I'm in my third year of college, taking upper division courses and thinking to myself that I coulda done all this the years I was in high school, maybe even better.

I had a great High School/Middle School/Elementary school experience. It's just that it was so slow. I feel that I had years of my life just sitting and turning a wheel. Half the classes, hell, 3/4s of the classes were brain dead. The rest made me use my intellegence, oh, maybe once. The upper-crust of k-12 were AP classes supposedly, and those did jack of squat.

This really don't have a point, but who else feels that their time in high school and lower was a complete waste of time? Who else would thinks a different cirriculum was needed? Like maybe taking real lower division courses in high school, instead of that other crap. I mean really... PE, electives were crap. And why can't they just kick up the difficulty of science classes a notch to make them on par with college. It isn't like basic bio/chem/phys is that hard. Same goes for math. And history is history, english is english, just make a few modifications to make them the same.

I dunno, I was just reading some graduate books and saying "I wish I could be doing this now".

Also another thought is offer many foreign languages at elementary age, because the way humans learn language...

Blarg, it all just seems so stupid and inefficent the way it is now.

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well, high school has been easy as pie so far, too easy, and strangely enough this next week our teachers might strike on us, so I have to get everything i need to get in NOW before i'm screwed over by that... meh...

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" You killed me. That wasn't very nice."
Noble Gases

It does seem stupid and inefficient. But if they tried to make things harder, so many kids would complain and whine and refuse to do the work, without realizing that they are more than capable of it. Looking back, its very clear to me that high school age kids have no clue what their best interests are.

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You underestimate the power of the Dark Side...

DSettahr's Homepage

If it was up to me, I wouldn't take math. I could never really see the importance of it in my day-to-day life. (I'm talking about intermediate algebra and beyond-- most of it is bleeding useless for the avg. person)



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Most people regard me as the dark and immoral side of Massassi. At least I'm getting what I want out of life.

Therein lies the problem. I slept through classes when I bothered to attend high school. I was stupid, and it wasn't until after I graduated and was slapped in the face with reality, that I begun to realize just how stupid I was. I'm now paying the price for my apathetic behavior, and I wish I knew then what I know now. The reality is that there are far too many students like myself who are capable but just don't care. That's where the change needs to happen.



The average person will also be in debt until the day they die, spending an entire lifetime working to keep food on the table. If they would put more emphasis on mathematics and accounting/economics in school, the average person wouldn't have to be so miserable for the rest of their life.

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That is a problem on its own. Alot of kids feel that way. There needs to be something to make them motivated, or at least know that real life is harsh, something, anything.

I think that may be a cultural problem, I don't know. People seem to lax with their children sometimes to the point of spoiling them. They need to have a "reward" system maybe, motiveate them in a primitive way: "doggie gets a treat". There are other cases of my friends who were damn poor. One got himself out of hit parents mess so fast he is a civil engineer <i>at 19</i>. Kids need motivation, it isn't inherent.

I blame the first day of school if this is utter nosense, I would edit it, but I have molecular nuerology at 5... then more crap... until 9... 9 till 9... oi...

On another note, those in college, do you like to lump your classes together (MWF 9-9, but rest of the days off) or spread them out? (MTWThF, like from 9-3).

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American public education is crap. I speak from a been-there, done-that perspective.

Alternative education such as homeschooling and early graduation, however, is pretty slick.

I like to group my college classes and take days off, it doesn't seem like constant wear so much that way.

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Duel Zero : Released the beta. Probably the end of it. Not to worry though, I'm working on Randsaber, which is a lot better.

[This message has been edited by Checksum (edited January 09, 2004).]

I, for the most part, had great teachers throughout school, though I have two that I can't stand today.

One asked us, on a test, to prove that the continents float on the oceans. The second was a moron from Mexico that didn't know Spanish, nor did she know English.

That said, I found high school to be an enjoyable experience, and have found it to not be that different from college. Maybe we're weird like that. I've half-thought about maybe doing some substitution work after college if I don't get an immediate hiring.

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"LC Tusken: the idiot is the person who follows the idiot and your not following me your insulting me your following the path of a idiot so that makes you the idiot"
NMGOH || Jack Chick preaches it || The Link of the Dead

The most depressing thing about high school was after finishing it and realising I had just wasted 11 years of my life and hadn't learned anything useful beyond first grade.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

American public education sucks.

