Losing Faith in the Public Schooling System
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Kinnelon New Jersystone0042 said:
wealthy town too, you'd expect them to hire good teachers but they spend all their money on random drug tests
That's a load of bullshit if I ever heard some. I can't believe that some people would even think that those rules are good ideas... I think you really made the right choice.Julianking93 said:
Public schooling in America is a joke. Other countries (like Japan) have MUCH better academic standards that us. I consider myself a patriot, but our public schools need some serious improvement.Flishiz said:
*Sighs, as he stares at the stars that fill the infinite universe beyond our planet.*
I wish I was home schooled...
At least I have the internet, where I can better my knowledge on my own...
I wish I was home schooled...
At least I have the internet, where I can better my knowledge on my own...
I've been in public schooling for all my life (still am actually), and I have a lot of criticisms about it.
A lot of it comes from the bureaucracy and "grades". You can only have my word for it, but I had a 4.0 GPA (out of 4.0) for my entire high school career, was selected valedictorian, and I think grades are bollocks. They are arbitrary and don't necessarily reflect the knowledge you've learned or the passion that reflects on your willingness to learn. They're there for quantitative purposes and only really serve as a means to "measure" you by how good your temporary memory is.
The real tragedy in our school system is the people that I see get left behind. I've seen educated idiots go into Harvard and really smart people screw up and don't go anywhere with their lives (from just a casual observation mind you).
I think the problem with school is that they try motivate students with a subject that they rather not care about with Grades. And admit it, if it weren't for Grades, you'd probably wouldn't care about school. The incentive is just not there.
Because of this, homework assignments, tests, quizzes, are studied through memorization instead of the higher tiers of learning like... analysis, synthesis, and, of course, manipulation. Rather than trying to engage us into the topic and let us care about it in a personal way, the students are exposed to an environment to care more about the GPA instead of the actual material, and this is where the fallacy lies.
Professor Daniel Floyd brings up a good point:
When people inherently care about a subject, they tend to do research on their own. This is called tangential learning. How many people do you think know about the campaigns of WWII simply because so many games romanticize about it? Or if you're not familiar with video games, how many people do you think know who Leonidas is and researched about the battle of Thermopylae simply because they made a movie about him?
This tangential learning is not something you learn while being taught. Rather, it is something you learn by yourself, when you are exposed to things you are interested in. When schools teach you correctly.
However, it's not just the schools' fault. I also partially blame society. Our culture is breed to almost "hate" school. I heard my 5 year old nephew tell me that he hates math. When I asked him why, he said he didn't know, 'but he hated it'. When I started to think about our culture, I asked "what the hell is wrong with us"?
HONESTLY! What is there to inspire us to do great things OTHER than becoming a boxer or a rock star? Where does the ambition go? To grades. And grades die as soon as you step out of school, and thus many people, who could have been a scientist or the next Einstein, are lost.
/rant
A lot of it comes from the bureaucracy and "grades". You can only have my word for it, but I had a 4.0 GPA (out of 4.0) for my entire high school career, was selected valedictorian, and I think grades are bollocks. They are arbitrary and don't necessarily reflect the knowledge you've learned or the passion that reflects on your willingness to learn. They're there for quantitative purposes and only really serve as a means to "measure" you by how good your temporary memory is.
The real tragedy in our school system is the people that I see get left behind. I've seen educated idiots go into Harvard and really smart people screw up and don't go anywhere with their lives (from just a casual observation mind you).
I think the problem with school is that they try motivate students with a subject that they rather not care about with Grades. And admit it, if it weren't for Grades, you'd probably wouldn't care about school. The incentive is just not there.
Because of this, homework assignments, tests, quizzes, are studied through memorization instead of the higher tiers of learning like... analysis, synthesis, and, of course, manipulation. Rather than trying to engage us into the topic and let us care about it in a personal way, the students are exposed to an environment to care more about the GPA instead of the actual material, and this is where the fallacy lies.
Professor Daniel Floyd brings up a good point:
When people inherently care about a subject, they tend to do research on their own. This is called tangential learning. How many people do you think know about the campaigns of WWII simply because so many games romanticize about it? Or if you're not familiar with video games, how many people do you think know who Leonidas is and researched about the battle of Thermopylae simply because they made a movie about him?
This tangential learning is not something you learn while being taught. Rather, it is something you learn by yourself, when you are exposed to things you are interested in. When schools teach you correctly.
However, it's not just the schools' fault. I also partially blame society. Our culture is breed to almost "hate" school. I heard my 5 year old nephew tell me that he hates math. When I asked him why, he said he didn't know, 'but he hated it'. When I started to think about our culture, I asked "what the hell is wrong with us"?
HONESTLY! What is there to inspire us to do great things OTHER than becoming a boxer or a rock star? Where does the ambition go? To grades. And grades die as soon as you step out of school, and thus many people, who could have been a scientist or the next Einstein, are lost.
