Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling

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hedden93

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#1 hedden93
Member since 2009 • 5496 Posts

Awesome speech IMOShe brings up some great points.

What do you guys think?

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alfredooo

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#2 alfredooo
Member since 2007 • 2664 Posts

does she get tackled half way through the vid?

I don't get it...

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mrmusicman247

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#3 mrmusicman247
Member since 2008 • 17601 Posts
Great speech.
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cybrcatter

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#4 cybrcatter
Member since 2003 • 16210 Posts
:o How insightful and candid that speech was.
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JPOBS

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#5 JPOBS
Member since 2007 • 9675 Posts
tl:dw
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HerrJosefK

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#6 HerrJosefK
Member since 2009 • 444 Posts

She should be commended for her ideas, because it does reflect that she's intelligent and inquisitive, but she sounds like a teenager to a painful degree. She's doing little more than repeating the Marxist and/or humanist ideas about the education system that were published nearly a century ago (or more), and in her case it is little more than intellectual masturbation From her perspective, "everyone" is a potential artist, engineer, or musician, and this obviously isn't the case (and if they are, sometimes those ambitions must be relegated to part-time hobbies); it is childish dreaming, which is acceptable...since she's little more than a child. She doesn't understand the consequences of the reality of her idealistic expectations for the education system. In her world, no one will want to work in manufacturing, cook french fries, fix A/C units, or fix our doo-doo pipes (which I've fixed myself a couple of times...eww). Her dreams will be realized when we have robots doing menial work. Until then....

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Lockedge

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#7 Lockedge
Member since 2002 • 16765 Posts

She does raise good points. I can pretty much agree with her. I appreciate her idealistic approach, however unrealistic it is

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metroidfood

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#8 metroidfood
Member since 2007 • 11175 Posts

It's a good speech, but some of her points seem a little off.

Not everyone who doodles in class or doesn't complete their assignments is a great artist or a musician. Most often these tend to be the people who are least inquisitive and willing to learn unfortunately.

The schooling system we have isn't great, but there is a limit to what we can reasonably achieve (though we certainly could be doing more). While I'd love to see public school as more than just the stepping stone for college that it is now, it is still better than an alternative without schooling.

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Grodus5

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#9 Grodus5
Member since 2006 • 7934 Posts

I say just put more focus on the arts (more art, music, drama, and creative writing classes in school) and all should be good. I know at my school we are required to take atleast one credit of Fine Arts to graduate. However, do to this, the classes people really want to take in this area, such as crafts, are packed and the remander get dropped into music appreciation.

Sure, music appreciation is good, but its not the passion of these students. Heck, they even dropped me in that class this year, instead of putting me in physics (or anyone of my other alternate classes they asked me to give if I couldn't be put in my choice classes), despite the fact I explicited stated that I want to be an engineer or other sciectist so I NEED physics, and I already have a few Fine Arts credits under my belt from orchestra.

The point of the matter is, schools are too arbitary, short sighted, and too unflexible. Not to mention HORRIBLY understaffed in the Fine Arts department.

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Alter_Echo

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#10 Alter_Echo
Member since 2003 • 10724 Posts

Ahhhh to be young. I remember when i was just like her and thought i knew everything about the real world before i was ever even forced to live a day in it.

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mrbojangles25

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#11 mrbojangles25
Member since 2005 • 58453 Posts
[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]
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calzeta930

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#12 calzeta930
Member since 2010 • 720 Posts

made some good points :D

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ghoklebutter

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#13 ghoklebutter
Member since 2007 • 19327 Posts
She made some good points, but I generally saw her views as too idealistic.
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Pirate700

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#14 Pirate700
Member since 2008 • 46465 Posts

Ahhhh to be young. I remember when i was just like her and thought i knew everything about the real world before i was ever even forced to live a day in it.

Alter_Echo

:lol: Wasn't being a young, opinionated know it all great? I miss those days sometimes.

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mrbojangles25

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#15 mrbojangles25
Member since 2005 • 58453 Posts

[QUOTE="Alter_Echo"]

Ahhhh to be young. I remember when i was just like her and thought i knew everything about the real world before i was ever even forced to live a day in it.

