them until I was shipped away to a third world country to survive for a year on literally maggots and dirt. I slept in the streets and really understood what a blessing it is to live in a place like Canada. This may be extreme but it did work and currently I am working toward a PhD in kinesiology. I feel that if society made life a little harder for these people then the problem would fix itself.

 

[Weaver]

Life should be about finding your own happiness

I disagree with this. Life is about FORGING your own happiness. Don't look for it, create it.

 

[Low Key]

Unfortunately, kids have the mindstate that someone will always be there to give them whatever they want no matter what they do. Can't afford some new clothes? Mommy and daddy will buy it for them. Can't pay the rent? That's what credit cards are for. Can't pass their classes? No matter, they don't pay for it anyways.

I hate to liken it to politics because anyone can be that kind of a douche these days (also because it's totally different subject for another time), but there is a certain illogical thinking behind it that screams "someone will be there to take care of me!", which is not the case at all. Part of the blame falls on the kids who don't fully commit to anything, but a lot of it falls on the parents who think spoiling is nurturing. I rememeber it well in my school while growing up. There were banners everywhere that said Eden Prairie Loves It's Kids. Great! But they aren't going to guarantee me a good job, a place to live, clothes on my back, and food to eat.

If it's one thing I have learned in my 25 years on this planet, it's always have something to fall back on.

 

[B Goy]

'its because poor literacy is kewl' A wise man from the internet told me that

 

[The Lawn]

I too am dumbfounded by the sheer lack of both intelligence and common sense...

I would consider myself of average intelligence, but here in Southern California, its like I'm some all knowing, omnipotent deity of knowledge.

Like when I'm at the store... people ask the employees there what the price of something is when the $5.99 is in BIG FUCKING RED AND YELLOW LETTERS ON THE TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE BOX!!!

Also, when I was at an ice cream establishment and I asked for a pint of ice cream, and the girl behind the counter asked me what a "pint" was...
So I pointed on the card thing on the counter at the box for the pint.
She responded: "Oooooh, you mean a p-int." (She pronounced the p then the int like in intelligent... ironic right... like pinto bean... but without the 'o')
I just turned around and left.

 

[xDarc]

Look kids. It's okay. Your parents were like this too. So were their parents. And so on. Nothing ever changes.

You know you're wrong when you lump everyone who does not want to take high school seriously into one category.

And from my school daze, I've heard that a couple of our most proud over-achievers stumbled from their pedestal, later on in college. They got mixed up hardcore with drugs/booze. Might have something to do with the pressure to succeed their whole lives and repressing their hormonal and youthful nature. *shrugs*

There are no guarantees.

 

[Chechosaurus]

Ah... High School...

Wait till you get to college and it improves substantially but when you get to university it goes back to where it was because you're drunk the whole time.

 

[Mikaze]

I hate the job market, I vote we build a Rapture-esq city underwater, a utopia where hard work pays off and we get what we rightfully earn. You know, just without the mind altering drug treatments.

Except instead of underwater, we could build it on the moon, or Mars, or any of those other places the incompetent fucks won't be able to reach.