Losing Faith in the Public Schooling System

[DeathsAmbassador]

My english teacher did not know who John Steinbeck was

In the seventh grade I did a book report on For Whom The Bell Tolls by Hemingway, my teacher asked me if he was a popular author and said he'd never heard of him when I told him who Hemingway was. My faith in the american public school system was just barely there before this and after it I have lost it completely and have yet to see anything to change my mind in the years since then. Hopefully college will be better.

 

[Stalk3rchief]

Welcome to the world.
Schools fail unless you pay money for it.
I learned that school was useless when I went into Algebra 1.
That shit is useless in the real world. From there I noticed more and more shit I'll never use, ever.
It's just how things are.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

I am homeschooled. I never had any faith in public schooling to begin with.

I would like to know more about that.

Do you mean you want to know more about homeschooling, or about why I had no faith in public schooling to begin with?

The former, please, if you don't mind.

 

[Blood_Lined]

I remember last year we got this poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". I thought it meant something that different then what the teacher thought. It was the first time I had ever seen that poem and we had thirty minutes to look at it and write three paragraphs about it. So I though it was about the fall of a golden age or civilization because it mentioned stuff like garden of Eden and Atlantis. I gave a good theses and backed it up with supporting evidence. Then it turns out it was about the changing of seasons. So I thought "Hey I did what the paper told me to do, tell what you think it is and then support it with proof" Well I was wrong because the next week (The teacher was a lazy ****) I got it back with a C- stating that "You're interpretation was wrong". Last time I checked there is no "wrong" interpretation of a fucking poem. Sure the author may write it for a point he sees at the time, but why am I wrong for seeing it in a different light? It is like saying I was wrong for seeing the wrong end of an optical illusion.

As far as I know, that poem has nothing to do with the changing of seasons, but the idea of that you're golden when you're young, "Stay golden Johnny... stay golden..." [Karate Kid dies]

That was from that greasers V.S. preps movie. I believe that the movie was called the Outcasts or something, based off of a book, that same exact poem is referred to several times within the book and movie.

This was the poem
Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Think you got it mixed up with something else.

Nope actually that is exactly what I was referring to.
Thanks for the poem itself, I forgot how some of it went.

 

[Nalarion]

im in a sort of private school, but it could be considered public, and i have always been losing faith, wait, ive never had faith in my school, we recently swapped one horribad principle and vice principle for an even worse Principle, Ms Echevarria has been lovingly named by us seniors, mrs itchyvagina, a fitting name for one who doesnt listen to anyone at all, and doesnt even do her job, i wo0nt complain aboput iour vice principle because he does ALL her work... anyway i hate high school i want to finish it get through 6 years of college and then live my life

 

[Glerken]

>.> Lost hope a long time ago here in Arizona for some of you in other countries that's in the US....but here in AZ we have some of the lowest budgets in the country and last year they made them EVEN LOWER!!! I really see the effects of it now we don't even have good text books to use in the classroom but we have a REALLY nice vending machine that no one uses...I wonder why... <.<

Ah Arizona public schools.
Not good things, not good at all.
Mesa public schools... *shudder*

 

[Echelon_3]

Lost hope a long time ago here in Arizona for some of you in other countries that's in the US....but here in AZ we have some of the lowest budgets in the country and last year they made them EVEN LOWER!!! I really see the effects of it now we don't even have good text books to use in the classroom but we have a REALLY nice vending machine that no one uses...I wonder why

If Joe Arpaio is any representative of the rest of your state's law enforcement apparatus, I think I know where all your funding went. A damned shame on so many levels.

My public school experience here in Canada was pretty much all positive. Most of the teachers were good (of course there are a few assholes in any given group). The teachers I had were all knowledgeable and most were good at imparting information on their students. At the same time, however, I really think the academic standards are set too low. The best teacher I ever had (my Grade 12 English teacher, ironically a German fellow) put it best - "Would you want to get in a plane with a pilot who did 60% of his pre-flight checks?"

 

[SimuLord]

"To define something as "public" is to label it as substandard, unsafe, and inadequate. Consider public parks, public toilets, and public transportation." - P.J. O'Rourke.

While this does not necessarily apply to higher education, that has more to do with the type of person who decides to go to college (and with competition between institutions) than it does the fact that states tend to fund most of them.

If I ever have kids, they're going to private school. Even a "good" public school is still substandard, unsafe, and inadequate, and not good enough for any child of mine.

 

[Fauxity]

I just started being home-schooled this week, actually. I have problems with school. I'm not really too sure why. It's not the work, it's not that I have to be in a social environment...

Sure, nearly all the people I'll meet there are dumbasses who haven't earned their licenses to teach or haven't earned the right to be taught, but...Oh yeah, that's why.

 

[Blackout62]

If I ever have kids, they're going to private school. Even a "good" public school is still substandard, unsafe, and inadequate, and not good enough for any child of mine.

Quoted for truth.

My kids will be taught the right way, their knuckles shattered by ruler wielding nuns till they get it straight.

