This was actually supposed to be part of "December Blues" but as I put it off, it seemed the idea had... I guess fermented? Either way, I just kept developing the thought more and more as I thought about it.
At the Dude's Lock-in (refer to the previous post) a friend of mine expressed his view on how he thought school has become a competition of sorts. These might not have been his exact words, and I might be remembering this wrong (hey it was 2AM and this was last week) but, at any rate...
I think he's right.
Whats worse is that, because it has become a competition, we've taken out the education out of education. Kids dont study to learn, they study to get good grades. I can guarantee that if you asked almost any kid why they go to school, it sure as hell wont be "So I can learn stuff."
My parents (and probably most asian parents) tell their kids to go to school so they can have a better life.
Good grades, good college.
Good college, good job.
Good job, good life.
Thats the theory anyway.
I think part of the reason that kids dont feel inclined to go to school, is... well because I dont think it adequately represents what many people want to do, (presumably) until the college level. I mean, why do we have to take useless classes that we'll never use outside of highschool? Teachers even admit that unless you go into that specific field of study, you'll never use it.
If I wanted to learn that snails have sex once in their lifetime, for twelve hours, I'll go read it in a book. (Which I did actually, Book of Numbers by Adam Spencer, go check it out [I have a copy if you want to borrow it] )
A byproduct, although a little bit of a stretch, is that this basically widens the gap between the rich and the poor. Think about it real quick. What kind of cities have the lowest diagnostic scores on tests and in general, and which have the highest?
The usual trend would be poor neighborhoods being the former, and rich neighborhoods being the latter. And well, following the general theory, more kids coming from poor neighborhoods will get shafted and well... you can guess what happens to the rich kids.
I could be wrong, but I'm just putting A and B together.
So I probably deviated from the main point leaving you confused, but the main point is that we've made school feel like a chore.
Its become a competition where you compete to get the highest grades. Instead of learning, all you do is absorb until you no longer need it, then (metaphorically) poop it out. All for the sake of a better life.
Whoopee.
With all this pessimism, I think there is a very, very simple solution. Make school a place where instead of "Man... I have to go to school" its "I get to go to school!"
Something that would help, would be taking a survey of sorts to see what the kids actually want to learn, instead of just feeding us this list of things that they offer.
After all, school would be a hell of a lot better if you learned what you wanted to right?
To make a long post even longer, rant tiem ye.
Oh dad. You're so awesome. We want to watch a movie, so you come over and tell us that you want to. After you basically demand that you want to watch it so we have to too, we begrudgingly accept and we're on our merry way.
Oh man the car ride there was great! I mean, you basically spelled out how you felt after you said "See because you dilly dallied I cant watch the movie until later" Wait, arent we watching the movie too? Oh right, we dont matter. Greatest part is? Because you saw the Spectrum parking was so full, you said nah, screw it, and didnt even bother to go to another theater. Then proceeded to make us go shopping...for some odd reason.
Oh yea and today, thanks for postponing going to the gym for 30 minutes, then blame it on me and say "man all youre doing is sitting there making me wait." Last time I checked 6:30 meant 6:30, not 6:00. I mean, its not like I was doing anything important but still, dont play it off like I forced you to wait. Dat aint cool.
But at least you didnt go insane when I asked mom to pick me up instead. Oh wait, yea you did. I would assume that because everytime you force me to leave when I want to stay longer, it would make sense for you to leave first, them mom pick me up. I dont know why you were so angry, I was pretty damn polite about it, I even said please. (seriously, I dont say please a lot)
Oh and just a little side note, when you barely do anything at the gym every time we go, considering you dont even sweat, please refrain from telling me I'm "wasting money" especially since I make full use of the gym, whereas you... well you dont.
Sorry, one last thing. When you have TWO DAMN GRAND PIANOS AND ONE ELECTRIC PIANO at your house, please play those instead of our very old piano, especially since we've asked you to stop multiple times because it is very, very annoying when you play for two hours... straight... when we're right there.
Love you too dad.
And shazam. Longest post yet. (I think?)
You cant resist her. She's in your bones.
&
I guess, death is just another form of rest
Pretty sure I posted that last one before, just not...well as the closing links. Listen to it anyway.
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