I can't stand schools.

[Dizzle229]

I suck at math, but there's really no reason to try since it's USELESS, at least in the current classes. Really, that's a HUGE reason my grades are so low. They're not giving a sufficient reward for the effort. There's already the 35 hours lost in school every week, not counting homework. This goes on for YEARS, and it adds up.

 

Considering the life after HS will only require me to graduate HS, if that, then I'm not going to do anymore than is required. If there's more stress than fun in your life, then it's not worth living.

[das1330]

I exclude math for obvious reasons; its completely and utterly useless past 8th grade.

 

Have fun with not understanding math when you get into practically any technically related (IE valuable) field. Understanding math is critical to understanding the systems that underlay everything from the stock market to the computer you used to type that post; math, together with language, are the most basic subjects from which all others are derived.

 

 

I suck at math, but there's really no reason to try since it's USELESS, at least in the current classes.

 

You don't ever find yourself using math in physics classes?

 

 

I learn more useful information from The Daily show than from school. That said, I also hate how the school spends money. I don't get an Agenda book to write down my homework in this year, but completely redoing the locker rooms? THAT'S the priority.

 

Curious, where did the money for locker rooms come from? I know that at my high school the administration never used any school money for athletics - renovations to the pool, locker rooms, football field etc were all paid for through fundraisers held for that purpose. Since the money was not tax money in the first place, I didn't have a problem with it.

 

I think trade schools should be offered in place of middle school through highschool. Then we can have a foundation of simple learnings, and then have 6 years to truly master a skill that is actually enjoyable. Imagine the efficiency!

 

 

The inevitable problem with such a program is that many of the most valuable positions after high school are essentially academic in nature - scientists, bankers, engineers, business administrators and similar positions all require strong academic training which a trade school cannot provide.

 

 

 

Personally, school was fairly useless until about ~10th grade or so. After that AP classes, then college classes proved to be very intellectually stimulating.

[Dexek]

I generally valued highschool for the experiences I had with the people, and not the information. I took the academic portion simply to be a test to prove we can learn new things, and use that knowledge accordingly. I have a similar view about college being above all about the experiences with the people I meet. Sure, I'm gaining knowledge in what is to be my future career, but in my opinion it's the people skills that take you far.

[xevanx]

I exclude math for obvious reasons; its completely and utterly useless past 8th grade.

 

Have fun with not understanding math when you get into practically any technically related (IE valuable) field. Understanding math is critical to understanding the systems that underlay everything from the stock market to the computer you used to type that post; math, together with language, are the most basic subjects from which all others are derived.

 

 

See this is where things get a bit fuzzy. How can you possibly think that learning complex algorithms and equations will essentially tell you which stock to buy. Everything you learn in math up until the 9th or 10th grade is derivative of what you will need on a daily basis regardless of the type of job you have. I exclude jobs that require amazing math skills for obvious reasons; and not to deter my argument. The complexity of everyday life is played out by universitys and schools to make you feel as though you should invest more into your education, however, after living in the real world; in which I am extremely well off and have a good paying job...I beg to differ.

 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know how to understand income reports and stock portfolios. I understand the fundamentals and took all my required math courses during high school, it is just too played out now. The only thing that seperates our teachers from us is the fact that they took 2 years of teachers college. Think about that.

[xevanx]

This is why my grades suffered all through high school. I never gave a damn about what was in the curriculum, or about things that I already knew and had to write down on a piece of paper to prove to someone with 4 more years of education than myself.

Look what we got here, a cliché! So you're not as smart as you say then. If you were really smart, you would of taken the oppotunity of easy HS courses and got the best grades ever for the best scholarships/colleges ever. But no, you were too elitist for that.

 

I exclude math for obvious reasons; its completely and utterly useless past 8th grade.

Another cliché amoung the self-proclaimed Einstiens.

 

 

For someone attempting to flame, you should atleast know it's "Einstein".

 

To add to your comment...Going through post secondary education has become as much of a social norm as NOT fornicating with every female/male we see coming down the street. You are equally as much a cliché as anybody else in this world. Acting as though high GPAs and PhD's will essentially get you farhter in life than the average joe. Statistics show that majority of people who earn their bachelors/phd end up jobless due to the poor economy. Who makes the economy?? The working class people, thats who. The social norm is to excel when in actuality this is the last thing that everybody needs to achieve. It disturbs the equilibrium and can corrupt the capitalist mindset that everybody has grown up on.