Pirate700

:lol: Wasn't being a young, opinionated know it all great? I miss those days sometimes.

I dont :P

the world didnt turn out as bad as I expected it to be, so I am much happier now haha

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MattUD1

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#16 MattUD1
Member since 2004 • 20715 Posts

[QUOTE="Alter_Echo"]

Ahhhh to be young. I remember when i was just like her and thought i knew everything about the real world before i was ever even forced to live a day in it.

Pirate700

:lol: Wasn't being a young, opinionated know it all great? I miss those days sometimes.

Those were the days. Now we are all bitter and jaded at the world...
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Tiefster

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#17 Tiefster
Member since 2005 • 14639 Posts

She talks a good game but I doubt she has any idea of how to correct America's horribly awry educational institution. I do sympathize with anyone who was like me though, learning what they were interested in rather than doing what they were supposed to be doing. I was busy failing Spanish while I was learning Japanese, I was busy reading literary classics while the people around me were struggling through the dumbed down version of Hamlet.

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cd_rom

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#18 cd_rom
Member since 2003 • 13951 Posts

It's a good speech, but some of her points seem a little off.

Not everyone who doodles in class or doesn't complete their assignments is a great artist or a musician. Most often these tend to be the people who are least inquisitive and willing to learn unfortunately.

The schooling system we have isn't great, but there is a limit to what we can reasonably achieve (though we certainly could be doing more). While I'd love to see public school as more than just the stepping stone for college that it is now, it is still better than an alternative without schooling.

metroidfood
I think that she was saying school inhibits ideas and creativity of those that actually are artistic. You can't really help the kids that don't want to learn anything, but you can encourage the kids do want to learn. School has a tendency to treat everyone exactly the same. I can't really condemn the schools for that policy though since you can't morph entire curriculum around a select group of people especially with the limited budget that public schools have.
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WasntAvailable

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#19 WasntAvailable
Member since 2008 • 5605 Posts

I say just put more focus on the arts (more art, music, drama, and creative writing classes in school) and all should be good. I know at my school we are required to take atleast one credit of Fine Arts to graduate. However, do to this, the classes people really want to take in this area, such as crafts, are packed and the remander get dropped into music appreciation.

Sure, music appreciation is good, but its not the passion of these students. Heck, they even dropped me in that class this year, instead of putting me in physics (or anyone of my other alternate classes they asked me to give if I couldn't be put in my choice classes), despite the fact I explicited stated that I want to be an engineer or other sciectist so I NEED physics, and I already have a few Fine Arts credits under my belt from orchestra.

The point of the matter is, schools are too arbitary, short sighted, and too unflexible. Not to mention HORRIBLY understaffed in the Fine Arts department.

Grodus5

That's unbelievable. Physics is an essential subject for anyone who wants to be an engineer or anything even remotely similar. There are so many jobs that are beginning to open up for engineers. Obviously it's going to be a popular choice, but there should be enough provision for physics at the very least. I mean come on, it's one of the most essential subjects for anything even remotely scientific. Music appreciation? What you have a class that tells you how to appreciate music? Is that even something that can be taught? Am I missing something? It sounds like absolute filler crap. That is no replacement for a class that could essentially alter the course of your future career. Hell if your school is forcing you to take an art subject in place of a science then I think that school really needs to reconsider it's priorities. Art classes should be the least of their concerns.

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kidsmelly

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#20 kidsmelly
Member since 2009 • 5692 Posts

Ahhhh to be young. I remember when i was just like her and thought i knew everything about the real world before i was ever even forced to live a day in it.

Alter_Echo

Haha so true.

Also I was imagining her giving the speech in Auto-tune for some reason.

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Pirate700

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#21 Pirate700
Member since 2008 • 46465 Posts

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

[QUOTE="Alter_Echo"]

Ahhhh to be young. I remember when i was just like her and thought i knew everything about the real world before i was ever even forced to live a day in it.

mrbojangles25

:lol: Wasn't being a young, opinionated know it all great? I miss those days sometimes.

