School Fools

Another move

2006-04-14T19:38:00.000-04:00

I've now moved this blog to TheIcy.net. Its new address is http://schoolfools.theicy.com.

2006-04-12T13:48:00.000-04:00

Yay! I have finally made up my mind to switch from Blogger to Wordpress. The new blog is here.

As of now, I still have some things to set up there (such as the template and RSS feed), but everything should be figured out soon.

Against School

2006-04-11T22:20:00.000-04:00

Today, I randomly stumbled across this enlightening essay, called Against School and written by John Taylor Gatto. Basically, this guy taught in public schools in New York City for thirty years, and as the result of his experiences, is now strongly against the way public schools are taught. Not just in the United States, but in the whole world. For a minute, I identified with his loathing of current teaching methods since that's basically the subject of this whole blog. But as I read, I realized that our viewpoints are quite different.

This guy's a radical. Of course, I'm a conservative, so a whole lot of viewpoints will seem really liberal or radical to me. And neither do I claim to have complete understanding of which viewpoints should be classified under which label. But basically, this guy thinks that public schooling is just wrong by principle. He thinks it's unnecessary, and that all it does is prepare children to be servants to the government by making them dumb, conforming, and childish. At least, this was the gist of the essay as I interpreted it.

As I read the essay, I understood and appreciated the writer's point of view until I reached one part. This part is describing the six goals of public education as Alexander Inglis (author of Principles of Secondary Education) and Gatto see them. They include the adjustive function, or accustoming children to respond to authority; integrating, to force them into conformity; diagnostic and directive, to direct them into their proper social roles; differentiating, training them only as much as required for that role; and propaedeutic, ensuring that a few kids are taught how to carry this on. But the one that really stopped me was the "selective" function. This is just ridiculous. To show how ridiculous it is, I will now quote that part of the essay:

5) The selective function. This refers not to human choice at all but to Darwin's theory of natural selection as applied to what he called "the favored races." In short, the idea is to help things along by consciously attempting to improve the breeding stock. Schools are meant to tag the unfit - with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments - clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior and effectively bar them from the reproductive sweepstakes. That's what all those little humiliations from first grade onward were intended to do: wash the dirt down the drain.

So basically, one of the functions of public schooling is to embarass the dumber kids so that the rest of us will not want to mate with them? Something seems out of whack here. Has it ever occured to the people who believe this that punishment in school is intended to show the child that they have done wrong? Besides which, I don't see dumb people having any trouble reproducing. Personally, they often seem to have less trouble. As a matter of fact, the repressed burnouts in high school who are constantly being embarassed by their teachers seem more likely to go out and have underage sex, or to drop out of school altogether.

But that's just my two cents.

school , essays, teachers

School Bans Flag Waving

2006-04-02T00:06:00.000-05:00

At Skyline High School, the administrators have now banned waving the American flag (or any flag, for that matter). Apparently, some students have been insulting Hispanic students by waving the flags at them "brazenly".

The story's actually longer than that (see the post on Michelle Malkin's blog), but the point is clear. And I don't think this was the right way to deal with it. Since they think that "brazenly" waving flags is considered insulting to other students, it should considered as such and the students should be punished accordingly. Not every flag waving incident is meant as an insult or otherwise rude action.

Say I bought a whole wardrobe of expensive clothes and started wearing them all to school. Then I would insult some girl who doesn't wear expensive clothes like mine by pointing out my clothes in comparison to hers and laughing at her. Would the school ban wearing expensive clothes since they could offend someone else? Or say I belong to a religion that doesn't allow girls to cut their hair. My friends of the same religion and I would taunt the other girls who do cut their hair. So then what would the school do?

Sure, those are extreme cases. But sometimes, I wish that principals would find more inclusive ways of solving behavioral problems at school.

Review Basketball

2006-03-31T22:57:00.001-05:00

Review basketball? Gimme a break. We all know our student teacher's obsessed with basketball, but this is a little too much. Today we had a big test in history, so yesterday, of course, was the review game. Each person answered questions and then tried to throw a ball into a wastebasket from either of 7 spots, each giving a different amount of points if you made it in. Your team only scored points if you made it in, even if you already answered the question perfectly.

Yeah, it was fun. But it's stupid for school. No way should one's basketball skills affect whether they will receive extra credit on the test or not. My favorite part was when a girl spoke up and said, "What does this have to do with our World History skills?" I almost laughed out loud. Finally, someone else other than me and my friend share this viewpoint.

By the way, remember my English essay? My teacher loved it. She told me that she enjoyed reading it, and that she showed to her husband, she'll show it to the director of the literature magazine at our school, and she'll share it with her other classes. You know, if a teacher likes that kind of anti-current-education-methods kind of essay, perhaps my ideas aren't that unpopular, after all.

school, history, sports, activities, English , essays, writing, teachers

"Sim City"

2006-03-27T22:53:00.000-05:00

So, when I saw the reference on the blackboard to this computer game that I happen to like, I was excited. But I soon realized that today's history lesson had nothing to do with computer games. We're studying the Industrial Revolution, right? Yes, we are. So for today's assignment, we were supposed to take a piece of grid paper, we had a "budget" of $100,000 and we were supposed to plan a city. Then, we would give it a name and explain in a detailed paragraph why we designed it the way we did and - get this - why we picked the name.

And yet again, it is simply impossible to do this activity without, of course, coloring in all the zones and buildings on the grid paper. Why? WHY? What does this teach us? It's not even fun. So the teacher cannot argue that she's trying to make learning fun, because this isn't. The real Sim City game is fun. This - no.

I guess it's just busywork. What that means is that our teacher just couldn't stand the thought of us going home tonight and not doing any homework from her class. No. We MUST do homework from this class tonight, or else our time will be mercilessly wasted. And the homework we do must be as totally pointless as possible, because after all, she's not supposed to actually teach us anything. She's supposed teach herself how to teach.

school, history, coloring, activities

Clarification

2006-03-23T22:03:00.000-05:00

In response to a comment someone left on here (thanks for commenting, by the way), no, I'm not a bookworm. Haven't read nonfiction for years, actually. Just because I don't want to grow up not knowing shit about the world around me doesn't make me a bookworm. It makes me a teenager who's a bit different from everyone else. Other than that, I'm very normal. NOT a nerd, geek, bookworm, loser, or any other nice high school terminology. I have lots of friends, go to parties, get up at 6 to do my hair and makeup, and love shopping. That all is not very bookwormy behavior right there.

