10 Things I Hate(d) About School (abridged edition)

Alternate Title: Hey Nerd - Do My Homework!

So, I just ran across this little article over on the Boston Globe site called "May I do your homework?", wherein the writer talks about being contacted by High School students with requests for information for homework assignments.

She starts to wonder, due to the wording, whether they were basically asking her basically, to write the assigments for them, since they seemd to be more requests for information, rather than guidence on avenues of research for themselves.

This reminded me of one of the problems I had with Public school back in the day:

Homework is useless.

Well...I know it's not. But as a student, it really is. It goes nowhere. "Oooooh look, I wrote a completely brilliant essay on "Yertle The Turtle". I'm glad the teacher enjoyed reading it for 3 minutes *flush* ...and onto the next essay by a 10 year old.

That this was apparent to me becomes underlined by an essay I wrote in Sophmore year in in High School; "On the futility of writing essays". I don't, of course, still have it, or anything (*flush*), but it got me sent to the Principal.

Mind you, these days with what schools are worried about students writing, it probably would have gotten me into an honors class. I did get an "A" for the structure, etc. However it was clearly a big "fuck you" to the class/school. But I digress.

In the Globe article, the author wonders:

I'm not sure where the blame belongs, given the abundance of potholes along the road to joyful learning: MCAS tests, SATs, the winner-take-all economy, our focus on credentials rather than content. Then, of course, there's the laziness, orneriness, and resistance to authority with which the human race is naturally endowed. That we probably can't change; for the rest, we've got to do better.

My suspicion would be that, to paraphrase Roger Waters; "All in all it's just a, 'nother brick in the wall". The educational system has spent years building that wall, and now, it's a bit more difficult to tear it down.

7:19:16 PM     Discuss: [] trackback []


Our focus on the world...

Wheres on Earth: "I consider it almost criminal that airlines tell you to close your windows so bored passengers with broken headphones can watch a censored movie on a tiny screen — when the scenes outside the window are ones many of our ancestors would have given limbs for a chance to see."(Via The Doc Searls Weblog.)

A-men.

Doc got awesome photos, too....England, Scotland and Greenland

I flew out to Cupertino last October, and it was hard not to just keep looking out the window, even though I was flying at night.

I think it's one of the reasons I like to be the person driving, when I travel, as it gves me an "excuse" to keep looking around. (Although some of the wildest stuff I've seen was when I was a passenger, as a kid.)

7:18:24 PM     Discuss: [] trackback []