I dont :P

the world didnt turn out as bad as I expected it to be, so I am much happier now haha

True. Same here. :P

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dercoo

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#22 dercoo
Member since 2006 • 12555 Posts

Well if there is 2 thing we can all agree to is

A: US public education is ***** as a whole

and

B: The forced standardisation of education, and the heavy reliance on standardised test are not helping. Most of my education years (1-12) where spent learning how to pass the end of year school evaluation test, so the school looks good. Instead of focusing learning thing I will need later in life. Then throw in useless subjects like cursive and it gets even worse.

Also whats the point of forcing 2 years of foreign language to get into college. Unless you are a child prodigy there is no way in hell you can learn aforeign language in 2 years from clas ses, and use it effectively or fluently. So whats the bloody point.

A foreign culture or college prep clas s would be a much better use of that time.

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MattUD1

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#23 MattUD1
Member since 2004 • 20715 Posts

Well if there is 2 thing we can all agree to is

A: US public education is ***** as a whole

and

B: The forced standardisation of education, and the heavy reliance on standardised test are not helping. Most of my education years (1-12) where spent learning how to pass the end of year school evaluation test, so the school looks good. Instead of focusing learning thing I will need later in life. Then throw in useless subjects like cursive and it gets even worse.

Also whats the point of forcing 2 years of foreign language to get into college. Unless you are a child prodigy there is no way in hell you can learn aforeign language in 2 years from clas ses, and use it effectively or fluently. So whats the bloody point.

A foreign culture or college prep clas s would be a much better use of that time.

dercoo
The problem with languages in High School (and sometimes middle school too) is that by the time one gets there the part of the brain that learns language has closed itself off to additional language learning. I think that region closes itself off sometime in the elementary school age range.
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no_one_specific

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#24 no_one_specific
Member since 2003 • 2612 Posts
Derrick Jensen wrote a book called "Walking on Water: Reading, Writing, and Revolution." She touches on quite a few of the same points that the book does. It's a good read. I would recommend it because it has a similar viewpoint on the education system, but from a man who has been a teacher for years, as opposed to a student who has just graduated. Her speech is very inspiring, but Jensen's book sheds more light on the subject.
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no_one_specific

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#25 no_one_specific
Member since 2003 • 2612 Posts
[QUOTE="dercoo"]

Well if there is 2 thing we can all agree to is

A: US public education is ***** as a whole

and

B: The forced standardisation of education, and the heavy reliance on standardised test are not helping. Most of my education years (1-12) where spent learning how to pass the end of year school evaluation test, so the school looks good. Instead of focusing learning thing I will need later in life. Then throw in useless subjects like cursive and it gets even worse.

Also whats the point of forcing 2 years of foreign language to get into college. Unless you are a child prodigy there is no way in hell you can learn aforeign language in 2 years from clas ses, and use it effectively or fluently. So whats the bloody point.

A foreign culture or college prep clas s would be a much better use of that time.

MattUD1
The problem with languages in High School (and sometimes middle school too) is that by the time one gets there the part of the brain that learns language has closed itself off to additional language learning. I think that region closes itself off sometime in the elementary school age range.

Yeah, I think it's around 9-11 years of age. I don't exactly remember, but I learned about this. It's called the critical period, in case you don't know.
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KidCudi37

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#26 KidCudi37
Member since 2010 • 3535 Posts
Good speech.
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dercoo

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#27 dercoo
Member since 2006 • 12555 Posts

[QUOTE="dercoo"]

Well if there is 2 thing we can all agree to is

A: US public education is ***** as a whole

and

B: The forced standardisation of education, and the heavy reliance on standardised test are not helping. Most of my education years (1-12) where spent learning how to pass the end of year school evaluation test, so the school looks good. Instead of focusing learning thing I will need later in life. Then throw in useless subjects like cursive and it gets even worse.

Also whats the point of forcing 2 years of foreign language to get into college. Unless you are a child prodigy there is no way in hell you can learn aforeign language in 2 years from clas ses, and use it effectively or fluently. So whats the bloody point.