The reason why I didn't reveal what I really thought was because, don't forget, I'm stuck in this school until graduation. There's no reason for me to encourage people to call me a bookworm. If you've ever been in high school, you know to avoid confrontation. It's how people like me, who're not exactly like everyone else, survive without having their high school years made miserable. If you want to flaunt how different you are and how much contempt you have for average people, you're going to pay. Tough.

The history of...basketball?

2006-03-17T19:01:00.000-05:00

History class was a JOKE yesterday, and I'm not kidding (no pun intended). It now hurts to roll my eyes.

Our incompetent student teacher happens to be obsessed with basketball. Also, she has absolutely no control over the class. None whatsoever. So it was not difficult for the class to persuade her to let them watch a basketball game in class instead of learn.

So she wrote notes on the board really fast, read them out loud with almost no explanation, and turned the game back on. She kept saying that if she sees our regular teacher coming down the hall, she would turn it off really quick and pretend to be lecturing. Which means that this isn't allowed.

Now, look here. This woman (or girl, rather) is in charge of a large chunk of my high school history education. It's a good thing I'm responsible enough to learn on my own. But half the class isn't. Knowledge needs to be forced down their throats, or else they'll grow up stupid. This here teacher is not doing her fair share of the work.

Now, don't get me wrong. I wasn't about to complain. Actually, I pretended to the class and all of my friends that this class period was the best thing since summer vacation was invented. Only one kid in the class complained, but that was only because she liked to dissent from popular opinion. I dissent from popular opinion without shoving it in the faces of people who really couldn't care less about my dissent from any opinion whatsoever.

In short, it was the most pathetic waste of a class period since...yesterday? For me, there can never be a day of school without at least some pathetic wasting of class periods.

school, history, teachers

Tu devrais etudier le vocabulaire!

2006-03-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

For some reason, French class has really been getting on my nerves lately. The teacher in that class must have, like, missed the lesson on how not to alienate the whole class against her.

Today, I had finished the homework in class and, believing that I had learned this chapter's content exceptionally well (ha), I took out a copy of the school newspaper and began reading. I hadn't even gotten through half of the essay about academic dishonesty before my teacher addressed me and said, "Tu devrais etudier le vocabulaire!" ("You're supposed to be studying vocabulary!") I sighed and glanced at the clock. 2 or 3 minutes of class left. Rolling my eyes, I turned to my friend and said, "What's the point of etudier-ing le vocabulaire if we're getting out of here in, like, a minute?" She passed me a look of acknowledgement, because such a scenario occurs even to the best of us at some point in our illustrious French education.

So I got out my folder and flipped pages around in it (glancing sparingly at the vocab sheet and not even reading it) until the bell blessfully rang. That seemed to satisfy my French teacher, since we all know how much more educational flipping pages around is than reading an essay about what is considered cheating and why you shouldn't do it.

school, French, teachers

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, French-style

2006-03-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

My French teacher's newest French-revolution-style torture device is making the whole class sing some ridiculous kid song translated into French. Today, it was Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. At which point the whole class had to stand up, sing this crap in French, and "do the motions", so to speak.

Yeah, yeah. This makes us learn faster. Mind you, it JUST SO HAPPENS that I remember all the body parts except the ones we practiced with this song. Ok, so I remember "head" and "toes", but not shoulders and knees. Therefore, I think we can safely conclude that singing this idiotic kid song does not contribute to the learning process. Or, at the very least, MY learning process. Now, my learning process happens to be faster than the learning processes of most of the other students in the room. Therefore, if I still can't remember it, they probably can't either. Especially since they don't care about their education nearly as much as I do.

Not to mention that it was just embarassing. I hate leaning over so that everyone can see my arse. I wish teachers would remember their teenagerhoods when teaching teenagers. They would do well to remember our constant self-consciousness and at least ATTEMPT to teach without making us miserable and worried. Maybe, if you subtract the social pressures from this equation of learning, the end result will be a greater amount of learning. You know, just saying.

Once, we had to sing a song that was made up of the past participles of a bunch of verbs we were supposed to remember the past participles. Whether I memorized them because of the song or of my own accord, I can fairly say that I don't remember. However, the stupid tune did get stuck in my head for extended periods of time. I mean, come on. French is 4th period for me. That means 3 more periods during which I'll be annoying the crap out of my classmates by humming/singing/tapping it.

So, please. If you teach French, stick to French. I didn't take choir for a reason.

school, French, activities, singing

OGT Prep

2006-03-14T16:57:00.000-05:00

Because I live in Ohio, sophomores have to take their OGTs (Ohio Graduation Tests) this week. Don't ask me why "Graduation" tests are taken during the sophomore year, but whatever.

Anyways, I am mercifully a freshman and not a sophomore, so I'm not taking them. However, my biology class (which is technically a "sophomore" class) has to do a ridiculous amount of reviewing for them. About half the class is freshmen. We still have to do it. Apparently, the sophomores take their science OGT on Friday, so our teacher says, "We're reviewing up until Friday so you don't forget." I'm thinking...I will most definetly forget this by March of next year.

The stupidest thing is...there are three other periods of Scholarship Biology, all with about half and half freshmen and sophomores. So they should have put all the freshmen in two classes and all the sophomores in two other classes, so that they could review without us. Because this is taking a big chunk of time out of my regular biology class. Now, I happen to like biology, so that makes this waste of time even worse.

Not to mention that the OGT week schedule makes classes only 35 minutes long anyways. So we're not learning a whole lot right now.

school , tests , biology , Ohio

My (completed) English essay

2006-03-13T08:46:00.000-05:00

So here is the product of my years of hating how school is taught. It's called "Work or Play". It made my mom laugh, so I can brag at least of that.

"I learned plenty of interesting information in eighth grade, which my teachers said was a time of preparation for high school. The most vital skill for high school, the teachers seemed to think, was being able to color pictures. Therefore, we wasted no time in preparing for our more difficult high school education. We colored maps in history. We colored picture books in French. We colored drawings of animals and fossils in science. At first, I was skeptical about how this was helping me for high school, especially since I hated this kindergarten-style treatment. However, when I started ninth grade, I realized that the ability to color pictures is actually useful. Even in high school, I find myself being treated like a little kid, and no matter what I do to stop it, nothing seems to work.

"Every week, some of my teachers find new ways to pretend that I am still in the first grade. In some classes, every chapter test must go hand-in-hand with a review game that the whole class must play, divided into the teams of primeval enmity: boys and girls. On days when teachers seem to have nothing left to teach, we play games such as bingo to 'study', with prizes such as candy and colorful key chains. However, I do not complain too much, because it sometimes turns out to be a wonderful class period of nostalgia during which I fondly remember my days of preschool.