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All the prism in the world couldn't make hue.

In my science classes, we were asked to try and prove stuff that we knew was false all the time. What was important was not that we actually prove the stuff, but how we went about it. It was a good way to learn about science and how scientific research and study works.

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DSettahr's Homepage

Agreed, Flexor.

Another problem is that they simply -can't- make classes for "higher level" people. Why? Because those that aren't at that level have parents that will complain, "Why oh why is my child being left behind!?"

I think people in power should realize that when it comes to capacity for information, education, etc., all people are not created equally. Some people are smarter than others, and those smart people should not be forced to "slow down" just to make the less fortunate feel better about themselves. And that's the root of the problem, we, as a country, focus too much on people's feelings and not enough on reality. How many genius kids have fried their brains away on pot simply because they were too bored at school? How is it possible to take a basic geometry course seriously when you have to bisect a line 60 times a day for no reason (if you know it after the first time, you should not have to do it again, PERIOD! Perhaps once more on a test, but these stupid exercise problems are ridiculous).

I found that it didn't change -at all- when I went to college. You have to "stick it out" and "put in your time" before you get to classes that really challenge you. After all, your "superiors" did it, so why shouldn't you? They waded through all the BS, therefore, you should have to. Of course we don't want to actually IMPROVE the education system, that would be so unfair!

I think they should have standardized tests at the end of every school year, and they should have brackets so that people who do better are put in different, more challenging schools. You are, literally, wasting 11 years of your life otherwise. And I don't give a damn what anyone says, I've seen kids here at Massassi overtake me in less than a year with Programming/DB skills (and I've been doing it since 1998!). I'm sitting here making almost 6 figures and they are sitting in a damn math class that's teaching basic algebra, then when they get home, they sit in the basement doing complex relational algebra in milliseconds with one hand tied behind their backs. Kids like that should be out of school and doing something that helps mankind.

Good lord, you take a lot of classes. Never had 12 or six hours days at all since I started college.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

I told you I was hardcore!

Hmm, I guess I like my subjects too much maybe.

As for:



Amen to that brother. The education system should go out of their way to seperate students who have the ability at a young age. I'm not saying hold anyone back, but accelerate those who merit the challenge.


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Actually Brian, it changed a lot for me when I got to college. But I also consider myself to be very lucky to be attending on of the top undergraduate engineering colleges in the country. Unlike a lot of other tech schools, RIT puts more effort into teaching rather than research. Hardly any research is done at all because the teachers spend so much time teaching... its as simple as that. The classes are small (usually never more than 30 people, more often more like 20 or so), the teachers are very approachable (I have yet to have a teacher that I didn't really like). The classes are very hands-on and informal. In fact, both the engineering and science colleges have study areas with tutors and proffessors for each individual field of study on duty from 8 am to 5 pm, every week day... so if you have trouble with hw or something, there is always someone who can help you. The teachers themselves can be seen around quite often, mingling with the students, talking about stuff that might not even have anything to do with class.

Even just writing this I am realizing more how great a learning community this place really is.

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You underestimate the power of the Dark Side...

DSettahr's Homepage

[This message has been edited by DSettahr (edited January 09, 2004).]

I dunno. To me subject matter is subject matter. My dad is a Stress Engineer for Boeing areospace, and there are guys from MIT and guys from Wassamatta U type colleges. They do the same job and the same quality of work.

What I'm trying to say is that you can't change F=MA... it is the same subject. I think what Brian is trying to say is maybe condense some of those classes, so you can get to the real meat sooner. I think. Unless you are saying they condense it where you are...

If I missed either of your points, feel free to flame me.

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[This message has been edited by Lord Kuat (edited January 09, 2004).]

This is what's so great about homeschooling - you can take things at your own pace.

They feed us a load of crap in school about how "it's not a competition" and to "go at your own pace," but they sure as hell don't practice what they preach.

It's not a competition, yet we're ranked.
Go at your own pace, yet we're forced to speed up or slow down our pace according to averages.