A foreign culture or college prep clas s would be a much better use of that time.

MattUD1

The problem with languages in High School (and sometimes middle school too) is that by the time one gets there the part of the brain that learns language has closed itself off to additional language learning. I think that region closes itself off sometime in the elementary school age range.

Yes, I remember hearing you are best adapt at learning a language at elementary school age or younger.

Which makes those 2 years even more pointless.

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Grodus5

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#28 Grodus5
Member since 2006 • 7934 Posts

[QUOTE="Grodus5"]

I say just put more focus on the arts (more art, music, drama, and creative writing classes in school) and all should be good. I know at my school we are required to take atleast one credit of Fine Arts to graduate. However, do to this, the classes people really want to take in this area, such as crafts, are packed and the remander get dropped into music appreciation.

Sure, music appreciation is good, but its not the passion of these students. Heck, they even dropped me in that class this year, instead of putting me in physics (or anyone of my other alternate classes they asked me to give if I couldn't be put in my choice classes), despite the fact I explicited stated that I want to be an engineer or other sciectist so I NEED physics, and I already have a few Fine Arts credits under my belt from orchestra.

The point of the matter is, schools are too arbitary, short sighted, and too unflexible. Not to mention HORRIBLY understaffed in the Fine Arts department.

WasntAvailable

That's unbelievable. Physics is an essential subject for anyone who wants to be an engineer or anything even remotely similar. There are so many jobs that are beginning to open up for engineers. Obviously it's going to be a popular choice, but there should be enough provision for physics at the very least. I mean come on, it's one of the most essential subjects for anything even remotely scientific. Music appreciation? What you have a class that tells you how to appreciate music? Is that even something that can be taught? Am I missing something? It sounds like absolute filler crap. That is no replacement for a class that could essentially alter the course of your future career. Hell if your school is forcing you to take an art subject in place of a science then I think that school really needs to reconsider it's priorities. Art classes should be the least of their concerns.

To their defense, I'm a junior, so I can always take it next year, but that will limit the amount of AP classes I'll be able to take next year, so its just as bad in my eyes (it also makes it physically (no pun intended) impossible for me to take AP Physics next year). They might have some legit excuse, I'm in atleast two classes where there is only one period of it being taught, so maybe they couldn't of gotten my schedule worked out right, but come on, they could've atleast put me in something that interested me instead of music appreciation (like I said, I already have a few Fine Arts credits from Orchestra, so its an even bigger waste of my time since I won't learn anything new and won't get a needed credit). There were about 3 or 4 classes I put down as alternates, there could've been something that worked out.
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taj7575

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#29 taj7575
Member since 2008 • 12084 Posts

[QUOTE="MattUD1"][QUOTE="dercoo"]

Well if there is 2 thing we can all agree to is

A: US public education is ***** as a whole

and

B: The forced standardisation of education, and the heavy reliance on standardised test are not helping. Most of my education years (1-12) where spent learning how to pass the end of year school evaluation test, so the school looks good. Instead of focusing learning thing I will need later in life. Then throw in useless subjects like cursive and it gets even worse.

Also whats the point of forcing 2 years of foreign language to get into college. Unless you are a child prodigy there is no way in hell you can learn aforeign language in 2 years from clas ses, and use it effectively or fluently. So whats the bloody point.

A foreign culture or college prep clas s would be a much better use of that time.

dercoo

The problem with languages in High School (and sometimes middle school too) is that by the time one gets there the part of the brain that learns language has closed itself off to additional language learning. I think that region closes itself off sometime in the elementary school age range.

Yes, I remember hearing you are best adapt at learning a language at elementary school age or younger.

Which makes those 2 years even more pointless.

I agree, and I also agree with your point B.

In my school that I went to, PSSA scores weren't that great because nobdy cared and it was pretty worthless, but the school needed good PSSA scores for funding. Thankfully I graduated this year, because the juniors did not do well, and they have to take some "required" courses. It's just a waste of time..

I wish pumlic schools would improve, because I'd rather go to a public than private to be honest. It's just public schools need to be more balanced, and there shouldn't be a force of some useless standardized tests.

