Rant: Absurdity of Modern Education - General

I can assume most of us are in high school. I can assume that those who want an education are shocked and angered by how absurb and ridiculous education has gotten over the past couple years. And I can assume that your school/teachers/parents side with this pathetic attempt to make the young people more intelligent. Please read, digest and enjoy this thread and this little rant of mine. [B]INTRODUCTION[/B] I'm in tenth grade (sophomore year), yet I have already seen how silly education has been. It's to the point of being mind-numbingly dumb that I, amongst many other people, feel the need to just not care anymore. I don't care about some things in my classes and maybe my grades slipped a tiny bit. It doesn't matter. I am here to argue and debate on an Internet forum about something we all hate in this day and age: education. Do we hate it because we want to be working at McDonald's for the rest of our lives? No. We most likely hate it because the quality of education has declined rapidly. We arent't getting the good old quality education your parents or your grandparents have gotten. Grades are falling. [IMG]http://www.iowalive.net/education1.gif[/IMG] Granted, this is from 1994, but you can assume that the productivity has decreased over a timespan of sixteen years. [B]PART I - JUST THE BASICS? I DON'T THINK SO[/B] You know what school teaches you? It's an age-old saying: reading, [w]riting and [a]rithmetic, the three R's. Not anymore. Now it's not just reading, writing and mathematics, but also science, a foreign language and extracurricular activities (also called electives). Not too bad, right? In my humble opinion, it probably is. That's all we need to know to barely get by in the real world (reading, writing and math), but now we absolutely have to know about various sciences, what [I]Se hablà Español[/I] means, and how to make pottery - these serve as primarily examples but seems to be absolutely required to attain that degree in architecture you've always wanted. It's laughably horrible how the school boards try to incorporate writing into electives such as pottery, for example, and those grades are probably lower than last year when all you did was make pretty bowls and miniature sculptures. Serving as a little connection here, I take Culinary Arts (cooking; there are more guys than you think in there) and we have to write an essay about how food can help you graduate from college. Seriously? Is that necessary? I don't think it is, many don't think it is. But the school board does. Boo-hoo, I'm not doing it. Cry me a river. I think that English classes, math, history and health courses are the only necessary ones. Everything else: chemistry, physics, foreign language, and electives should be used either for those who want to pursue those types of classes to help them in college or to fill up their schedule a bit. Biology can be a semester in health, health and physical education (gym class) should be melded together; every other day is to go to the gym, the rest is health. See that? That's good time-management. Onto the next section... [B]PART II - COLLEGE PREPAREDNESS[/B] High school prepares you for college, right? It doesn't. What a shame. The only thing you have to remember from your high school days is that final exams suck and that you always go for the cutest girl. Stuff like English and math is pretty much superglued in your brain. You won't forget where to put a comma or what five times ten is. It's natural to know that. You'll forget your science, maybe a bit of that foreign language you took, and a small bit from your history class. Nomatter. Just study and you'll rmember. At least, that's what your teachers in high school say. They give you tests and expect you to remember everything. The finals are about memorization. There's no thinking involved, just half-assed questions and "essays" that even a monkey could think of. Teachers get to make up the finals, that's why. The school board does it too. Wow. A hundred multiple choice and three essays will help me get to college. To be frank, yes. It's a sad thing. You have to remember. No shit, Sherlock. What if you forget? Who honestly spends all summer shut in their house studying? I don't, and I do not have much of a social life. I do that enough at school. Just kidding. I can hang out with whomever, whenever. Impound the information into the students' heads. Instead of a forty-five minute class and a pointless homework assignment that no one ever does, lengthen that to an hour. That way, the teachers can teach all they have put down to teach for the day. Homework "teaching responsiblity" is a bunch of bullshit. No one ever does it, so I'm guessing no one's a responsible person. There's no scientific proof that us teenagers benefit from it, so what's the point? It just adds onto stress. If the homework was just to study, I'd go for it. It should be something to help those who don't understand, understand. In college, your homework is to study; you do extra work for the reason above. You buy your textbooks but to study from. You get no worksheets. Just a lecture and notes will do. Personally, I learn better that way. People are bored in school because there's no variety. Just back to the old grind, as they say. Instead, take your history class to a museum of some sorts, or take your health class to an obstacle course on campus every other week for a fitness exam. People will benefit from this. It'll help them learn better, I think. Lectures and notes, reviewing your notes plus what's in the textbooks; that's the way high school should be, but less harsh than college. [B]PART III - THE PASS/FAIL TECHNIQUE[/B] In school in America, you get your letter grades: A, B, C, D, E, F. Over in Europe, you have your number grades: one through six. Fine, fine. This is not efficient, though. Why? There's too much competition. School should be based on whether or not you passed or failed. No more of this "You have a 75%, you have a C. Bring it up or you'll fail," bullshit. Either you do your work and at least show effort and you pass, or you slack off and fail. Tests hould remain the same letter/number grades. If you do fail, don't worry, you can just redo the work and you pass. End of story. The letter/number grading system is putting stress on people, especially before final exams or after report cards come out. The first three (A, B, C | 6, 5, 4) is a pass. The last three (D, E, F | 3, 2, 1) is a fail. Makes sense, doesn't it? I think so. This can improve our grades. No more "I have an 89%, is that an A or a B," you can just say "I passed." Easy for you, easy for me, easy for the teachers and college admissions people. We all go home happy. [B]PART IV - CONCLUSION[/B] End of the line. Now that you've gotten this far, you might as well finish. Education in this day and age is a half-assed pile of shit. What can we do to change it? I don't know. Let your voice be heard. Talk to your administrators about it, let them advocate for you at the next meeting. Education is bad because of the money being spent over in the Middle East. Pull out and spend more for your own country, dumbass government employees. Can't you see how we're suffering? There's a lot of high school dropouts in ninth grade (freshman year). They haven't even been in high school and they're dropping out. Why? Bad grades, poor education, none of that "he's dumb" crap. Help us see the light as future teachers, doctors, lawyers, mayors, or even presidents. Bad grades = poor education. Teachers don't do their job; as long as they're getting fifty grand a year, they can do whatever the hell they want. Talk to your teachers about changing their ways. Argue. Maybe you'll earn bonus points on your recommedations to higher classes. I hope you enjoyed this opinion and I hope to share a discussion with you all. There is no tl;dr. If you want one, go back to English class. Learn to read. [/rant]