"No matter how 'fun' these activities may be, I realize that I must somehow prepare for the rigors of college, which does not ask for colored pictures in lieu of admittance essays. Starting in seventh grade, I took all of the honors classes I could because I thought I could escape coloring pictures and playing bingo. However, that reduced the problem only slightly, since seventh grade honors pre-algebra was a waste of time (even though it was a very 'fun' class). I also thought that high school would be more work and less play, but I was wrong, as my school planner testifies. Not participating in some of these activities is impossible, because my teachers remind me constantly that I must prepare for college and a future career by playing games with the class.

"Is there a solution to the problem that, according to the rest of the student body, does not even exist? I do not believe so. Of course, I could talk to some of my teachers to try to convince them that my classmates and I have let our carefree childhoods go and do not need to wallow in childhood memories in class every day, but this would cause disagreement with the other students. After all, I respect the fact that not all of my peers agree with my viewpoint that, unsurprisingly, we go to school to learn rather than play. The only possible solution to being treated like a six-year-old is simply going with the flow and ignoring the sudden urges to dash out of the classroom and to the nearest playground, which are natural side effects of this sort of education.

"Despite my lack of success at alleviating this problem, I remain optimistic. It could be worse, and there are times when I actually enjoy some of these activities. I feel certain that education will become harder and more serious in college. For now, I can only hope that when I have a college degree, am thirty years old, and am working in an office, my boss will not make me color pictures."

School, English, Essays, Writing, Teachers, Games

My pet peeve is...YOU

2006-03-12T09:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I'm writing an essay on what is probably the best essay topic I've ever received in English class. You're supposed to describe, in detail, your worst pet peeve. I took this opportunity to write about school. It was hard for me to decide exactly what to write about, since there are so many things about school that annoy the hell out of me. I finally settled on writing about how we're treated like little kids. More specifically, my thesis statement is "Even in high school, I find myself being treated like a little kid, and no matter what I do to stop it, nothing seems to work."

I have no doubt that that's going to change, since this is only my first draft. The thesis doesn't even work very well. Doesn't have any sarcasm. However, I can't even write about this the way I want to. I can't mention what classes this stuff happened in, because I know my English teacher would track down those teachers and tell them all about my wonderful essay. That would be...disastrous.

So I'm going to lose much of the interest in my paper because of this. Oh well. This is still the best essay topic I've had since 6th grade or so.

School, English, Essays, Writing, Teachers

More Brainwashing

2006-03-05T23:49:00.000-05:00

An interesting event has just come to my attention...I read the story on Michelle Malkin's blog about a teacher who ranted against George Bush, comparing him to Hitler and expressing his opinion that the United States is the most evil nation on Earth (obviously, he was anti-Iraq war as well).

Not only do I totally disagree with this guy (especially since I think he was being anti-Semitic), but I also disagree with his right to say that. I always complain that my teachers are too politically correct, but this is kind of the opposite extreme. And definetly more harmful than politically correct teachers. Who really don't cause harm at all.

He did get suspended. Justice at last.

The scariest thing about that for me is...this guy was teaching a 10th grade class. It could have just as easily been my school. In my school, as in every school, wouldn't there be people who would become swayed by a year of such indoctrination? Would someone decide to break school rules and record the teacher's class on tape, like a student in this teacher's class did?

Who knows. However, I hope you can see now why I think public schools suck. There needs to be some quality control. I get the impression they're letting anybody off the street teach.

Someone has issues...

2006-02-15T19:12:00.000-05:00

My English teacher has been really nasty to us for the last several days or so. Now, mind you, she may be under stress, but so are we from all the homework and assignments she's been giving us.

She was being mean and irrational. She'd snap at anyone who asked a question.

Then, we were finishing up our Shakespeare stuff. We were supposed to find 5 examples of how Romeo and Juliet affected the world today. However, since only two students could use the same example, we were supposed to approve it with the teacher first. The assignment was due today, and several of us went up to her for approval yesterday. She just said, "I'm not checking those anymore, so just put them in and see what happens." Meaning that if we use them and someone already has them, too bad. We just won't get the credit. I mean, what the heck? She didn't set a due date other than today, for the whole project. So WTF?

Yeah, I usually have at least one teacher like that every year. You know, it's hard enough dealing with my own problems, those of my friends, and those of my family without having to deal with those of my teachers, as well.

Multi-tasking

2006-01-30T20:36:00.000-05:00

My English class is going to be really hard this February. We have to do some many things at a time! I mean, come on.

some of us are going to a speech competition next weekend
there is a huge project due the Monday after that weekend
vocabulary lessons due each week and tests on them each week
reading Romeo and Juliet
finding, memorizing, and reciting one of Shakespeare's sonnets
filling out several pages of examples of literary elements in Romeo and Juliet
finding 5 connections from Shakespeare to the world today
writing these journal entries about Shakespeare-related topics given to us by the teacher
organizing and turning in a binder full of all this stuff
keeping track of important quotes from Romeo and Juliet
a test on those quotes

Talk about multi-tasking...From what this sounds like, I can almost compare it to that of some adult working in an office...And don't forget, I've got 6 more classes!

(Though they don't have the same amount of work in them, of course)

School, English, Shakespeare, Activities, Tests, Literature, Reading, Books, Projects

Student Teachers

2006-01-27T17:49:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've realized what a pet peave it is for me when we have student teachers.

I just think it's so unfair. My education is important to me, and here comes this person who's using my education to experiment with his or her own. They're not qualified teachers, and their methods are usually the cliche, textbook-style teaching methods that they learned yesterday at college.

I guess there's no real solution to this, but they should at least go teach in elementary or middle school where it's not as important how the teacher teaches as long as they know what they're doing.

For some reason, student teachers always come equipped with a plethora of liberal, childish, elementary-school activities for us to do...We're freshmen! Not 5th graders! Not to mention the poor seniors, some of whom are just three years younger than these student teachers...

Right now I have one in drawing and history class. In history, I'm suddenly becoming a whole lot more bored in class, listening to these retarded lectures which usually involve hearing the same thing about 10 times in the duration of a class period...

School, History, Teachers Activities

School Rules for Idiots

2006-01-25T17:37:00.000-05:00

My school is a public school. Not a Catholic or other religious school. Now that the second semester has started, the principals have decided to crack down on commonly broken rules. While I agree with some of these rules, there are others that few in the student body (or even the staff) agree with. Some examples:

No wearing coats in the building (it's not my fault they can't regulate the temperature...)
No headbands (WTF??)
No electronic devices at all. This means that we can't even listen to music in study halls or during the hour we wait after we've finished exams.
No spaghetti strap shirts. Many students even agree with this, but I don't. Whoever made up these rules was like, "OMG your shoulders and neck are visible! Someone's going to rape you now!!!"
The lack of an open lunch, which most of the other districts around us have...