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Sajo7

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#30 Sajo7
Member since 2005 • 14049 Posts
:lol: Wasn't being a young, opinionated know it all great?Pirate700
I've only seen one these traits disappear with age.
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taj7575

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#31 taj7575
Member since 2008 • 12084 Posts

One thing she is certainly right about though, is how many people who were considered smart in high school just focused on a test and then again studied for the next test.

Although it might sound boring, I took almost every new lesson I learned at school and tried to research it one way or another, or try to remember it as best as I can. Not for school, but just for learning purposes. For example, I knew I was going to go into the field of business, which deals a lot with globalization nowadays, so in my world literature class, I tried learning as much as possible. I can't even explain how much I learned from that class, but the majority of people found it boring and only studied when there was a test. They normally just took notes and studied that when they needed to. I only took notes when I felt like it was important, but I mainly listened and actually tried understanding what was going on.

I wasn't first in my class, nor would I care to be, but at least I felt like I left high school learning a lot and remembering a lot of which I was taught.

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taj7575

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#32 taj7575
Member since 2008 • 12084 Posts

By the way, there is still only a few things I can agree with her on. She is still too idealistic and some of what she said was just unnecessary.

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#33 deactivated-57e5de5e137a4
Member since 2004 • 12929 Posts
I thought it was common knowledge that you go to school to either get a job, or avoid getting a job. Still, it's better than the "ride the unicorn of life over the rainbow of your dreams" speeches that you usually hear at graduations.
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EMOEVOLUTION

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#34 EMOEVOLUTION
Member since 2008 • 8998 Posts
she has an idea of what she's talking about but I don't like how she said it. could have been more dramatic, more assertive.
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Wasdie

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#35 Wasdie  Moderator
Member since 2003 • 53622 Posts

Actually the more I listened to her, the more I believe she doesn't know really what she is talking about. I understand school being a system of mindless test, but she started rambling about life in general and how authoritarian it is.

I don't believe she really understand how free a person is in America. They just choose to accept the path of least resistance. I'm an engineer working as an intern for a company right now but I don't feel constrained to the system one bit. If I have a great idea for software that is unique and innovative, something that would bring around a big revolution in software technologies, I have plenty of free time to build it and then apply it to real life applications.

At face value you are being trained for a job, when you're in high school. College is a completely different world. In fact the world is what you make of it. I've never been told I can't do something just because that is not how it works. I've been told it would be very difficult, but not that it was impossible.

We are creatures of the path of least resistance. People talk about changing things all of the time, talking about how corporations are so evil, saying how all forms of education are just to brainwash us into believing there is only one right way to live our lives, and saying how society brainwashes us to believe money is the only thing important in life. This can be true if you keep telling yourself that your life is just part of a big plan.

It's all a mental thing. People see our society as some horrible system. They look at all of the negative, they focus and dwell on what they can't change. People focus to much on the welfare of others before they realize that the only person in the world that it really matters weather or not they are happy is yourself. You can't make people happy. You can't just change the system and make people happy.

The system there is because we built it that way. Did anybody every think about that? People like taking the path of least resistance... it's easy. Why did society become like it is today, because we let it. No corporation was strapping us down and brainwashing us. The real problem is people dwelling to much on the negative in this world. They bring themselves down. You end up fighting the system so much that you put yourself in a state of unhappiness.

Do I like the system we have? It has it's flaws and it's benefits. There is nothing stopping me from quitting my job, dropping out of school, and pursuing a career in music right this very second. If I really didn't care about owning anything nice at the moment and having a stable life, I could follow my dream and make a stable life out of it. Nothing is stopping anybody from doing anything, it's just mental.

I think thats the real problem. It isn't the system. It's the mentality of the people. School did not teach me that college is the only way to be successful and school did not teach me that money is everything. At least that is not how I interpreted it. I didn't bust my ass off in high school for good grades and I haven't been doing the same at college. Maybe I've just broken free of that chain that society keeps on us. I want to do what I am doing now. I want to go into what I am going into. Not because the money is good, not because it will help my social standing, it's because I enjoy building software and exploring the new technologies that come from the truly innovative minds.