school is dumb

Only because the education is shit.

Primary exmaple: Health class. All I wanted to know in 5th grade was how to fuck a girl, not what that did. [/cool].

[QUOTE=Shadow187(FP);19753580]Primary exmaple: Health class. All I wanted to know in 5th grade was how to fuck a girl, not what that did. [/cool].[/QUOTE] Funny because it's true.

If you're in fifth grade, your balls haven't dropped yet. Why know about what the penis does besides piss? This is about high school education, by the way.

Damn. According to that chart the 1930's were full of fucking Einsteins.

[QUOTE=Shadow187(FP);19753580]Primary exmaple: Health class. All I wanted to know in 5th grade was how to fuck a girl, not what that did. [/cool].[/QUOTE] My health class in Year 9 taught us how to put a condom on a plastic penis that was like a fake banana. I'll try to explain: From the outside, it looks like a crappy plastic banana. Then the bottom of the banana slides off like a sheath and you realise there is a penis inside of it, with the top of the banana as a handle.

Just a quick note, too. How the hell can you rate this OP dumb? He's got decent grammar, and his thought process is decent. Someone like him could save schools tons oh money, and they could be outfitting all computer with HD5850's so we can play Crysis and learn. [editline]02:15AM[/editline] Also, Faren, that shit is deep. Reeeal deep.

[QUOTE=Shadow187(FP);19753680]Just a quick note, too. How the hell can you rate this OP dumb? He's got decent grammar, and his thought process is decent. Someone like him could save schools tons oh money, and they could be outfitting all computer with HD5850's so we can play Crysis and learn.[/QUOTE] I didn't know whether to rate him agree or dumb so I just rated him gaybow.

They had to go and pick crops during the fall/summer and go learn in the winter/spring. Bring back those days.

Our school system sucks. We have kids taking AP courses, which you aren't really supposed to take, and if you don't take them, you don't get into college. Also, EVERYTHING REVOLVES AROUND TESTS. Yes, you did good in class. Yes, you aced your project. But you sucked on the final. Have a C. Main point: School doesn't mean shit anymore.

Our school tells all of our teachers to use "thinking maps." How the fuck do you use a thinking map in Math, English, or a foreign language? Also, my English education in my sophomore year was brilliant, as the teacher taught exceedingly well and really worked hard. I've heard that for junior year, all you learn in English is stupid facts about writers and history, waste time, and half-ass a "junior" project, which is just more wasted, half-assed time. [QUOTE=AmericanInfantry;19753717]They had to go and pick crops during the fall/summer and go learn in the winter/spring. Bring back those days.[/QUOTE]Why do that when you can buy a harvester for $20,000, pay for it in a year and have 100X the productivity of 100 kids?

The technological advancements and social changes that inclined parents to and local authority to force children in to school, despite their urge to leave. And that lowered the educational record. Pretty much kids back in the 1960's could leave if they wanted to. With them gone other students who want to learn could get a good education.