 

[Agema]

In public education, like anything else, for the most part you get what you pay for. So if the public doesn't want to pay for them, they're probably going to suck.

 

[The Lost Big Boss]

I remember last year we got this poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". I thought it meant something that different then what the teacher thought. It was the first time I had ever seen that poem and we had thirty minutes to look at it and write three paragraphs about it. So I though it was about the fall of a golden age or civilization because it mentioned stuff like garden of Eden and Atlantis. I gave a good theses and backed it up with supporting evidence. Then it turns out it was about the changing of seasons. So I thought "Hey I did what the paper told me to do, tell what you think it is and then support it with proof" Well I was wrong because the next week (The teacher was a lazy ****) I got it back with a C- stating that "You're interpretation was wrong". Last time I checked there is no "wrong" interpretation of a fucking poem. Sure the author may write it for a point he sees at the time, but why am I wrong for seeing it in a different light? It is like saying I was wrong for seeing the wrong end of an optical illusion.

As far as I know, that poem has nothing to do with the changing of seasons, but the idea of that you're golden when you're young, "Stay golden Johnny... stay golden..." [Karate Kid dies]

That was from that greasers V.S. preps movie. I believe that the movie was called the Outcasts or something, based off of a book, that same exact poem is referred to several times within the book and movie.

This was the poem
Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Think you got it mixed up with something else.

Nope actually that is exactly what I was referring to.
Thanks for the poem itself, I forgot how some of it went.

But do you see? We both saw the poem and interpreted it differently. So how can we be wrong but my teacher is "right"?

 

[Julianking93]

You're just now loosing faith in the Public School System?

Okay, hang on for just one second.....




These were all the school rules I had to go through. There are a lot more reasons I hate the school system than this.

[spoiler/]"All students must refer to superiors as either Sir or Ma'am" I refused that one.

If you missed one homework assignment, you were forced to go to detention. If you didn't go to detention, you were sent to Saturday School. I never went to either and I was sent to both at least 30 times.

Boy's hair couldn't be past the collar. I had hair down to my chest at this time. Long, curly, light brown hair and no asshole was gonna tell me what to do with it.

Girls must always wear their hair in pony tails. What kinda bullshit is that??

Any food or drink was strickly prohibited in class rooms. Including water.

Girls may not have nail polish. I had polished nails. Dark blue. Rules didn't say anything about boys wearing nail polish.

And the worst one of all. (actually, 2 worst but their listed together) No backpacks are allowed on school grounds and lunches brought from home must be inspected before consumption.

What...The...Fuck?

This was all in Middle School. I don't even want to see the High School rules.[/spoiler]


Okay. How's that? Along with their bullshit grading system in which they average out each class so the average grade will be a C (that means that the dumbest kid could get an A, but the smartest get an F because they want to look like a good, challenging school) and when I just heard about the principal getting fired because almost all of the teachers were'nt regestered or qualified to be teachers and 3 of them turned out to have been molesting students.

That's when I told them to go fuck themselves and then I got homeschooled.

Ooooooooh that is bad. No backpacks? What the fuck are you supposed to carry your books in?
And grading curves are always ALWAYS fail.

Oh, that reminded me of the other bullshit rule that was in this.

"Lockers must be emptied by the end of the day"

Yeah. We couldn't have backpacks and our books couldn't stay in our lockers. We just had to carry them

 

[Sark]

I'm in my final year at a public school in a fairly low socio-economic area. There are so many things that are wrong with my school and the public school system that going into it would be painful, but life is pain so I will elaborate.
There is a major lack of respect towards anyone; teachers, seniors as well as the volunteer staff. Because of this, vandalism is everywhere and generally little shits just run around doing whatever they feel like.
Teachers themselves are greatly varied, I have had amazing physics, legal studies and mathematics teachers, but there have also been some who haven't been so crash hot.
Underfunding is always an issue, we can rarely afford new equipment and even the photocopying budgets are dysmally small. In my country, around 80% of students are in the public school system. The private school system gets around 60% of government funding, as well as contributions.
I have always held the opinion that school is what you make it, and that if you are committed you can succeed, regardless of where you go. Either way, I leave in a month.

 

[atol]

I failed 9th grade because I skipped too many days and refused to do monotonous homework or irrelevant projects. I aced all my tests, had extremely high STAR test results and so forth. I took an IQ test (official, the school ordered it), 154 - which is in the top .05% of the world. The school board then puts me in Special Ed. I'm not kidding. I went from extremely simple public schooling to having to prove I was menially literate. I tried for a little while, but the work was so insulting I dropped out from there. Now I read the escapist.

 

[RavingLibDem]

Ummm, in reply to the poster, that seems kinda a trivial thing to lose all faith with school over? Although in every school there will be moronic or just bad teachers, there are also usually highly creative, inspiring teachers, who are giving up huge amounts of time to try and help every person reach their potential.