That's not even including the fact that in our school, the right to go to the bathroom when you want to is, in fact, a privilege and not a right. (A privilege often not granted, I might add.)

End of Exams

2006-01-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

So, turns out I survived exam week. It wasn't really that bad. Actually, it was nice having no real homework and getting to talk to friends for about half the day.

The exams themselves weren't as difficult as I thought they would be. My longest one was biology, at 160 questions. French was gonna be 200 but ended up being 150.

The only problem was, I did occasionally run into things we hadn't actually discussed in class. That happens every year. And also, every year some of my teachers say the day before the exam, "Oh, I know we didn't cover this, but study it tonight because it's on your exam." I hate that. That's so annoying. Why can't they just leave it off? If I could learn things just by studying them by myself, I wouldn't go to school.

However, because of a two hour delay on Wednesday, we haven't taken the 3rd period exam yet. That's English for me. And I've been told that it's the hardest of all the tests, that it will take the full two hours, and that I am (quite simply) screwed.

Well, that's reassuring.

School, English, Tests, Weather, Exams, Teachers, Biology, French

Trick Questions...not

2006-01-15T20:20:00.000-05:00

As I was studying for my history exam today, I was looking at my old tests and quizzes and came across some funny answer choices on questions. Obviously, the answer choices I've pointed out here were all wrong answers (I put "..." in place of choices that aren't interesting):

"Pedro Alvares Cabral's defeat of the Arab fleet helped to establish A)...; B) Spanish dominance in South America; C)...; D) the spread of Christianity in the Americas." Ever heard of Arabs in the Americas?
"The Dutch colonial settlement on Manhattan Island was called A)...; B) Montreal; C) ...; D) Nova Scotia." Well, I don't know about Nova Scotia, but I think most high school freshmen know that Montreal is in Canada and that Manhattan Island is, in fact, in the U.S.
"The Spanish colony that gained its independence during these years was A)...; B)...; C) England; D) the Dutch Netherlands." Duh. Obviously England was never a colony. WTF?
"Newton's theories about the law of gravity were published in A)...; B)...; C) The Skeptical Chymist; D)..." Most people know that the theory of gravity wouldn't be published in a book about chemists...
"Deism was characterized by the belief that A)...; B)...; C)...; D) power must be divided equally among seperate government branches." There IS another word for that, a word which Americans are technically supposed to know already...Coincidentally, it also starts with a "D"...

I suppose that in the end, it all boils down to common sense.

Believe it or not, people DO fail these tests.

School, History, Tests, Quizzes, Exams,

Exam Week

2006-01-13T17:40:00.000-05:00

Here it is. The ultimate show down. This next week is the all-feared exam week. It will also be my first experience with high school exams. All of my friends, even the ones who usually don't care about grades and don't study, are stressed this time. Come on. If the people who get C's are worrying, then I, who get A's, should probably be worrying too.

My first exam is on Tuesday. Geometry. The hardest. Go figure. The other really hard exam, Biology, is last on Friday afternoon. And somewhere in between is Health, English, French II, History, and Concert Band.

The way they do exams at this school is ridiculous. For some reason, EVERY single teacher must give an exam. That means exams in band, choir, art, life management, and even shop. Since exams all must be written (and, for the most part, multiple choice), there is little point in taking exams in classes such as band and art. We have mastered theory ages ago. Right now we're working on the actual tone, style, and quality of our playing. You can't test that on paper. I may KNOW that you're supposed to crescendo or decrescendo with long notes. But do I actually do that? That's what matters.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we get out early. Like two hours early. However, the buses come at the usual time, and they force you to sit in study hall if (fortunately or unfortunately) your parents work and can't pick you up. Yeah, sure. Even on Friday. Do you know what the hell there is to study after the last exam, right as the semester is ending? Yep, you guessed. NOTHING. Hopefully I'll be able to get some sort of transportation arrangement that doesn't involve studying for hours seating on hard benches in the Commons...

Anyway, wish me luck. My first high school exams. Whoo-hoo! Bring 'em on!

School, English, Math, Mathematics, Geometry, Science, Biology, Band, Music, French, Tests, Exams, History, Health

Who Wants to be a Shakespeare Aficionado?

2006-01-06T17:12:00.000-05:00

The past several days, we've been playing a game rather like Who Wants to be a Millionare except with Shakespeare, like I mentioned earlier. The game was really stupid. Some questions were easy, such as "What year did Shakespeare die?", while others were hard, such as:

How many miles from London is Stratford? (The teacher said this was important because *gasp* it must have taken Shakespeare a long time to travel...
What rhythm type is used in sonnets? (The answer was "iambic pentameter". Does anyone here know what that is?)
What percentage of the lines in Shakespeare's plays rhyme?
How many grandchildren did Shakespeare have? (WHO CARES?)
Which side of the Thaimes was the Globe Theater on? (Again, WHO CARES?)

And many more like that. When we started complaining, the teacher said "I thought it was obvious!" Well, to a person with a college degree...yeah, I guess it's obvious. Then she said "One of the websites I went to had this on it." So? She didn't tell us to use that website for research, did she? So WTF?

The questions in the game appeared in no particular order (as in, not from easiest to hardest). One of my friends got the iambic pentameter question as the first one, guessed wrong, and got no points at all. I got 100. Most people got between 100 and 1000. The best person in the class got 125,000.

Yeah, this game sucked.

School,English,Games,Shakespeare,Projects,Research

Tesselations

2006-01-02T13:02:00.000-05:00

I'm almost done with one of my projects, the tesselations for math. My list of grievances:

You have to color everything and it takes forever
The teacher didn't even tell us what we're learning from this
Part of the directions is: "Use your pattern piece from [tesselation] #3 to decorate the front of your [project]..." Who cares how it's decorated? Why do we have to decorate it at all? Is that teaching us math skills?
You're supposed to cut pattern pieces out of cardstock and trace them to do the tesselation. I found it much easier to just lay a piece of grid paper underneath and use it to draw accurate shapes. It's so much more accurate too. But I still have to make the pattern pieces and pretend that that's how I did it.
The grade basically consists of neatness, following directions, and creativity. Those, my friends, are not math skills.

So there you have it. This is pointless busywork assigned by teachers who just don't want to see us relax during the holidays. If we can't be doing anything that teaches us something, we should at least do some sort of work, right?

