I hate school. I love learning, but I hate school.
School is where you have facts crammed down you're throat which you are expected to keep there until the very last possible second. After that, you are free to throw it up on a piece of paper and never speak of it again.
Learning is exploring; The gaining of knowledge that will stick with you forever. It's like superglue. It's never going to go away.
School is where you are forced to sit for 7 hours a day and pay attention (And let's face it. No one ever pays attention). And then on top of that there is 2 hours of homework every night. 9 hours x 180 days (the average school year)= 1620 hours. Add in sports and the number rises to about 2000 hours. So, 1620 hours is about 68 days. Doesn't seem bad, right? Wrong. Because of the lack of stimulation in most public schools, most students go home and do more of what they have been doing all day- nothing. These nothings would include but are not limited to video games, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, T.V., ect. All this time in school is wasted. All for what? Another American to sit on the couch doing nothing?
Learning, however, happens 24 hours, 7 days a week, year round. Yet, it hardly takes up any time... Or at least it doesn't feel like it takes up time because humans are so damn good at it. That's how we made it this far! The brain is constantly gathering information, storing and discarding it. It decides what is important and what is not according to how a person thinks by the way they were raised and their peers' values. The majority of things taught in school (Like what a simile is or how to solve permutations) goes in the brain's discard pile after it is no longer needed to, say, pass a test. The ideas, actions, and thoughts that interest the brain and have a chance of helping in the future go in the storage pile. Will you ever need to know the formula for salt in a life or death situation? Maybe. Probably? No. Therefore, the brain would probably throw this out.
School is where you have facts crammed down you're throat which you are expected to keep there until the very last possible second. After that, you are free to throw it up on a piece of paper and never speak of it again.
Learning is exploring; The gaining of knowledge that will stick with you forever. It's like superglue. It's never going to go away.
School is where you are forced to sit for 7 hours a day and pay attention (And let's face it. No one ever pays attention). And then on top of that there is 2 hours of homework every night. 9 hours x 180 days (the average school year)= 1620 hours. Add in sports and the number rises to about 2000 hours. So, 1620 hours is about 68 days. Doesn't seem bad, right? Wrong. Because of the lack of stimulation in most public schools, most students go home and do more of what they have been doing all day- nothing. These nothings would include but are not limited to video games, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, T.V., ect. All this time in school is wasted. All for what? Another American to sit on the couch doing nothing?
Learning, however, happens 24 hours, 7 days a week, year round. Yet, it hardly takes up any time... Or at least it doesn't feel like it takes up time because humans are so damn good at it. That's how we made it this far! The brain is constantly gathering information, storing and discarding it. It decides what is important and what is not according to how a person thinks by the way they were raised and their peers' values. The majority of things taught in school (Like what a simile is or how to solve permutations) goes in the brain's discard pile after it is no longer needed to, say, pass a test. The ideas, actions, and thoughts that interest the brain and have a chance of helping in the future go in the storage pile. Will you ever need to know the formula for salt in a life or death situation? Maybe. Probably? No. Therefore, the brain would probably throw this out.
*****
It's the last quarter of school, so the principal is trying to figure out our schedules for next year. The sophomores had to have a 40 minute meeting with the principal because there are over 35 people who want to take Adv. Bio and Chemistry next year. This is more than ever before in the history of ever. I go to a relatively small school. There are just over 300 people in the high school, so scheduling is a bit tight. I was one of the few to volunteer to split my classes between my junior and senior years. Everyone one wants to get all of their hard classes out of the way junior year so they can slack off senior year. Typical. I, however, want to get as many classes in as I can in the 2 years I have left. I probably won't get them all, but I think I'll get most of them. I sort of regret taking a free period this semester, but I don't think there were any classes I could fill it with.
Sophomore year sucks hardcore. I have the most boring classes in the entire world. I start the day out with English. My teacher could make an OCD person cry with happiness. Everything is labelled and organized. This is about the exact opposite from last year. And I loath it. I am a creative writer. Very little structure when it comes to me and the English language. Spontaneousness and chaos is the nectar of inspiration. Structure makes me want to shoot myself when it comes to English. On the other hand, I have to have structure and order in the Mathematics department. There needs to me a plan and a pattern. The right and left hemispheres of my brain need to get their crap together and not be so moody. As for science, I really wish I was in S's class and not D's. It's really, really, really, really, really easy to get off topic in D's class. We never get anything done, I'm re"learning" everything I've ever been taught in Biology, and it's a huge waste of my time. I say "learning" because all we do are fill-in-the-blank notes. My last class is Spanish. Nuff said.
Saturday is Small Group Band Contest. I'm preforming a duet I wrote myself. Wish me luck!
~Em
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