The fact that school cannot succeed with everyone is sad, but within society there needs to be a change of attitudes - moving away from the idea that schooling is the be all and end all. I believe there should be a way of helping people that feel school has failed them to either find apprenticeships, or college, or anything like that. However, you should not confuse those who feel failed by school, with those who simply don't want to work, or do anything with their life. With these people I believe there is no way of actually satisfying them, and although many of them insist it isn't their fault, there is a point at which you must take control over what you want to do - i.e. If you don't like school, try and find something else that you want to do with your life, rather than lazing around at home sponging off parents.

Ramble over

 

[Blood_Lined]

I remember last year we got this poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". I thought it meant something that different then what the teacher thought. It was the first time I had ever seen that poem and we had thirty minutes to look at it and write three paragraphs about it. So I though it was about the fall of a golden age or civilization because it mentioned stuff like garden of Eden and Atlantis. I gave a good theses and backed it up with supporting evidence. Then it turns out it was about the changing of seasons. So I thought "Hey I did what the paper told me to do, tell what you think it is and then support it with proof" Well I was wrong because the next week (The teacher was a lazy ****) I got it back with a C- stating that "You're interpretation was wrong". Last time I checked there is no "wrong" interpretation of a fucking poem. Sure the author may write it for a point he sees at the time, but why am I wrong for seeing it in a different light? It is like saying I was wrong for seeing the wrong end of an optical illusion.

As far as I know, that poem has nothing to do with the changing of seasons, but the idea of that you're golden when you're young, "Stay golden Johnny... stay golden..." [Karate Kid dies]

That was from that greasers V.S. preps movie. I believe that the movie was called the Outcasts or something, based off of a book, that same exact poem is referred to several times within the book and movie.

This was the poem
Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Think you got it mixed up with something else.

Nope actually that is exactly what I was referring to.
Thanks for the poem itself, I forgot how some of it went.

But do you see? We both saw the poem and interpreted it differently. So how can we be wrong but my teacher is "right"?

Exactly, that was my intention though I just worded it strangely. It does not surprise me to know that there are many teachers Whom follow these same procedures however. There is a difference between a "right" answer, and a "correct" answer, meaning that the answer that you may have come up with is correct, but it is not the correct answer that the teacher wants, so many times, more often than not, you just have to suck it up and play the game, because it 95% of the time, involves politics.

Or, you can do what someone that I know used to do, write every single correct answer feasible and hope that one of them will be the answer that the instructor wants.

 

[Chipperz]

I once had an English teacher who would get us to perform scenes from plays instead of just having class readings, who got us to write fiction in the style of an author to test our comprehension and who would read through some fiction I was writing for a mate outside of school to make sure everything made sense for me. It was awesome, and to this day it's fuelled a fire in me for writing and using my imagination.

He left the year our exams started, and the next year started with our new English teacher telling us "you aren't going to learn anything apart from what you need to get you through the exams. It's sad, but it's the British Education System." THAT was when my desire to learn died.

 

[stone0042]

I remember last year we got this poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". I thought it meant something that different then what the teacher thought. It was the first time I had ever seen that poem and we had thirty minutes to look at it and write three paragraphs about it. So I though it was about the fall of a golden age or civilization because it mentioned stuff like garden of Eden and Atlantis. I gave a good theses and backed it up with supporting evidence. Then it turns out it was about the changing of seasons. So I thought "Hey I did what the paper told me to do, tell what you think it is and then support it with proof" Well I was wrong because the next week (The teacher was a lazy ****) I got it back with a C- stating that "You're interpretation was wrong". Last time I checked there is no "wrong" interpretation of a fucking poem. Sure the author may write it for a point he sees at the time, but why am I wrong for seeing it in a different light? It is like saying I was wrong for seeing the wrong end of an optical illusion.

That's actually complete and utter bullshit, who is your teacher to say what interpretation is correct? Often times even the author doesn't even know, and the poem is completely objectionable.

 

[The Lost Big Boss]

I remember last year we got this poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". I thought it meant something that different then what the teacher thought. It was the first time I had ever seen that poem and we had thirty minutes to look at it and write three paragraphs about it. So I though it was about the fall of a golden age or civilization because it mentioned stuff like garden of Eden and Atlantis. I gave a good theses and backed it up with supporting evidence. Then it turns out it was about the changing of seasons. So I thought "Hey I did what the paper told me to do, tell what you think it is and then support it with proof" Well I was wrong because the next week (The teacher was a lazy ****) I got it back with a C- stating that "You're interpretation was wrong". Last time I checked there is no "wrong" interpretation of a fucking poem. Sure the author may write it for a point he sees at the time, but why am I wrong for seeing it in a different light? It is like saying I was wrong for seeing the wrong end of an optical illusion.

That's actually complete and utter bullshit, who is your teacher to say what interpretation is correct? Often times even the author doesn't even know, and the poem is completely objectionable.

That is what I told her, but she is so fucking nuts and stupid that she said "No Dylan, you are wrong the poem is about what I said". No fucking lie.