Math, Mathematics, Tessellations, Projects, Art, Coloring, Drawing, Geometry

Becoming a Shakespeare Aficionado

2005-12-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

Well, nice English project I've got here...

Just a little background info. I have just finished what was possibly the two most challenging pieces of writing I've ever written for English class. A little kid story which was supposed to rhyme, be interesting, and be creative, and a tribute to someone which I'm now supposed to give that person (fat chance).

So now...my task is to "become a Shakespeare aficionado" in preparation for reading Romeo and Juliet. I'm basically supposed to spend all Christmas vacation reading up on Shakespeare's life and the time period, because when I get back, GUESS WHAT! I get to play Jeopardy! Another dumb game. Anyway, we even have to make a bibliography and all that good stuff.
You kow, many people argue that to understand an author's works, one must know all about the author's life: namely, where he/she went to school, what his/her mother's name was, what remote English manor house he/she was born at, and etc. I strongly disagree. Maybe that's just because one could call me a victim of the system, but trust me. We've done this sort of thing every year, and it takes enough time such that we could have read a whole other novel in that time frame. But NO. It has never been useful, only painful, because I already have one history class a day and I don't care for another one.

Of course, in this case (since it's break), it could be much worse. We might have been forced to actually read Romeo and Juliet during these meager one and a half weeks that constitute our break this year. But heck--I've got two more projects to do. And then, after break, one week, and then...EXAM WEEK. So why not let off for a change?

School,English,Writing,Shakespeare,Projects,Research

Frustration and Stress

2005-12-13T20:08:00.000-05:00

Ugh...we have spent so much time on alcohol. Today my teacher was trying to explain some random useless piece of rote and said, "That's what we're trying to get you to understand." Er...*news flash!!* I do understand! I've understood for years!

I'm still pretty stressed about those projects...luckily, biology's over with, but now it turns out we're doing an in-class project in World History, too. That's every class! What the heck?!?

Math test tomorrow, history quiz tomorrow, poetry recitation early morning on Thursday (that i still haven't memorized), big hard biology test on Thursday, french project due on Thursday...and the possibility of inclement weather tomorrow that may screw everything up and even cancel the one thing this week that I'm looking forward to: the Thursday band concert. Oh yeah, and if we're only delayed or not affected at all, I'll also be walking to and from the bus stop in that inclement weather.

Not to mention that I do, in fact, have a life outside of school and I have to buy Christmas gifts this weekend while simultaneously going to someone's house for a movie, going to Sunday School, and finishing a crap load of schoolwork. Whoohoo.

Projects

2005-12-06T21:04:00.000-05:00

Yech. This is crazy. I have way too many projects this December. Why do all teachers decide to put every major project and test during the weeks before Christmas? Why? Let's see here:

Math project which involves drawing and coloring three tesselations
Two English essays-one due on a Friday and the other the following Monday (neither of which I have even started)
French project due Dec. 15 which involves internet research a-plenty
In-school health project about stupid alcohol again which involves taking 20 pages of printed research and writing (hand-writing!) three pages from it (and making a poster and all that nice crap)
Poetry recitation next week for English (16 lines of poetry)
Reading a novel for English (lucky me, I was smart enough to read it earlier)
Make a model of a cell in biology in Friday (for this I have to convince my mom to help me bake a cake, as if she doesn't have enough to do already)
I have a band concert next week
World History remains blissedly free from projects...for now

This is so stupid. The real test is how well I can do those projects, not how many I can do at a time. All of them, even the in-school ones, require some work at home. However, out of all these things, I'm most worried about English. I suck at essays. Well one is a tribute and the other is actually a stupid children's story (a la the Gingerbread Man) and I have to make it have a rhyming refrain. It also has to be interesting and that horrible word, creative. Er...I'm not CREATIVE. I am SMART. Not everyone can be creative. All of our projects are based more on creativity (and time-management, of course) than intelligence and knowing the material. Well, that's all nice and good for the dumb people, but not for me.

Grr. I thought school was supposed to be easier for people who know their stuff...

Sorry for taking such an arrogant attitude, but I don't claim to be better than everyone else. I know that I am smart and many others are stupid. I also know that unlike many others I'm not very creative, I'm lazy, and I procrastinate. So, it evens out.

Ah...Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Suffering Through S.S.

2005-12-03T20:29:00.000-05:00

By S.S. I mean social studies, of course...

This is about my social studies class last year...if I had to pick one word to summarize it, I would pick "painful".

There are several incidents in particular that I remember...After you read about all of them, you will see exactly what I want to say about my teacher last year. (This is a truncated list.)

We were doing research papers, and for our research we needed 3 different colored index cards and some white ones. Our teacher checked (for a grade) to see that everyone had them. One poor soul had yellow and three other colors. He said, "Can I just use the yellow ones instead of the white ones?" The teacher said no and took off points. What the hell?
When we took notes, we had to copy them word for word. They were very wordy. One line about the civil war said, "In the south, farm land and fine old homes were destroyed." Um...what's this "fine old homes"?
One line said "Shoes cost $200 a pair". The next line said "I CAN'T AFFORD THAT PRICE NOW!!!". The teacher actually said, "You have to write that down." OK, then, thanks for letting me know.
The fact that we had to draw and color pictures in itself was ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was that we weren't allowed to leave any part of the paper white, even where there was no drawing and just words. Once I drew an American flag and got points taken off for having the appropriate parts of it white. The teacher said that I should take a white coloring pencil and color that in.
A kid in another class reportedly saw the teacher using a coin to check if someone had colored something white.
We had to organize our binders his way, which was having everything in chronological order with page numbers. Er...wouldn't it be easier to just have tabs? And shouldn't it be my personal choice?
As I mentioned last Wednesday, the essays on the tests were communist. There were several like that constitution one.
When we had to read something, such as the textbook, in class, the teacher always said "After you're finished, don't do anything else. Reread it as many times as you can." What a waste of time.
His idea of "outline notes" was copying whole paragraphs out of the book...Well, the whole point of "outlining" is just the opposite, actually.
He didn't let me go to the library at lunch unless it was to do a project. Ever heard of reading for pleasure?!?
He made such a big deal of not revealing who he was going to vote for that it gradually became obvious.
His most frequently used line was "EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS MY FAULT!". He screamed this even when no one blamed him.
He was obsessed with us only using pen. Now, I use pen anyway, but I was annoyed when he said, "You don't need to be reminded to go to the bathroom! So why do I need to remind you to use pen?"
He overemphasized facts. When we studied wars, he made us remember endless statistics about how many people fought and how many died and how much money was spent on various aspects and etc. According to him, each of the major wars had three causes and three results. Now, there were more than that. That was what should have been emphasized. That is what the lessons of history are-not to repeat mistakes your ancestors made.It will never matter exactly how many people died or how much money was spent. When our generation grows up and we become leaders, we will need to remember how to prevent wars from starting. That is why history is taught.