As for class condensation, it can be done and it needs to be done. With homeschooling I just went through the book on the subject. I'd be done with one subject in a month.

It felt good too - I didn't just have some grade on a piece of paper, I had the experience of taking a book on the subject and going cover to cover.

This is the kind of thing our school system needs to be doing - we already have all of the resources, they're sitting in kids' backpacks and on shelves.

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Duel Zero : Released the beta. Probably the end of it. Not to worry though, I'm working on Randsaber, which is a lot better.

[This message has been edited by Checksum (edited January 09, 2004).]

I don't think anyone is stupid (I'm not a tree hugging hippie allright?!). Everyone has something they are proficient at. A great compaser isn't always genius biologist, a Biologist not always a master politician, and so on. People have their own aptitude, and effort needs to be made to do that. Otherwise everyone's time is wasted. I wish I was taking botony and genetics instead of god awful electives or foreign language.

A tailor made education system sounds crazy, but my Gramps had it in his country. They had an aptitude test ~middle school age (basically after finishing our version of High School), then went to specialities in High School, and further specilization (graduate school like) in their universities.

[edit] I have no familiarity with homeschooling, but I don't think parents should teach their children unless they both are 1.) well educated, 2.) Extremely moderate in relegion, and 3.) Mild Mannered.

[edit^2] Two out of the three cases I know, Zealots teach their kids, essentially endoctorinating them. I just don't like that, gives me the shivers. And if they lack patience... in any case, it depends, homeschooling is not for everyone.

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[This message has been edited by Lord Kuat (edited January 09, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by Lord Kuat (edited January 09, 2004).]

It almost seems like they're trying to teach two different ways. They preach competition with EVERYONE (it's really obvious too, at least at my school. You can tell who stresses way to much about things, just so they can do better than everyone else), but then they slow down the class and want to make sure everyone is up to par, even in Honours and AP classes. I swear.. In my honours english class, you'd expect there to be smart people, right? People who can read, write, interpret things at a high level? A good 1/4 of the class is composed of stoners (same with my honours chem.), and they just don't do anything, and then complain when work is assigned.
For english, we had to read The Scarlet Letter. I didn't like it, but I took up an entire weekend reading it, and answering all the questions I needed to. I come to class, and I'm one of 4 who read the book. About half the class didn't finish it, and the rest read part of it, and then the cliffnotes, or just cliffnotes... Honours English.. this is the best we have, apparently.

I don't do awesome in school, I'm no straight-A student, but it's mainly because I don't feel motivated. I'm not all swept up in this competitive spirit they force into us, the classes all bore me (Except for Visual Basic. I swear, it might not be a great language, this is one of about three teachers left in the school that activly care about teaching anymore. He stops the class when someone puts their head down, he truely wants people to do the best they can, and doesn't abandon them and ignore them).
Too many of my classes I just zone out and think about something completely different (more than ever this year, we switched to 4 86 minute classes a day.) I swear, I've come up with some awesome plots for movies, books, games, revisions to the above, additions the the above.

Bleh. I need out.

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MadQuack on Military school: Pro's: I get to shoot a gun. Con's: Everything else.
"I'm going to beat you until the laws of physics are violated!!" ! Maeve's Warcry

RIP -MaDaVentor-. You will be missed.

I like to lump them together when possible (all on MW or TR). That's not always possible for me though, now that I'm getting into my last 2 semesters.

MW 12:00-01:50 Java
MW 07:10-08:25 Physics
M 08:35-10:35 Physics Lab
R 05:45-09:25 Flash

I still have to pick up another class (probably VB2) if my co-op doesn't come through on time (*******s lost my teacher recommendations), and I'm also trying to juggle work (24 hours a week), a girlfriend, and Yoga and Tae Kwon Do on Tuesday nights. I know people that have it worse, but it feels bad enough to me! :/



Grades K-12 = Daycare at tax payers expense.

I feel that things have changed for me now that I'm in college. I was out of high school for around 4 years before I started college and for the first time in my life, I'm actually enjoying school. I'm learning things, meeting interesting people, I'm becoming more optimistic about my future (the first time in my life that I thought I might have one), and I'm only in a community college (going for BA next Fall). For every person that isn't getting anything out of college, there's someone like me whose getting plenty.



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