Sure highschool and elementary school may be a session of memorization, but life is definitely not ruled by the system and not everybody in this world is focused solely on bettering themselves financially. People are out living life to the fullest for the sake of living life. Don't let yourself ever get caught in any single mentality. Be it that the only way to measure success is in your financial portfolio or that the man is keeping you down and you can't be happy because of that. Just live life. Do what makes you happy. If what makes you happy seems difficult to obtain, maybe you need to work hard to get it.

Nothing in life is easy. We built our society to be as streamlined and as resistance free as possible. If you're not happy with that system, you have to work to make yourself happy at what you want to do. Many of us are just happy strolling along with the flow of things. No matter what you chose, the best thing to do is just to not worry. You do that, you'll be alright.

Gutsy speech though.

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#36 deactivated-5f9e3c6a83e51
Member since 2004 • 57548 Posts
[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

Actually the more I listened to her, the more I believe she doesn't know really what she is talking about. I understand school being a system of mindless test, but she started rambling about life in general and how authoritarian it is.

I don't believe she really understand how free a person is in America. They just choose to accept the path of least resistance. I'm an engineer working as an intern for a company right now but I don't feel constrained to the system one bit. If I have a great idea for software that is unique and innovative, something that would bring around a big revolution in software technologies, I have plenty of free time to build it and then apply it to real life applications.

At face value you are being trained for a job, when you're in high school. College is a completely different world. In fact the world is what you make of it. I've never been told I can't do something just because that is not how it works. I've been told it would be very difficult, but not that it was impossible.

We are creatures of the path of least resistance. People talk about changing things all of the time, talking about how corporations are so evil, saying how all forms of education are just to brainwash us into believing there is only one right way to live our lives, and saying how society brainwashes us to believe money is the only thing important in life. This can be true if you keep telling yourself that your life is just part of a big plan.

It's all a mental thing. People see our society as some horrible system. They look at all of the negative, they focus and dwell on what they can't change. People focus to much on the welfare of others before they realize that the only person in the world that it really matters weather or not they are happy is yourself. You can't make people happy. You can't just change the system and make people happy.

The system there is because we built it that way. Did anybody every think about that? People like taking the path of least resistance... it's easy. Why did society become like it is today, because we let it. No corporation was strapping us down and brainwashing us. The real problem is people dwelling to much on the negative in this world. They bring themselves down. You end up fighting the system so much that you put yourself in a state of unhappiness.

Do I like the system we have? It has it's flaws and it's benefits. There is nothing stopping me from quitting my job, dropping out of school, and pursuing a career in music right this very second. If I really didn't care about owning anything nice at the moment and having a stable life, I could follow my dream and make a stable life out of it. Nothing is stopping anybody from doing anything, it's just mental.

I think thats the real problem. It isn't the system. It's the mentality of the people. School did not teach me that college is the only way to be successful and school did not teach me that money is everything. At least that is not how I interpreted it. I didn't bust my ass off in high school for good grades and I haven't been doing the same at college. Maybe I've just broken free of that chain that society keeps on us. I want to do what I am doing now. I want to go into what I am going into. Not because the money is good, not because it will help my social standing, it's because I enjoy building software and exploring the new technologies that come from the truly innovative minds.

Sure highschool and elementary school may be a session of memorization, but life is definitely not ruled by the system and not everybody in this world is focused solely on bettering themselves financially. People are out living life to the fullest for the sake of living life. Don't let yourself ever get caught in any single mentality. Be it that the only way to measure success is in your financial portfolio or that the man is keeping you down and you can't be happy because of that. Just live life. Do what makes you happy. If what makes you happy seems difficult to obtain, maybe you need to work hard to get it.

Nothing in life is easy. We built our society to be as streamlined and as resistance free as possible. If you're not happy with that system, you have to work to make yourself happy at what you want to do. Many of us are just happy strolling along with the flow of things. No matter what you chose, the best thing to do is just to not worry. You do that, you'll be alright.

Gutsy speech though.