/rant
I have to say, i agree with everything you say. I have somewhere around a 3.9 gpa, not quite up to your standard, and i feel like i do nothing to deserve it. I just have an exceptional short term memory. I see kids put in 10 times more effort, and have more logical and sharp witted minds than me, who barely pass. I think that I'm going to be screwed when i reach college, and can't rely on memory any more.NotAProdigy said:
Well, the teachers and staff (especially at my school) are comletely out of touch with the kids, they waste money on stupid things like four brand-new plasma TVs that go in the hallway that nobody ever watches anyway. The could've gotten stuff for the crappy computer labs, but no.
Oh, and at my school, an A was a 95-100, a B+ was 94-90, etc. However, the school system waited to change that to an A being 90-100 and so forth right after my class graduated. And there is a lot more stuff that goes on a my former school than I care to write down, and it usually involves the douchebag of the principal.
Oh, and at my school, an A was a 95-100, a B+ was 94-90, etc. However, the school system waited to change that to an A being 90-100 and so forth right after my class graduated. And there is a lot more stuff that goes on a my former school than I care to write down, and it usually involves the douchebag of the principal.
Both of my parents are teachers, so all of my childhood and high school years were filled with nothing but the audible hatred and contempt they both held for school administrators and most of the American educational system as a whole.
Some school districts in the states are good, and some aren't. Mine was total shit. Now granted it was more hte 10 years as but I personally gave up on public school once I got to high school. When I moved up to high school I was supposed to have honors english and honors science.
Unfortunetly my school district didn't believe in a student excelling in any subject unless they excelled in everything. Since my math grades sucked I was forced to be in the lowest group of classes for "college prep"
Now it's funny that they refered to it as college prep, since the only options you actualy had were either "college prep" courses or being in the vo-tech courses. I was so bored through out my 4 years of high school classes that I just stopped caring and just did extra curicular activities like theater, marching band, and things like that.
Unfortunetly my school district didn't believe in a student excelling in any subject unless they excelled in everything. Since my math grades sucked I was forced to be in the lowest group of classes for "college prep"
Now it's funny that they refered to it as college prep, since the only options you actualy had were either "college prep" courses or being in the vo-tech courses. I was so bored through out my 4 years of high school classes that I just stopped caring and just did extra curicular activities like theater, marching band, and things like that.
Around grade 8 or 9 I stopped putting all my effort into my schooling because I realized that I had zero social skills. Instead of playing with friends growing up, I studied to get the grade. So I did a complete 180 and focussed entirely on social shit only to realize that I miserably sucked at making friends and getting girls. And with my grades slipping from A's to D's, I completely fucked over my future. I now have no job, few friends, no girlfriend, and very little college education. Essentially, I failed at life.
Go me!
Go me!
I've never had any faith in the public schooling system. Sure, it's taught me a lot, especially about social interaction, but it never taught me to learn, to study, which should be the most important thing to learn.
Now that I'm looking at trying to get more advanced education I find myself uncapable, not because I lack the knowledge I require to understand the courses, but because I was never taught to study. I am highly intelligent, and a very quick study. I read very quickly, and I can understand new concepts very easily. I'm not saying this to brag, I'm just stating a fact. The way public schooling looks today, this seemed to serve me well in the beginning, I had a very easy time in all subjects, my teachers joked I could skip ahead several classes and not miss anything, I could ace tests without opening the class literature, and this was all great for a while.
Unfortunately, since all my teachers did was praise me, I never learned. I never learned to do homework, to study, to finish up a lot of projects. My teachers knew I could do it, and much better than most anyone else in my class, or school for that matter. I was never asked to, and I never needed to.
Now, with university and similar, I have to study, I have to finish reports, quickly, I have to prove my knowledge. Even if I can understand most of the material of the course in days, I still have to sit there for all lectures, I still have to take notes and present them, I still have to write reports, write essays, about things I've already discounted, and moved on from. I still have to do all the assignements meant to teach, to get a grade. I'm not interested in grades, I'm interested in learning, but I'm not allowed that, because I new grades for more advanced classes.
Being a quick study has become a learning disorder, in the current system. I'm stuck. I can't get a job, I can't get grades. This isn't just whining, I'm as incapable of it as someone with any other learning disorder. I'm not lazy, I'm just not wired that way. What we learn when we're very young stays with us. I was literally taught in school that I didn't have to do anything, that all I had to do was learn. Now, when learning isn't enough, when understanding isn't enough, I don't know what to do. I was never prepared for this situation. I'm currently a drop-out, with several failed classes, and slim chances of finding a job, much less a job I could do. I'm currently out of options. So much for the great public education.
One of the annoying things is that, there's no one to blame. If it was my fault, it would be good, but hell, when this would have mattered I was between 6 and 14. I was too young to understand what the consequences would be. I could blame my teachers, but they tried, and they only followed the rules they had, and they tried, at least some of them. I could try to blame the school, but it has very limited funding, and not enough resources to do anything. I could, and probably should blame my parents, but they are very unintelligent. They are unable to understand cause-and-effect, and it's not their fault they are unable to understand the consequences of their actions, or that they weren't intelligent enough to see, or fix the problem. It's not their fault, it's a genetic fluke. They've tried their best (and failed miserably, without accomplishing much) in raising me and my sister. That their best meant I had to take care of them, explain things to them, is not their fault. They're not to blame. And since I don't believe in a higher power, I can't blame God either.