Lies My Teacher Told Me

2005-11-30T18:10:00.000-05:00

This past week I've been reading part of a wonderful book I borrowed from my homeroom teacher (who teaches history) called Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. The book discusses how American history is often skewed by textbooks to make our "heroes" seem like perfect people. Sometimes they just omit facts, and sometimes they put wrong ones altogether. Also, the books author remembers his adolescence and mentions that the textbooks are also boring.

Hmm...no wonder we teens hate history so much. The way it's taught, like a collection of already-known, rote facts, leaves out the mystery of the past. There's as much left to learn about history as any other subject. They don't want to tell us anything controversial. It's more important to be politically correct.

My brother took a good look at this book and said that it's communist. But here's what I think is communist: last year, I saw the following essay question on a test: "In minimum 4 sentences and 8 words per sentence, explain why you like the constitution. You may not say that you do not like the constitution." (That was paraphrased somewhat.) First of all, it's the content that matters, not how many sentences and words. But most importantly, why must I like the constitution? Now, I do like the constitution, but not everyone does. This is like a much less extreme version of what my parents went through in 20th century Russia: "Class, write a 5-page paper on why Stalin is the best ruler this country has seen and why it is important to practice socialism. You may not express a negative opinion of Stalin and socialism, or else you will be sent to the camps". Hmm...

Sometimes, my education is like a big "Lies My Teacher Told Me". About everything. Not just history. This book explains some misconceptions about history. What are other misconceptions? What are other misconceptions in other subjects? Will I ever know?

My Unpatriotic Speech

2005-11-23T06:22:00.000-05:00

Well, today I have to give a speech in English class. The title was God, Flag, and Country. It was impossibly difficult for me to find something to talk about, because I'm not religious and not patriotic (given that this isn't even my country). I love the United States, but I'm not patriotic to someone else's country. Sorry.

So I ended up writing the speech about how immigrants see the US and what things must be improved. As a wise friend of mine put it, "I don't want to stand up there and sing the Star-Spangled Banner."

I despise public speaking...wish me luck!

Alcohol

2005-11-21T17:17:00.000-05:00

So...evidently, today was the big kickoff for our DAT (that's drugs, alcohol, and tobacco) unit. More anti-alcohol preaching by our textbook and teacher.

I wonder what will happen if I ask the teacher what the benefits of alcohol are for adults who aren't alcoholics. He will probably say "none". I should try it sometime. You know what...I think I will.

Anyway, it's pointless and a total waste of an hour. I've got about six more weeks of it to go...Anybody know any good strategies to sleep in class without being noticed?

The Three Words Every Teenager Hates

2005-11-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

This week, I about died when my health teacher said, "Next week we'll begin our unit on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco..."

I wanted to rip my hair out! I had to study this in 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, and now 9th grade. I really hate this. OK, all right, I know about it now. I could get a degree in this topic without much coursework now...Our teacher tried to justify this, saying that teens caught drinking, doing pot, or smoking always say, "Well I didn't know that it was harmful!". Umm...DUH! Of course they're gonna say that. They're trying to get out of trouble. And our teacher, who always says that kids lie and cheat to get out of trouble, should know that better than anyone else.

You know, before DARE in 5th grade, I seriously did not know what pot was. I would have found out eventually, sure, but I really didn't need to know that in 5th grade.

The people who teach this crap to us claim that one of the reasons teens do this stuff is to rebel. So...why keep telling us "Don't do drugs don't do drugs NEVER do drugs"? Seriously, these people are thinking in circles.

I think that it's much more important to study basic psychology in health class. We only did a little with it because (as the teacher put it) "we have to get to the drugs, alcohol, and tobacco unit". Umm...no, we don't. People need to know what's depression and what isn't, why people don't like them, how to relieve their stress, and how to use what we know about memory to study for their tests. That is important. I've heard what drugs, alcohol, and tobacco do to your system once, and I don't need to hear it again.

Results of Mix it Up Day

2005-11-15T22:54:00.000-05:00

Well, guess what? My friends and I (most of them, anyway) showed incredible loyalty and allegiance today. We simultaniously decided to sit right where we belong: our table.

"Mix it Up" Day

2005-11-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

Well, tomorrow at my school there will be a "Mix it Up" Day. Basically, the idea is to force us to sit with different people at lunch in order to "break high school cliques".

Um...excuse me...cliques are there for a reason. I'm surprised adults never seem to realize this despite once being teenagers themselves. We need our cliques. The friends in our cliques support us. We hang out with them and we feel like we at least belong in one place out of a world of indifferent, uncaring people. We pick our cliques on purpose, and the people in them are the people who are like us and can help us when adults can't.

I look forward to lunch every day because I see some people who I don't see at any other time in the day. My friend who I've known for six years is in only one of my classes. This is the only time we have to talk.

Also, I am disliked by many, many people in school because I'm smarter than them. If I end up sitting with those people, I can guarantee that my lunch that day will be miserable. I keep away from them. But in this case, I won't be able to help it.

The main thing is this: I think that, before we focus on variety, we need to make sure we don't lose the good friends we already have.

The Unspeakable...

2005-11-04T20:25:00.000-05:00

The Unspeakable happened today...

Yes, Loto. When I saw that thing, I wanted to die. This time, we only played a little because of shortened periods. Also, I won. But unlike what anyone else in that class will tell you, winning does not make it less stupid.

It is so frustrating not to be treated as old as you are.

Eating/Drinking

2005-11-01T21:01:00.000-05:00

I question the wisdom of teachers who do not let us eat or drink in class. I mean, most people will do it anyway, but obedient ones like me don't and so are forced to half-starve themselves by lunch break or the end of school (plus with that 50 minute bus ride, it'll be a while before I eat). What can I do? I have a high metabolism and I need to eat often. Not 3 times a day, but more like 6. That's just me.

They spend all this time teaching diversity and tolerance such as race, religion, financial status, gender, etc. but they don't appreciate the basic differences in our bodies. What the heck?

Halloween at HS

2005-10-28T22:46:00.000-04:00

This coming Monday, my high school is having a dress-up day for us to wear our Halloween costumes.

