A hip, to the hop, a hippety bippety bip bop, systematic mic control....are you ready?
If you're wondering what the above words mean, don't. It probably has something to do with how tired I am, at 6:53 PM. I feel like I should be in a wheelchair and have no teeth, my only source of sustenance being the awful smoothies the nurse brings around. That's an awful thought to have about being old, I just hope I die before I get that way.
Education, education, education. How you never cease to amaze me, and annoy me, as I have to type up new things about you every time. Original and genuine thoughts, put into clear and concise sentences that flow from and the mouth and across the page like a fat heifer on ice skates. Oh, how I do love wacky similes. You can thank Mrs. Kovarik, the English teacher at North Fayette, for teaching me that one.
Education. There it is again. I should treat it as a dirty word, or maybe it just seems like a dirty word to me because it occupies my thought process at least 30% of the time. What does it mean to me? It means books and pencils, boring classes and insufferable teachers, it means to me about the same as oxygen for a drowning man, though at the same time it serves me about as well as a retarded donkey with carpal tunnel syndrome would serve as a stenographer. Going to school is mostly a waste of time. Grades are essentially worthless. Effort doesn't get results it builds self-esteem. Reading material you either don't care about or don't understand doesn't serve any purpose. Having a teacher being completely unexcited and downright boring is a thing I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Doing memorization drills just before a test doesn't gain you any knowledge it gets a good grade. Degrees are expensive pieces of paper.
Do you like this method? The above is a series of things I find excruciatingly awful, also all of the above are things I have experienced. "This kid just whines about stuff!!" If that's what you're thinking first thing no one made you read this blog, secondly I don't complain. I state my own opinion, but if one's opinion is backed by enough similar opinions, would that not make it true? Of course not, but that would be handy if it worked that way.
Some of the most valuable things I've learned didn't come from a lecture or a worksheet, but just from myself exploring things for what they are. I once read a chapter of a book that was written in Latin. I had about this much exposure to Latin prior to reading it. Despite the lack of prior knowledge I understood it. Obviously I couldn't give an analysis of the text or talk about tone or other fancy concepts we talk about in this class, but I understood it. My old German teacher told me I had a large capacity for language learning, which is all fine and good but I didn't see it. I once read the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, not assigned, just wanted to read it. Great stuff. I read Physics books without being told to. This sounds totally nerdy and if there are any eligible young women reading don't be so quick to judge. They say don't judge a book by its cover but everyone does. If you selected one book out of twelve with plain white covers, all written with similar text and a similar number of pages, you wouldn't know whether it was any good or not until you had finished reading it. Don't kid yourself, immediately when you see something you judge it by how it looks. Whether it be a person or a car or a building, absolutely anything at all, you're judging it, willingly or not. With that tidbit out of the way, I can move on. There are books about Einstein on my toilet, as well as other fine literature such as Mental Floss and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. What am I saying? I'm saying worksheets and quizzes and textbooks and overly-structured lessons and lectures are suffocating, and if you've ever had the experience of being is such a classroom, I relate to you. I learn all sorts of things on my accord, whether it be about history or science or the evolution of language. I feel like when teachers make lesson plans they see where I'm at academically, then start six, eight, even ten chapters back. As if I had forgotten everything I learned last year, they organize an extensive review which is an utter waster of my time. Even in the event that there is something completely and absolutely new, a brand spanking new concept of which I haven't the slightest idea, I have yet to come upon something that genuinely befuddles me. It hasn't happened (Mr. Ayers, if and when you read this, I'd like to make it clear that you're doing a stellar job, keep it up. I must say however Language Arts is my least favorite subject due to it's parameters and rules, its seemingly pompous attitude that it exudes, and its subjectiveness. I disagree with rules on language. Yes, we should have grammar and all that happy hopscotch, but it really doesn't matter to me how imperfect my grammar is, or if I mix big words with slang words. Language is something you're supposed to use to create, and I believe that everything in language is fair game, whether it be scholarly speech or backyard baseball lingo.)
Thing to take away from this post; if you read the whole thing and are wondering about what exactly was said, or if you skipped it all and hoped I would give you a summary: I don't think education is nearly as effective as it could or should be, certainly not in this country anyway. I think that there isn't any way two people of hugely varying academic ability can learn the same thing and be happy, and I believe that to expect a teacher to both cater to those struggling and push those who excel is like asking a person to lick their elbow while making spaghetti outside in the rain with no umbrella. It simply can't be done. Rather I should say that I have yet to see anyone succeed at it.
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