The Student As ******

I found this to be a very interesting comparison of black slaves and students, and how absolutely every single thing he mentions still happens today on even a worst level. Looking back on my own gradeschool and even highschool, I recognize so many stupid foolish things that I did without even considering the legitimacy of doing it, usually to appease the administration.

Do you think modern (US?) public schools teach children to be complacent and obedient, or does it actually provide a strong foundation for being a person?

I stopped reading after a couple paragraphs. If that kind of stuff happens around you, wow.

My education has always been like this: Teacher is there to teach. They don't care what the hell you do.

That might have something to do with it.

Schools are to teach the average person how to survive in modern society.

It's not the school's fault the average person is a complete ****ing moron who can't think for themselves.

Actually it probably is. Never mind.

I hope you're joking.

Black people all want to go to that Great Watermelon Patch in the sky!

Well, the article exagerates, but there are some things happening in that school that do piss me off.

The whole thing about beards and long hair. I hate looking like a fresh military cadet, this is a school, not the army.

I remember in 9th grade, I wasn't allowed to present an exam unless I shaved. So I had to shave it off, in the school bathroom... what purposes does that serve? Am I going to learn better without a beard?

I asked a teacher once why students weren't allowed to have beards, and yet most male teachers have them, he answered: "Because its distracting"

Whats so distracting? The fact that you couldn't grow a beard at my age and I'm catching up to you? I remember this was my English teacher who I asked. Maybe he was jealous cause I was always ahead of him, then again, there hasn't been an English teacher here who I haven't been ahead of.

Also, we were not allowed to take cell phones to school, even though I explained to my teacher and the director that I had people calling me cause I had an add in the paper regarding fixing computers, with my cell number on it, and sometimes my parents would call in an emergency.

I remember two things about teachers who practiced extreme discipline (yelling, throwing things, punishing the entire class for act of one person, extending punishment to other classes and trying to extend the unishment of other teachers into their class), is that they had a mostly quiet and ordely class. The other thing I remember about them is that they were met with extreme hatred outside of the class room, from someone breaking their car windows, threat letters, trashing their classroom, spreading rumours about them, spying on their intimate life to get them fired... Man, if this were the United States, I know of a lot of teachers who would be out of a job.

I've got my own agenda of teachers I want to, some day, pay them back with their own coin.

dude

an amok run?

You people go to ****ty schools.

This was written in 1969.

Sure, and university is vocational training.

It's about university? I should probably have read it.

Customers at a store are clearly n***ers too because you have to jump through hoops to get what you're entitled to, the employees think of you with contempt and you aren't allowed to eat in the break room with them.

My comment was a retort. School doesn't prepare you for the real world because it's too easy and it holds your hand too much. The only reason mandatory school exists is to keep children locked up while their parents are busy being good little cogs.

I'm pretty sure the article is about college, though. I stopped reading around the time the author described the average age of his students as "26."

Actually, if I ever own my own store, there'll be a big sign on the front that says "COLOREDS ONLY" and I will not serve white people.

mmm that's what happened in my high school, gang

what the author is suggesting is that the teachers and students all kneel down in front of each other in a brief allegory of fellatio, and then all jack off together.

I think that problem here is that students need to be taught to work with their teachers, not follow orders.

Also, we need an education system, where only what is vital is forced upon students, the rest being optional.

I find Advanced Chemistry and Physics to be useless to the average guy.

In order to survive intodays modern society, a person must know the following, in my book.

How to speak
How to read
How to write
All important math (Basic Functions,Decimal Numbers & Fractions, Metric System, Trigonometry, Volume, Area)
Basic Physics
Basic Chemistry
How to drive
A good knowledge of history (this is actually very important)
A good knowledge of Civics and Ethics (rights and laws etc)
Sexual Education
How to cook
First Aid
Sports
How to use a computer, Office Tools in particular

Bah thats all that comes to mind right now, but I gues this is what our schools systems should FORCE atleast on people. We should have a system where we have basic things being forced on people, and we have a big list of optional subjects which can become technitians, and if pursued in superior education, they could become professionals.

Wow. I'm going to read that article in its entirety, that's a lot of things that were said in that article which had me worried that our schools do not have or at least, don't enforce. For one, we're on the most friendly basis with our professors. We've drank with them, smoked weed with them, had drinking contests together, partied at the schools pub, we're all on a first-name basis, hell they've even dated students and nobody gives a ****.

woohoo I'm black

from the waist down?

no cause the system has emasculated me

That was absolutely retarded.

You don't say

Going to DePaul and now going to LSC, I got both worlds. I've drank/smoked with my professors at DePaul like you said, but at the public school level, there's absolutely no fraternizing between staff and students unless the students have offended a rule. It's not so bad as this article describes, but there are highschools that still function a lot like they did then, and I never considered it in terms of social slavery.