Unfortunately, all school rules apply. I had initially planned on wearing a beautiful tutu I have, along with my pointe shoes, tights, and leg warmers. However, that would technically mean no pants, and a spaghetti-strap top as well. Now, I understand why I would not be allowed to not have pants on, but I wish they'd relax some of the other rules. We could wear spaghetti-strap dresses for Homecoming, obviously, so why not for one other day?

So, I decided that I'll go as a Russian babushka. However, since not even the hats rule is relaxed, I can't even have a scarf on my head. Now, how pathetic is that? On Monday, there was a Hat Day because of Red Ribbon Week or whatever. I'm certain that it would have been much better to allow that on Halloween. This is so stupid. There's nothing that bad about having a head covering. It's not suggestive, sexual, violent, drug-related, or profane. It's an issue of someone's ideas about respect, and I think that on a holiday, once a year, that can be relaxed.

Some thoughts about high school

2005-10-25T22:27:00.000-04:00

I'd like to say something positive about high school for a change: I just love the freedom we have now. In middle school, if you came earlier than 8:30, you were forced to stand in a tiny little lobby until the school opened at 8:30. It got really crowded because busses often came before the school actually opened. Class at high school starts at 8:15, but the other day I got there at 7:00. I went to my locker in the basement and sat there and studied until I decided to go to class. It was so awesome. I wanted some alone time. Who can get alone time in a tiny lobby filled with much more people than the fire warning permits?

However, one thing that really bugs me: when I leave the house to go to the bus stop, it is almost pitch black outside. And it's still October. Just wait till December. So, it's almost pitch black, freezing cold, and, for the past week or so, raining. I can't even see the puddles to avoid stepping on them. So here I am, with all my stuff, my pants wet and no hands available to hold an umbrella, I lift the hood of my coat over my head, thinking that it'll do something. In such moments of utter desperation, I ponder how different it is from what my parents said school was like: "An hour there, an hour back, raining, cold, lots of stuff, uphill both ways, etc.". Luckily, I only have to walk as far as the bus stop.

Yet it seems like forever.

Group Work

2005-10-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks for the nice comments I've been getting! Unfortunately I can't thank you personally, but if you come back here you'll read this.

Now. Onto my topic for today. In History we've got a project to do, and even though I did get one person I wanted in my group, I'm still not inclined to trust anybody with my grades. We have to have at least one visual aid, but we're doing two because one person is really set on making a poster, but that will require her to go home and do it by herself, also deciding on the content and appearance and drawing up the whole presentation. I don't want one person doing all that. So I'm making a powerpoint as well. But that's a waste of effort because we can't get more than a 100 anyway. This is why groupwork is so stupid! One person usually does all the work, or, in this case, two out of five (me and the other girl, that is). When there isn't anybody I know, like, and trust, I do all the work myself. After trying to organize a whole bunch of people, I usually just say "OK!!! You guys all just chat with each other and I'll do it!".

So I'm always stuck. Once I did almost an entire project by myself, but asked another kid in my group to print and bring some pictures. Well, obviously, he forgot. Now that's just great. Teachers always say that my grades are my responsibility. But what was I supposed to do? Gather up the band and go to his house at midnight to play a fortissimo piece of music at his window to wake him up?

The same thing happens in math. We often do groupwork and only one piece of paper can be turned in. The people in my group are very stubborn. When I'm certain that I'm right, I can't convince them. Then, the next day--whammo. A "B". It also goes the other way, because I often make mistakes in math and I don't want three people (including two football players, mind you) yelling at me the next day because they decided to get their answers from me. It would be so much nicer if we all turned in our own papers, don't you think?

Biology

2005-10-17T22:01:00.000-04:00

Lucky me. I have a biology quiz on Wednesday, and I'm finding memorizing all this info pretty difficult. Since no one ever bothered to explain to me why triglycerides have three molecules of fatty acids and one of glycerol or why phospholipids have two molecules of fatty acids, one glycerol and one phosphate group, but only the fact that they do (again, lucky me), it's understandably hard to memorize seemingly endless strings of gibberish. Or rote, rather. When I had to memorize a poem for English, I found that it had quite a lot of meaning and it took me no more than 10 or 15 minutes to memorize it. And I wasn't really trying. Actually, here it is, from memory:

In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae

In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead. Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved; and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who died,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

See? Since those words have meaning to me, I memorized them. But the fact that a carboxyl group is O=C-OH has no more meaning for me than "aofia;odfij;aosdijf". It should be the teacher's job to make that have meaning.

Violence Prevention Continued

2005-10-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

Today...the unspeakable happened. The violence prevention speaker came back. As she walked in the room, my second thought was, "Well, I hate the way my teacher teaches health anyway". I think you know what my first one was.

Actually, it wasn't as bad this time. We watched a video about a young couple who were having some major issues, e.g. the boyfriend being obsessive and abusive. Typical of such videos. Apart from the scenes where they were drinking, the guy was using some pretty colorful language, and when the girl was being raped, it was OK. However, we have been over this plenty of times, and I don't think that pushing these ideas into people's minds is a good idea. Actually, the video made me want a boyfriend more because it also showed them hanging out and having fun. Haha. Nice try.

Games--In particular, bingo

2005-10-10T21:30:00.000-04:00

Last week, I knew something was amiss when we were asked to create a "Loto" (Bingo) board for French. This did not bode well. Unfortunately, my worst fears came true. Yes, we played bingo. The entire period. Now, forcing me to play games of any kind is like cutting off a bird's wings, sticking a Twilight Zone fish into a room lit by fluorescent lamps, or exposing an elephant to a mouse. Imagine that, but several times worse because we were playing that kind of all stupid, frustrating, meaningless, and unfair games, bingo.

That last sentence just about summed it up. The following are all reasons why I hate bingo with a passion:

It's the luck of the draw. Almost literally. If I was smart enough to predict how to make my board, I would win.
Whoever says "Bingo!" first...? Shouldn't the winner be the smarter person?
OK, playing games in high school is ridiculous anyway, bingo or not.
Even though I have to know the words in order to play (since they are being said in the opposite language), it still is much easier for me to learn my vocab by doing worksheets. Middle Ages style school, anyone?
OK look. The only reason why the teacher made us play bingo rather than do worksheets is because teachers tend to think that if we're having fun, we learn better. Not necessarily. And besides, bingo isn't exactly my idea of fun. Parties, dances, seeing movies, talking to friends, listening to music, shopping, and surfing the web is fun.
Making students ready to rip their hair out does not make them learn better or faster. Now I speak from experience, sitting there many a time and restraining myself because should I not, I would likely lose most of my hair.

I think I've been pretty convincing here. Now, why do I waste so many hours a day on crap (pardon my language) like this? At least I can finish a worksheet in 5 minutes, not the whole period.

