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It's a scam. It's basically a national day care center, designed to hold "everybody" from about the age of 5/6 to 18. I put everyone in "quotes", because it really is everyone. You dont think about it while you're in school. You're taught to think about them as classmates. But they're different than you, and they have different goals than you.
"Everyone" includes...
-Those that don't want to learn
-Those that do want to learn
-That that may not even speak english!
-Those that speak english with 100% proficiency.
-Those that come from different households, that may not value education as highly as you do.
-Delinquents, those with problems.
-Rural, big city, rich, poor.
You get a minimal education. Most of it gives you no direction in life.
In the old days, 50-75 years ago, I think it really was an education. You had a harder seperation in society, between manual labor, farmers, etc vs the those that were "educated", could read, write, went onto college, etc.
Now it's a day care center before you get a minimum wage job. k-6 is important, because it gives you the basics. But from there, I think its a waste of potential.
-Far too much pressure to get into college when you're 15 or 16 years old. The college application, testing process starts way too young. These are people that haven't done anything in life (or have never had to go into debt), and we're asking them to go into debt of $10 k to $50 k or more. Into a very weak and murky job market after graduation. You're too impressionable from 14-16.
Students should be getting more work experience, life experience at that age, before you pressure them with the psat, sat, college applications, etc.
-There should be far more self study from age 15-17/18. The current system is too boxed in.
Look at the situation now in 2010. The United States is the largest debtor in the history of the world (12-16 trillion debt?). We just had a major financial crisis. But look how little you learn about the rest of the world in school. China has $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, but what do you learn about China in school? Nothing. I remember maybe 4-6 paragraphs all through school about China, if that. Who's the finance minister in China? I dont know. What are the provinces in China? I don't know. That's going to do you a lot of good in 10-20 years.
Schools are basically day care centers educating toddlers, so they won't be able to see over the bars holding them in their nursery.
That's probably one of the strangest desires in life I've ever heard of. (No offense)
And if dying together is a prerequisite for a strong friendship, I guess you've never heard of marriage?
Follow Chango's advice; you sound like a smart kid, you don't want to be a grunt.
I wouldn't be a grunt, I'd obviously attempt to stay alive, but the thought of Death doesn't scare me in a world like today's and if I make it through, I want to fix a lot of the world's mistakes... I've been told I'm a genius, and I am, but only when I like what I'm doing, and sitting behind a desk isn't something I'm interested in...
Read this book kids! And Kings Ranger, are you on the debate team? Get thee to one and soon if you're not. And please don't tell your classmates about our little conspiracy, ok?
LOVE it after the first 2 pages, please friend me, and inform me of somethings I should do to help the Underground rise! lol, joining the Parley team next year, was public speaking (between 12-16th in the State my first year...)
It depends on who your parents are and what kind of school you attend.
Chango had it right here:
I teach in a high school on the "schoolhouse to jailhouse" pathway. Our job appears to be containment of the adolescents so that they don't break into people's houses during the day, keep them out of the workforce and off the streets, and make sure they don't learn enough to be able to compete effectively with the children of the powerbrokers.
Schools in small towns and rural areas provide a social center for the community through sports and other school activities. They primarily train kids for jobs in the community.
Suburban public schools set their students' sights on state colleges and traditional vo-tech classes. Sports and activities are also important.
Private schools specialize in serving certain populations--the academically advanced or impaired, the devoutly religious, people seeking single-race schools, athletes who want to participate but who are not competitive enough to make the team in a larger school, and those whose very wealthy parents are ensuring that they associate with the right people and get into Ivy League schools.
This is all vastly over-exaggerated, but these generalizations can be useful to understand the big picture.
It sounds like your assessment of your school may fit into one of these categories, and it's not one I would gladly choose.
In addition to the book that Stepka recommended, I would like to suggest that Amazon.com: The Day I Became an Autodidact (9780440550136): Kendall Hailey: Books can be a life-changing book. Kendall Hailey got tired of being told what to read and asked her parents if she could quit school and teach herself. When they let her begin after tenth grade, she began with the Greeks and read her way through history. She kept a diary which she published with the help of her parents' agents. (They are both writers themselves.) It seemed to work out fine for her.
I tell my students that the most important thing that I teach them may be this: The best-taught people are always self-taught people, and if you depend on school to educate you, you will be badly educated at best.
That said---
You cannot predict the future. You don't know where you will go or what you will do. You can't know how the knowledge of chemistry will affect your ability to handle chemical warfare situations, if your dream comes true. Better to know it and not need it, than to need it and not know it.
You have a choice about what you learn. Why would you willingly NOT learn something that lots of people much more experienced than you have deemed important to learn? That seems just a bit short-sighted.
Think about it.
It's not that I;m not willing to learn it, I try to do good in school, but at the moment, everyone is so piled up in homework, a lot of us, do what we can and ask others for their work on the ones we don't know! We cannot keep up! Yeah, I've heard the chemical bioweapons talk...
Quote:
Originally Posted by John23
Kings,
It's a scam. It's basically a national day care center, designed to hold "everybody" from about the age of 5/6 to 18. I put everyone in "quotes", because it really is everyone. You dont think about it while you're in school. You're taught to think about them as classmates. But they're different than you, and they have different goals than you.
"Everyone" includes...
-Those that don't want to learn
-Those that do want to learn
-That that may not even speak english!
-Those that speak english with 100% proficiency.
-Those that come from different households, that may not value education as highly as you do.
-Delinquents, those with problems.
-Rural, big city, rich, poor.
You get a minimal education. Most of it gives you no direction in life.
In the old days, 50-75 years ago, I think it really was an education. You had a harder seperation in society, between manual labor, farmers, etc vs the those that were "educated", could read, write, went onto college, etc.
Now it's a day care center before you get a minimum wage job. k-6 is important, because it gives you the basics. But from there, I think its a waste of potential.
-Far too much pressure to get into college when you're 15 or 16 years old. The college application, testing process starts way too young. These are people that haven't done anything in life (or have never had to go into debt), and we're asking them to go into debt of $10 k to $50 k or more. Into a very weak and murky job market after graduation. You're too impressionable from 14-16.
Students should be getting more work experience, life experience at that age, before you pressure them with the psat, sat, college applications, etc.
-There should be far more self study from age 15-17/18. The current system is too boxed in.
Look at the situation now in 2010. The United States is the largest debtor in the history of the world (12-16 trillion debt?). We just had a major financial crisis. But look how little you learn about the rest of the world in school. China has $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, but what do you learn about China in school? Nothing. I remember maybe 4-6 paragraphs all through school about China, if that. Who's the finance minister in China? I dont know. What are the provinces in China? I don't know. That's going to do you a lot of good in 10-20 years.
Schools are basically day care centers educating toddlers, so they won't be able to see over the bars holding them in their nursery.
They teach us this stuff, then test us, then we're done with it. Maybe 6 weeks til a Semester test where we need it, maybe months.
They teach us to learn quickly, then forget quickly.
Seems like I'm wasting my life, MY time sitting around doing nothing.
I almost see it as a place just to hang out, as long as I do certain things asked of me...
I HATE it, why doesn't ANYONE try to fix it? And thats why I want to be a politician because this system is RETARDED, if you will...
It's not that I;m not willing to learn it, I try to do good in school, but at the moment, everyone is so piled up in homework, a lot of us, do what we can and ask others for their work on the ones we don't know! We cannot keep up! Yeah, I've heard the chemical bioweapons talk...
They teach us this stuff, then test us, then we're done with it. Maybe 6 weeks til a Semester test where we need it, maybe months.
They teach us to learn quickly, then forget quickly.
Seems like I'm wasting my life, MY time sitting around doing nothing.
I almost see it as a place just to hang out, as long as I do certain things asked of me...
I HATE it, why doesn't ANYONE try to fix it? And thats why I want to be a politician because this system is RETARDED, if you will...
It's not that I;m not willing to learn it, I try to do good in school, but at the moment, everyone is so piled up in homework, a lot of us, do what we can and ask others for their work on the ones we don't know! We cannot keep up! Yeah, I've heard the chemical bioweapons talk...
They teach us this stuff, then test us, then we're done with it. Maybe 6 weeks til a Semester test where we need it, maybe months.
They teach us to learn quickly, then forget quickly.
Seems like I'm wasting my life, MY time sitting around doing nothing.
I almost see it as a place just to hang out, as long as I do certain things asked of me...
I HATE it, why doesn't ANYONE try to fix it? And thats why I want to be a politician because this system is RETARDED, if you will...
Sometimes you have to wait DECADES before a bit of knowledge is useful, immediately, without any time to review.
It's up to you to LEARN it, not just have it pass fleetingly through your consciousness.
What you've learned is what you remember after you have forgotten what you were taught. Never forget anything if you can help it.
Here is a passage from one of my favorite books. It concerns a boy who doesn't understand the point of his lessons in mental math:
Quote:
"What in the world comes in two hundred twenty fours?"
"Stars. Trees. Kinds of grass. The ways of a river. The stubbornness of a child. The world is wide, Thorn. I can reckon the speed of the wind, name the stars, the cities of the world. I can read a man's intent in the pupils of his eyes....
Remember all the figures, even so. Never lose one. That one will surely come from behind and kill you. There are no second tries in the world. Nothing is twice."
The teacher is training the boy to be a warrior. If you too want to be a warrior, you would do well to heed his advice.
My advice is to not depend on the school. Learn everything you can from them, but try not to spend all your time doing it. Too much of what you do in school is a waste of your time. Always carry a book and read it whenever you can. Learn how to not forget. Mostly it is a matter of paying attention properly the first time. Take copious notes if that helps you remember.
You are not doing this for your teachers, your parents, or the school. You should be doing this for your future self who one day will need to know what was on page 268 of your book. Read every page in every book, especially if your teacher doesn't assign it.
Don't fall into the trap of learning and forgetting. That will please those who want you to be a cog in the machinery.
You are asking a valid question, and you appear to be considering the responses that you are receiving very carefully. Try to seek out a teacher at your school who will see that, nurture it, and help open doors that you may not know exist. That's what I try to do for my students. They are the ones that our society wants to be safely set aside into service jobs or prison cells like their parents. I'm subversive enough to believe that I can give the students the power to have choices in their lives. You have to believe that too.
Good luck.
[BTW, THEY don't fix it because it's the way THEY want it to be. Keep looking and you'll see what I mean.]
Last edited by lhpartridge; 04-21-2010 at 08:21 PM..
Reason: close quotation
Okay, I understand I can teach myself, but I'd only want to learn history, and politics, maybe some math and science here and there, art, French, language, I guess that covers it...? lol
But how would I get into college and get a job I want
Sometimes you have to wait DECADES before a bit of knowledge is useful, immediately, without any time to review.
It's up to you to LEARN it, not just have it pass fleetingly through your consciousness.
What you've learned is what you remember after you have forgotten what you were taught. Never forget anything if you can help it.
Here is a passage from one of my favorite books. It concerns a boy who doesn't understand the point of his lessons in mental math:
The teacher is training the boy to be a warrior. If you too want to be a warrior, you would do well to heed his advice.
My advice is to not depend on the school. Learn everything you can from them, but try not to spend all your time doing it. Too much of what you do in school is a waste of your time. Always carry a book and read it whenever you can. Learn how to not forget. Mostly it is a matter of paying attention properly the first time. Take copious notes if that helps you remember.
You are not doing this for your teachers, your parents, or the school. You should be doing this for your future self who one day will need to know what was on page 268 of your book. Read every page in every book, especially if your teacher doesn't assign it.
Don't fall into the trap of learning and forgetting. That will please those who want you to be a cog in the machinery.
You are asking a valid question, and you appear to be considering the responses that you are receiving very carefully. Try to seek out a teacher at your school who will see that, nurture it, and help open doors that you may not know exist. That's what I try to do for my students. They are the ones that our society wants to be safely set aside into service jobs or prison cells like their parents. I'm subversive enough to believe that I can give the students the power to have choices in their lives. You have to believe that too.
Good luck.
[BTW, THEY don't fix it because it's the way THEY want it to be. Keep looking and you'll see what I mean.]
Thanks, it helps...
I play tennis, but am quitting all other extra curriculars so I have more freetime...
I'm going to do everything you said, thanks...
(not intending to sound like a student here...)
I agree to a point. That's where alternative high schools that teach trades come in handy.
The one thing that is crucial is a solid foundation. Simple skills lead to more complicated skills, but when a high school tests it's students and only 30% can read at level, and less can do grade level math, I'm thinking the basics aren't where the focus is in general education.
In addition, those 14 year olds who want to focus on a trade have a lot of years to change their minds in the event they are not happy with their choice. A lot of fields can be experienced before a person HAS to settle into what they will do for the rest of their lives.
It's a crying shame that kids are sent right out of high school into college where they are supposed to choose their life direction at the age of 18 or 20.
What do you suggest would be a better alternative? Living with your parents until you're 30 and using the excuse that you don't know what you want to do with your life? That's what would end up happening because without college, it's going to be hard to make enough money to support yourself.
What do you suggest would be a better alternative? Living with your parents until you're 30 and using the excuse that you don't know what you want to do with your life? That's what would end up happening because without college, it's going to be hard to make enough money to support yourself.
Make money??
You go into heavy debt going into college, unless you get scholarships...
He means, letting kids have experience on what they MIGHT want to do...
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And please don't tell your classmates about our little conspiracy, ok? 