Also:


Haha

The article was an awesome read. Thank you for posting it. The analogy makes perfect sense. Although it is similar here in many many ways, I think we are a tad more lax on the student-teacher relationship front. Maybe it's just my experience, I can't say. But generally I can't recall hearing anything contrary.

"Things I don't understand are useless."

"Education shouldn't inspire someone to become more than they are."

- Mexican who will have to deal drugs to make more money than the modal American high school drop out.

Unless they come here.

Or is Goldie under the 'lazy Mexican' stereotype too?

¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!

I think most of the content in high school was a waste, but it was important to learn how to manage my time and how to be responsible. Also, I'm on a first name basis with all my professors, so... maybe things have changed in 40 years?

Funny stuff.

But you guys just need to bring up his Mexicanity[TM] every damn time, don't you.

I think that being taught how to follow orders is a /very/ important thing for students to have to learn. It's been my experience that students don't like being ordered around. However, it is my understanding that the next 30 - 50 years of their life in the work force will be spent following orders. Being taught how to negotiate logically with someone is a good skill to have, but sometimes you have to, you know, MAN UP and do something you just don't want to do.

In a third world country these things apply, although not necessarily as strictly. In order to develop as a country, you need to learn thinking skills and how to approach a problem logically. You also need to learn to be a hard worker and to follow the orders given to you to complete a job to the best of your ability. Granted, my knowledge of life in Mexico is limited, but I would think that should ring true for most of or all of the world.

That's why advanced chemistry and physics AREN'T forced upon the average guy. Right now, there are (out of a class of roughly 130) at most 10 students enrolled in my school's Physics class. Those ten are the ten who need it, who want it, and therefore take it.

The problem with your plan is that in forcing everyone to take certain subjects, you slow down the people who will become technicians or professionals in a career as you put it. There's too much that people try to teach, and because there's so much required, there's a wide array of people in classes that don't want to be there. When you're in a class of people who don't care about the subject, you don't learn as well.

Sure, basic reading/writing, some simple math, maybe even cooking, those are all needed to survive and be productive. But forcing the people who take those basic classes into places they don't want to be, that's not going to be very productive at all and they will only get a minimal (if any) education out of the class.

I'm fairly sure you don't NEED those to survive in modern society.

Well, not when you don't have to run from a roaming gang of banditos and hotwire a car to escape.

I graduated with the highest-level physics and mathematics. I know a guy who graduated with sophomore-level general science because he knew he wanted to go into the trades. Neither one of us had to learn anything we didn't want to.

I would not describe any of the science in the mandatory curriculum to be 'advanced' or even 'challenging'. Starting on the sophomore year of high school classes become more specialized and tiered based on difficulty level. The general science track basically only provides you enough exposure to the subject matter to know whether or not you'd actually be interested in it. So I disagree with SF_GoldG_01 entirely because I think they should make welding and woodworking and cooking and art and tilesetting and framing all part of the mandatory courseload because presenting you options is truly all high school is good for.

Which is what I meant about the "becoming better than you are" remark. How can you possibly know if physics will be useless to you unless you are exposed to it? If someone is fundamentally lazy and goes for the "SF_GoldG_01" specialized re-re program of readin' and talkin' gud they might never discover something they can be truly passionate about.

I kind of agree with this, but, how much of exposure are you talking? As of now, you wouldn't be able to fit full courses (one semester) in for all those areas.

I think high school is way too slow. Unless you're taking multiple AP courses, high school workload isn't high at all. I did AP stuff and some of the higher level courses and it wasn't that much. And I went to a high school that rated very high for academic quality. Students make a big deal about it, but it's really because they are terrible at managing their time.

I think high school needs to be restructured to be more like university. Not only does it prepare the students for it, but it's so damn efficient by comparison. All courses should be semester based, not year based like many are. The curriculum would be structured so that students take required and optional sequences in various areas. Most courses could easily be shortened from a year to one semester and still retain all the material. Many high school classes go at a painfully slow rate. The workload need not be higher, though, because homework can be reduced in many classes. There are several, reputable studies showing that homework isn't very effective outside of practicable materials, such as math.

I said advanced chemistry and physics because that's what he said. Those are both rather advanced classes, obviously. I wasn't saying you should keep people out of science classes entirely, obviously they do need some minimal exposure to everything. I was just saying that the average person isn't forced into those classes, like he was trying to say.

My school is structured that there are 3 basic, very easy science classes you can take to fulfill your 3 (or maybe it's 4 and Biology is required, I'm not sure) science credits for high school. These classes are full of, for the most part, lazier or stupider people. However, if someone in one of these classes finds something that interests them, my school is also structured so they can get into a more advanced science class next semester. The basic 3 science classes can also be skipped and you can go straight into the harder classes for the smarter/harder working students. 4-block for the win (4 classes a semester). I like the way that works. My statement about putting people in classes they don't want to take was aimed more at Gold saying chemistry and trigonometry classes are required to be successful.

I know. I was agreeing with you.

:downs:

lmfao