Violence Prevention

2005-10-09T22:36:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, there was a "violence prevention" speaker in my health class. Now, the reason I put that in quotes is because I think she stirred up more violence than she could have possibly "prevented". To begin with, she first addressed us with that horrible, kindergarten-style voice that teens like me love to hate. We are in high school after all, and let's just say that by now, I have forgotten what much of my elementary school looked like. Anyway, the speaker was overeager, loud, and for an hour, gave me a headache. She embarassed most of the boys in my class, and I'm sure some of the more rowdy types in that class would have given a lot for it to be socially acceptable to hit her right about then.

But who am I to be so ungrateful?!? I should count my blessings. There were no group activities, handouts (except for a survey), games, interactive whatevers, or anything else stupid. And, furthermore, it saved me from the teaching of my health teacher for one period.

However, it was ineffective. Yes, that can be a problem.

School Pictures

2005-09-28T06:47:00.000-04:00

Today is Picture Day at my school. I hate pictures, I always look horrible in them. So this year, I'm not buying any. I think my parents can get better pictures of me playing with my little brother or eating ice cream. Let's just face it-school pictures look like mugshots. Since you can only see the person's face, it looks horrible. Yuck. I absolutely dread it. If I have to miss any of my favorite classes for this crap, I'll be really ticked off.

Carrying Stuff Around

2005-09-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

I recently saw a news story about a school in Arizona in which they use only laptops-no books, notebooks, binders, paper, or pencils. Unlike what you read about in sci-fi stories, all the other elements of school were still there-students sitting side by side, a teacher in front of them. They just used the laptops for everything and even did homework and tests over the internet. How wonderful it would be to put only a laptop and my lunch into my bookbag each morning! But no.

I have way too much stuff for school. I have 4 books, 3 binders, a folder, and a notebook, plus my lunch, flute, reading book(s), and pens/pencils/calculator/etc. Well, and I have a purse. This is ridiculous. And there's nothing I can do about it. Here's something that teachers and principals need to know: there's a limit to how much the human body can carry.

Several years ago, my friend weighed her bookbag after school. It weighed more than 20 pounds. And that was just the stuff she had taken home that night. And it was still middle school.

Collective Punishment

2005-09-22T22:27:00.000-04:00

This topic has made me want to rip my hair out since I was in 3rd grade. My opinion on this can be summarized in four words: collective punishment is wrong. Wrong. In this post, I will attempt to refute all and any arguements that can be made for it.

Arguement 1: It teaches kids that life's not fair.
We all know that life's not fair. It doesn't need to be taught in school. And besides, people aren't using this as a reason to use collective punishment. They're using it as an excuse. This is wrong. Just because life is unfair, that doesn't mean we shouldn't help those who are being treated unfairly. If you don't care about students who supposedly pretend to suffer much more than they actually do, here's an example that may apply to you more: what if, after 9-11, Bush had refused to do anything to help victims and said, "Suck it up! Life's not fair!". But that's what teachers are saying. Who wants the next generation to be cold and impassionate because they believe that unfairness is a normal part of life and nothing should be done about it? You know, there was a time when people took every misfortune and unfairness as a given. For a thousand years, they did nothing about the cruelties of the world. We're studying that in History right now. It was called the Middle Ages.

Arguement 2: It teaches kids social responsibility.
OK, face it. Collective punishment does nothing. Most of the time, the bystanders who get punished will not confront the person who got them punished. Teens don't do that. And in most cases, neither do children. We don't do that because we don't like upsetting the status quo. I don't need a group of students hounding me in school and making fun of me, because I insulted one of them by asking them to stop causing trouble. I've also heard of cases where the troublemaker was ganged up on by the other people punished. That is not good.

Arguement 3: It prepares kids for real life.
In real life, if you're driving with someone who gets pulled over by a cop and marijuana is found in the car, you are arrested as well. Some educators think that collective punishment in the classroom prepares students for challenges such as that in the real world. Actually, that's not true. While I can be responsible and not drive with people who have marijuana (which I should find out first), I cannot physically shut up a student who is talking when he/she shouldn't be. All that this prepares students for is the military. Most people do not join the military. Maybe that's not always good, but it still doesn't make sense to teach as if everyone will join the army.

Arguement 4: Sometimes the teacher can't determine who's at fault.
Um...And who's problem is that? I'm not the teacher, so I'm not in charge of discipline in the classroom. If the teacher really can't determine it, why doesn't he/she make an example out of people known to have been doing it. Or else, just leave me and my rule-observing peers out of it, please.

Arguement 5: Kids should teach each other.
What I mean by this is, the teacher is counting on me and other innocent bystanders to act as tools in order to teach the troublemakers how to behave. That's great and all, but that's not what I go to school for. I go to school to learn. To educate myself. Not the guy sitting in the row next to mine. I do not spend 7+ hours a day at school to serve as a prop in the teacher's plans. This will not prepare me for college. Another thing. Remember tattling on someone in kindergarten? What did you get told? Usually, it was something along the lines of this: "You are responsible only for yourself." So...why am I being punished for someone else then?

Arguement 6: It gets people mad at the student causing the trouble, which helps prevent it.
In my opinion, this is by far the worst arguement in this case. What they're saying is, if they get everyone to hate the student responsible, it will stop that student from misbehaving again. Since when were we using hate to teach? Anyone ever seen the movie Star Wars? In that movie, hate is what is responsible for most of the conflicts. In all 6 movies. And this is true in real life. Kids who are hated today, grow to hate everyone tomorrow. Those guys who gunned down students and teachers at Columbine and other schools were mostly loners, hated by everyone.

Arguement 7: It will make kids want to be good because of peer pressure.
Now, I understand this topic, because I experience peer pressure every day. Peer pressure influences people to act cool. Being good is not cool. Because I personally don't think that drinking and doing drugs is cool, that type of peer pressure doesn't influence me. Since most people don't think being good is cool, it will not influence them either.

I guess I've negated all these arguements. I trust this is sufficient to prove my point?

2005-09-21T19:45:00.000-04:00

I created this blog to rant about school. Let's face it: most public schools are horrible. The teaching methods are bad, the curriculum itself is bad, etc. etc.

I hoped that it would be better once I started high school, but actually, it isn't that much better. Of course, some improvements are evident.

My major pet peeve about school is when teachers try to make learning "fun". Learning is not fun, it has never been fun, and it will never be fun. Doing cut-and-paste projects in 7th and 8th grade is ridiculous.

However, I find that I'm usually on the losing end of arguements like this, because many people today believe in "modern" teaching styles or whatever.