 

Get real.

[jimmy_jim]

I found my schooling to be great, I enjoyed the whole experience immensely. I had a great group of friends which really helped me do well in school. I tried to do the best I could which most of my teachers seemed to respect, and I managed to have a good relationship with them as well.

 

I don't agree with a lot of teaching methods, for example in Australia, English is mandatory but the curriculum is stupid. In English I wasn't taught anything except how to write the assignment that was due. We weren't taught grammar, structure of assignments, writing styles etc. If we had to write an article on something as an assignment we were only taught how to write the article for that assignment for 8 weeks (or until it was due), and it usually involved discourses. #-o

[Guest Rob]

If math is useful past the eighth grade....It depends what your intended career is. For day-to-day life, 8th grade math should work fine. Anything else, you'll want a higher education. It's that simple.

[Giordano]

This is why my grades suffered all through high school. I never gave a damn about what was in the curriculum, or about things that I already knew and had to write down on a piece of paper to prove to someone with 4 more years of education than myself.

Look what we got here, a cliché! So you're not as smart as you say then. If you were really smart, you would of taken the oppotunity of easy HS courses and got the best grades ever for the best scholarships/colleges ever. But no, you were too elitist for that.

 

I exclude math for obvious reasons; its completely and utterly useless past 8th grade.

Another cliché amoung the self-proclaimed Einstiens.

 

You are equally as much a cliché as anybody else in this world. Acting as though high GPAs and PhD's will essentially get you farhter in life than the average joe. Statistics show that majority of people who earn their bachelors/phd end up jobless due to the poor economy. Who makes the economy?? The working class people, thats who. The social norm is to excel when in actuality this is the last thing that everybody needs to achieve. It disturbs the equilibrium and can corrupt the capitalist mindset that everybody has grown up on.

My point totally went over your head it seems. But you did help mine:

 

You shouldn't be living life at "just the required" level, even as a worker, because then how are you going to advance?

 

I also want you to try to apply at certain businesses without higher education: NASA, software engineering, accounting, etc.

 

All I'm saying, if High School was so 'easy' you should of taken advantage of what bonuses it gives you.

[KittyKat]

Having a solid knowledge of math and science changes the way your mind works.

[Danqazmlp]

I often think that English teachers often put more thought into books than the authors do.

 

 

Damn straight. The same is applied to films too. I often think if an author heard some things teachers say they would say "wait what? I just thought that would be funny."

[Dizzle229]

I often think that English teachers often put more thought into books than the authors do.

 

 

Damn straight. The same is applied to films too. I often think if an author heard some things teachers say they would say "wait what? I just thought that would be funny."

Like the people who say that Horton Hears a Who is an argument against abortion?

[Guest Rob]

I often think that English teachers often put more thought into books than the authors do.

 

 

Damn straight. The same is applied to films too. I often think if an author heard some things teachers say they would say "wait what? I just thought that would be funny."

Like the people who say that Horton Hears a Who is an argument against abortion?

Exactly. People take a book with a moral, (This one being that everyone is a person and deserves to be treated like, more or less) and twists it around.

Or the guy who read Catcher in the Rye and was convinced the book was screaming "KILL JOHN LENIN!"

[Pirate_Felix]

Having a solid knowledge of math and science changes the way your mind works.

qft

[xSxqPowerx]

Whether or not you feel that you are actually learning in school, or that you need to be learning at all, school is the accepted method of proving that you are worthy of getting a job other than unskilled minimum wage labour.

 

Also, math is awesome.

Of course, you only need higher math if you go into a field where you will use it. You can get by fine without it - lots of people do. I simply prefer to always be confident in the fact that am capable and intelligent enough to do basically anything. Even if that just means being able to calculate (in my head) tips, tax, unit prices, convert from C to F, etc.

 

In addition... I am an engineering student. I use math of a very high level every single day for school, and will continue to do so in my future career. So, it seems logical that I would be an advocate of the usefulness of math. Not everyone needs to know advanced calculus - but hey - there's money out there for those who do.

[Orpheus]

I'd say to just aim for good marks in High School. Colleges won't give a damn what courses you took.

 

As I am a programming student, I use some complex math, but still. Don't worry about taking courses for your careers until you get to college.

[Peregrine]

Having a solid knowledge of math and science changes the way your mind works.

qft

 

qft again. Seriously, my math tutor has been saying that math and sciences, but mainly math, shape his way of learning other subjects and his philosophy around morals/ethics/meaning of life. As I learn more and more about math, I see he is right.

 

Anyway, at 16 I went through community college level history course, since the University of California system doesn't accept homeschooler's history credits. I worked hard and got an A, since they don't give A+ or A* at my community college, and I have to say that this teacher was one of the best I've had in a public school system. He encouraged classroom discussion/debate constantly, gave opinionated lectures and asked for student's opinions, looked at problems in the past and how people attempted to solve them, compared them with problems today and asked us how we thought the new problems should be solved. In short, he provoked our minds to use reasoning. Not any of this standardized test memorization stuff.

 

If you ask me to compare Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. DuBois views on equality among other things, I can do that. If you ask what date each one of them was born/died/wrote something famous/spoke a famous speech, I can't tell you. Is it better to know the ideas (and be able to argue their pros and cons) rather than the facts of history? In this day and age, where facts are easily called upon via the internet, I would argue that yes, sources on major historical events are hardly needed. However, it is important to reproduce facts accurately lest they die off.

 

I might consider sending my kid to a public school system if they decide to start teaching creativity with the memorization of fundamentals, instead of teaching optional creativity with the memorzation of algorithms.

[The Runar]

I might consider sending my kid to a public school system if they decide to start teaching creativity with the memorization of fundamentals, instead of teaching optional creativity with the memorzation of algorithms.

 

:thumbup:

 

This is the way I usually learn new things - I only study what I absolutely have to and then learn the rest by improvising on that.

 

For example this was in a math exam:

 

15% of the cost of product x is 24, calculate the whole price of the product.

Shorter way: 24 / 0.15 = 160

My way: 24 / 15 = 1.60 (1% of price), 1.60 * 100 = 160.

 

My way doesn't require remembering any formulas, as long as you remember that the whole is 100% you're fine. (I actually did this in the exam because I didn't remember the other way :rolleyes: ) This is just a basic example, more complex stuff just benefits even more. Quite funny though that I've always been the best one of my class in math (even better than the teachers), but I remember barely anything. I just don't have to. :)

 

Most of my English skills are from first learning some basic grammar and vocabulary in school and then actually putting those to use. Games, forums, movies and books mostly for me. Not only is it much more interesting but it also teaches you a lot of stuff they never teach in school. Of course this works with other languages too.

 

The most important thing isn't that you learn how to do something, more important is that you know why it's done that way. ;)

[Dupin]

If anyone here hasn't read "English As She Is Taught" by Mark Twain, go do it. It's pretty short, I promise.

 

The basic idea is that during Twain's time as a teacher he noticed that teachers are forced by the curriculums to cram facts into the minds of students, and it's not an effective method of teaching.

 

 

Peregrine, in my experience most classes have encouraged analytic thinking and creativity. Math is the huge exception here, if only because the teacher I had last year wasn't very good and the teacher I have this year in the non-honors class is dumb.

 

I often think that English teachers often put more thought into books than the authors do.

 

 

Damn straight. The same is applied to films too. I often think if an author heard some things teachers say they would say "wait what? I just thought that would be funny."

Like the people who say that Horton Hears a Who is an argument against abortion?

Exactly. People take a book with a moral, (This one being that everyone is a person and deserves to be treated like, more or less) and twists it around.

Or the guy who read Catcher in the Rye and was convinced the book was screaming "KILL JOHN LENIN!"

Go read "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" by Poe. This one is also short, but I won't promise.

 

One of my favorite lines was something about how "All good literary critics know every tale has a moral, whether the author intends it or not".

[Dizzle229]

Ok, I really hate school after today. I'm failing so many subjects, and there's no way to NOT fail without trying hard in each subject, which would require a huge reduction of funtime and actually having to feel stress. Unfortunately, I really hate the idea of working hard to no real worthwhile end. I can't concentrate in a class I don't find useful or enjoy. Really, there's only a few I'm in that I really need/want.

 

History - This stuff is interesting to know.

English - It's good being able to read classics without spending money I don't have.

Advanced Word Power - I don't really enjoy this one, but it's close enough to English to tolerate, and an expanded vocabulary is never a bad thing.

[Giordano]

I really hate the idea of working hard to no real worthwhile end.

That's the problem me thinks. Not getting my ass beat by the folks was a worthwhile end.