I hate the education system too. My main problem with it is most schools rather spend funding on sports rather then text books and classes. I've been to several high school due to the fact I've moved a lot (military). And that has been the case for almost all of them, for example my English teachers had to spend their own money because the school wouldn't buy them the books for their courses. Sports are great, but it shouldn't be the focus of schools. Second problem is school kill creativity, we're thought to be right all the time and fear being wrong. We're only told the things we need to know for a test and nothing else. I'm a personal believer in success is great, but there is much more to learn from failure. Failure isn't a weakness in less you allow it too. And last schools compete with each other too much and the students are the ones suffering, all these state assessments that students have to take and pass for the schools to get proper funding is the main reason for a lot of this. And a lot of the teachers attitudes i've seen are a "I don't give a fuck" attitude which in return the students don't care. School system needs to be fucking revised.

MR-X is right. Too much funding on sports and too much competition. That needs to change.

fuck school do drugs

[QUOTE=MR-X;19753737]I hate the education system too. My main problem with it is most schools rather spend funding on sports rather then text books and classes. I've been to several high school due to the fact I've moved a lot (military). And that has been the case for almost all of them, for example my English teachers had to spend their own money because the school wouldn't buy them the books for their courses. Sports are great, but it shouldn't be the focus of schools. Second problem is school kill creativity, we're though to be right all the time and fear being wrong. We're only told the things we need to know for a test and nothing else. I'm a personal believer in success is great, but there is much more to learn from failure. Failure isn't a weakness in less you allow it too. And last schools compete with each other too much and the students are the ones suffering, all these state assessments that students have to take and pass for the schools to get proper funding is the main reason for a lot of this. And a lot of the teachers attitudes i've seen are a "I don't give a fuck" attitude which in return the students don't care. School system needs to be fucking revised.[/QUOTE] Sports really should not get that much money in schools. Schools are there to gain knowledge, not fitness. While I agree that having sports in schools is good to keep children fit(not that this really works very often), they shouldn't have so much funding that it starts to leech off of other, more important subjects. Although I guess I am a bit of a hypocrite because this year is the first year that taking sports is not compulsory but I took it anyway. Might as well take advantage of an opportunity to play sports/have fun when it isn't going to change any time soon.

[QUOTE=FEARME!;19753664]Damn. According to that chart the 1930's were full of fucking Einsteins.[/QUOTE] My history teacher had printed off some tests from the 1930s-40s. Those things were intense.

I read this and thought at first you were complaining about schools not giving the quality education they used to, but then I saw it was a rant about how your doing bad in school because you dont even try and are now grounded (hurr your 15 :B) and so you decide to make a tl;dr rant. Congratulations, you have shown yourself a fool.

[QUOTE=OvB;19753887]My history teacher had printed off some tests from the 1930s-40s. Those things were intense.[/QUOTE] But those were probably tests for rich kids because the country was in the middle of the Great Depression

Schools don't focus on teaching anymore, and just cram work and tests down our throats. Why can't high school be like elementary school? I missed the practical, hands on way of learning because I was actually interested on what we were doing. If you want to learn, then you would learn lots, and if you want to goof off, then good luck working at McDonalds.

[QUOTE=PyromanDan;19753917]I read this and thought at first you were complaining about schools not giving the quality education they used to, but then I saw it was a rant about how [B]your[/B] doing bad in school because you [B]dont[/B] even try and are now grounded (hurr your 15 :B) and so you decide to make a tl;dr rant. Congratulations, you have shown yourself a fool.[/QUOTE] You're doing really well yourself, aren't you? :rolleyes:

I like electives, you actually get off of your ass and go do something fun, and languages just help to know.

[QUOTE=Umi-hebi;19753928]But those were probably tests for rich kids because the country was in the middle of the Great Depression[/QUOTE] I believe high school was not mandatory in the 1930s. I think it ended at around grade 9. You had to pay for any higher education. These kids were pretty much doing what we do in 12th grade, in 9th grade. Or so the tests had seemed that way.

Yes, public schools are shit. That's why I went to one for one year and never came back.

So I'm guessing you are one of these people in high school that thinks they have all the answers. Comes out sounding really whiny. Well good luck if you decide to go to college.

Only reason School activity in learning has gone down is because people are all like "Fuck school, I'm gona sleep" Its not the Shools at fault, its the participants, the students who arnt learning as they should be. Looks like we are gona need alot more Mc Donalds and savemarts to give everyone jobs

[QUOTE=Jund;19753938]Schools don't focus on teaching anymore, and just cram work and tests down our throats. Why can't high school be like elementary school? I missed the practical, hands on way of learning because I was actually interested on what we were doing. If you want to learn, then you would learn lots, and if you want to goof off, then good luck working at McDonalds.[/QUOTE] And recess :L I wish we still had that.

[QUOTE=evilweazel;19753968]I like electives, you actually get off of your ass and go do something fun, and languages just help to know.[/QUOTE] Except nobody ever learned how to speak a foreign language in those classes.