Thanks for providing a place for my rant.
I know this sounds like arrogance, and pride, but honestly, it isn't. I'm past that. I don't take pride in my intelligence, I'm not responsible for it, it would be like taking pride in anything else I can't control, like that I was born with brown hair, or that the sun rises. I see a problem, one that I know will affect other people as well, and that's the more serious part. I know first-hand what will happen to them, and that their potential will be as squashed as mine. I've given up for myself, I often dream about going back, about finding a way to get the education I deserve, the kind of education that would help rather than hinder, like when you see those "super-smart" "gifted" kids on tv, and they get sent to special schools, but I know I can't. The only thing I can, at least try to, do is make sure no one else has to go through the same thing. I know people will just think I'm being a jerk trying to make myself seem smart, and that I'm just whining when I should just do something about it, believe me, I know how this sounds, and believe me when I say I really don't care if that's the case.
Now that I'm looking at trying to get more advanced education I find myself uncapable, not because I lack the knowledge I require to understand the courses, but because I was never taught to study. I am highly intelligent, and a very quick study. I read very quickly, and I can understand new concepts very easily. I'm not saying this to brag, I'm just stating a fact. The way public schooling looks today, this seemed to serve me well in the beginning, I had a very easy time in all subjects, my teachers joked I could skip ahead several classes and not miss anything, I could ace tests without opening the class literature, and this was all great for a while.
Unfortunately, since all my teachers did was praise me, I never learned. I never learned to do homework, to study, to finish up a lot of projects. My teachers knew I could do it, and much better than most anyone else in my class, or school for that matter. I was never asked to, and I never needed to.
Now, with university and similar, I have to study, I have to finish reports, quickly, I have to prove my knowledge. Even if I can understand most of the material of the course in days, I still have to sit there for all lectures, I still have to take notes and present them, I still have to write reports, write essays, about things I've already discounted, and moved on from. I still have to do all the assignements meant to teach, to get a grade. I'm not interested in grades, I'm interested in learning, but I'm not allowed that, because I new grades for more advanced classes.
Being a quick study has become a learning disorder, in the current system. I'm stuck. I can't get a job, I can't get grades. This isn't just whining, I'm as incapable of it as someone with any other learning disorder. I'm not lazy, I'm just not wired that way. What we learn when we're very young stays with us. I was literally taught in school that I didn't have to do anything, that all I had to do was learn. Now, when learning isn't enough, when understanding isn't enough, I don't know what to do. I was never prepared for this situation. I'm currently a drop-out, with several failed classes, and slim chances of finding a job, much less a job I could do. I'm currently out of options. So much for the great public education.
One of the annoying things is that, there's no one to blame. If it was my fault, it would be good, but hell, when this would have mattered I was between 6 and 14. I was too young to understand what the consequences would be. I could blame my teachers, but they tried, and they only followed the rules they had, and they tried, at least some of them. I could try to blame the school, but it has very limited funding, and not enough resources to do anything. I could, and probably should blame my parents, but they are very unintelligent. They are unable to understand cause-and-effect, and it's not their fault they are unable to understand the consequences of their actions, or that they weren't intelligent enough to see, or fix the problem. It's not their fault, it's a genetic fluke. They've tried their best (and failed miserably, without accomplishing much) in raising me and my sister. That their best meant I had to take care of them, explain things to them, is not their fault. They're not to blame. And since I don't believe in a higher power, I can't blame God either.
Thanks for providing a place for my rant.
I know this sounds like arrogance, and pride, but honestly, it isn't. I'm past that. I don't take pride in my intelligence, I'm not responsible for it, it would be like taking pride in anything else I can't control, like that I was born with brown hair, or that the sun rises. I see a problem, one that I know will affect other people as well, and that's the more serious part. I know first-hand what will happen to them, and that their potential will be as squashed as mine. I've given up for myself, I often dream about going back, about finding a way to get the education I deserve, the kind of education that would help rather than hinder, like when you see those "super-smart" "gifted" kids on tv, and they get sent to special schools, but I know I can't. The only thing I can, at least try to, do is make sure no one else has to go through the same thing. I know people will just think I'm being a jerk trying to make myself seem smart, and that I'm just whining when I should just do something about it, believe me, I know how this sounds, and believe me when I say I really don't care if that's the case.
same hear accept now Im a Junior and am focusing all attention on my grades again as well as taking lots of out of school classes for art to help me build up a portfolio for collage. Im still the most socially awkward kid alive thoughAvsJoe said:
Anyhow, most teachers I have encountered share my...disappointment in the things valued by the educational system here in Alberta.
Well except being in a shity town that dose offer any free programs and any ones which do cost money are to expensive for me and my family. :<lukemdizzle said: