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college-this, i don't know. I'm not old enough to tell. But I sincerely hope that it gets better and from what I've heard from the kids who used to be shy/unpopular in high school, it's a much better environment for them.
Yes, this is often the truth, for several reasons. One of course is everyone matures in college and sees things differently than high school. Second, many/most of those who make life miserable for everyone else in high school don't make it to college (or beyond freshman year), so they aren't there. The few who do are no longer protected by school rules that seem designed to support their bullying. And perhaps the biggest change, many of the students in college are just like you are now and can open up in the environment of college.
The entire point of modern education is to take the beautiful, pristine souls of five-year-olds and grind them to powder. That way, at the other end of the assembly line, we get the next generation of docile little soldiers, lawyers, factory workers and middle-level managers. It is a mindless, endless, soul-destroying slog where progress through the system is largely measured by days spent sitting in desks, rather than mastery of material. Oh, sure, educators love to say all the pieties about expanding the mind and encouraging thinking, but only as long as the mind gets broadened in the appropriate, carefully orchestrated ways.
A screaming irony to consider: Of all the institutions in modern life, education is the one least capable of learning and adapting. If government, religion, business, sports, the arts, education and a host of other institutions all had human counterparts in a figurative classroom, education would be mired in the remedial reading class, the hopeless sluggard of the group. In an age of ubiquitous knowledge, in an age where centralization is being rejected more and more, modern education is a weird, nineteenth-century throwback regardless of how many computers you might find in the classroom. There is no incentive for students to achieve and to do better, unless you consider the abstract concept of grades. If you do your work to perfection, if you know the material backwards and forwards, guess what? You'll still have to march in lockstep with the stupid and the lazy. The kid with the A+ average still has to attend the same number of classes as the kid squeaking by with a C-.
The smart kids understand this. They know they're being herded down the cattle chute and rebel accordingly. As a result, the enduring miracle is that schools don't have more discipline cases.
The only people who consider high school the best years of their lives are the ones who go along with the crowd or have the genetic accident of natural attractiveness or athletic ability. The rest, especially the ones with brains and ambition, typically chafe at the oppressive, rules-dominated, mindless system and can't wait to get out.
All that being said, I'd love to go back as a sixteen-year-old knowing what I know now. I would be absolutely dangerous.
This is the best damned post you've ever written.
Honestly I was the one who recognized what an absolute joke the entire system was,
from an extremely young age.
That combined with the fact that I had physically abusive teachers who got away w/
literally throwing desks at students & openly harassing them--
Made me realize how much more I could learn on my own.....
By the way....
I was absolutely dangerous, from 7th grade on.....
The teachers, the principals & the staff knew I was not just another target.
Mark Twain said it best:
"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made school boards."
"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned."
"I've never let my school interfere with my education."
I guess I was lucky. I had a great time in all grades, especially in H.S.. I was an average student, had great teachers, a cool job, played a sport, and had an active social life with lots of friends...no regrets, only good memories.
School sucked, right through postgraduate (after some time in industry). But that's because I busted ass learning everything I needed to know to become a highly sought-after professional. Now I live and work in a place i love and get to go surfing at lunch.
Life in the "real world" rocks if you pay your dues and have a little luck and a lot of persistence.
why would I want poor student living to be the best days of my life?
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