Good point wadie. I think she is railing against barriers that she herself is putting up - whether consiously or subconsciously.
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PerfectCircles

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#37 PerfectCircles
Member since 2009 • 2359 Posts
[QUOTE="MattUD1"][QUOTE="dercoo"]

Well if there is 2 thing we can all agree to is

A: US public education is ***** as a whole

and

B: The forced standardisation of education, and the heavy reliance on standardised test are not helping. Most of my education years (1-12) where spent learning how to pass the end of year school evaluation test, so the school looks good. Instead of focusing learning thing I will need later in life. Then throw in useless subjects like cursive and it gets even worse.

Also whats the point of forcing 2 years of foreign language to get into college. Unless you are a child prodigy there is no way in hell you can learn aforeign language in 2 years from clas ses, and use it effectively or fluently. So whats the bloody point.

A foreign culture or college prep clas s would be a much better use of that time.

no_one_specific
The problem with languages in High School (and sometimes middle school too) is that by the time one gets there the part of the brain that learns language has closed itself off to additional language learning. I think that region closes itself off sometime in the elementary school age range.

Yeah, I think it's around 9-11 years of age. I don't exactly remember, but I learned about this. It's called the critical period, in case you don't know.

Its not exactly closed off and impossible, its just much harder to learn and will take longer than two years. Also the critical period is closer to 7 for learning a language fluently.
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IAMTHEJOKER88

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#38 IAMTHEJOKER88
Member since 2008 • 934 Posts

[QUOTE="PerfectCircles"][QUOTE="no_one_specific"][QUOTE="MattUD1"][QUOTE="dercoo"]

Well if there is 2 thing we can all agree to is

A: US public education is ***** as a whole

and

B: The forced standardisation of education, and the heavy reliance on standardised test are not helping. Most of my education years (1-12) where spent learning how to pass the end of year school evaluation test, so the school looks good. Instead of focusing learning thing I will need later in life. Then throw in useless subjects like cursive and it gets even worse.

Also whats the point of forcing 2 years of foreign language to get into college. Unless you are a child prodigy there is no way in hell you can learn aforeign language in 2 years from clas ses, and use it effectively or fluently. So whats the bloody point.

A foreign culture or college prep clas s would be a much better use of that time.

You can learn a lot if you listen.

je peux parler un petit de francais mais c'est pas, et ich kanne deutsch sprechen.

j'ai apprendre allemand l'annee dernier.

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Elephant_Couple

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#39 Elephant_Couple
Member since 2010 • 1404 Posts

She should be commended for her ideas, because it does reflect that she's intelligent and inquisitive, but she sounds like a teenager to a painful degree. She's doing little more than repeating the Marxist and/or humanist ideas about the education system that were published nearly a century ago (or more), and in her case it is little more than intellectual masturbation From her perspective, "everyone" is a potential artist, engineer, or musician, and this obviously isn't the case (and if they are, sometimes those ambitions must be relegated to part-time hobbies); it is childish dreaming, which is acceptable...since she's little more than a child. She doesn't understand the consequences of the reality of her idealistic expectations for the education system. In her world, no one will want to work in manufacturing, cook french fries, fix A/C units, or fix our doo-doo pipes (which I've fixed myself a couple of times...eww). Her dreams will be realized when we have robots doing menial work. Until then....

HerrJosefK

Perfectly said.

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NintendoNite

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#40 NintendoNite
Member since 2010 • 728 Posts
shes just a monkey spouting out things other have said. how pretentious. theres nothing in that video that i havent heard before from text books and other public speakers
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#41 NintendoNite
Member since 2010 • 728 Posts

One thing she is certainly right about though, is how many people who were considered smart in high school just focused on a test and then again studied for the next test.

Although it might sound boring, I took almost every new lesson I learned at school and tried to research it one way or another, or try to remember it as best as I can. Not for school, but just for learning purposes. For example, I knew I was going to go into the field of business, which deals a lot with globalization nowadays, so in my world literature class, I tried learning as much as possible. I can't even explain how much I learned from that class, but the majority of people found it boring and only studied when there was a test. They normally just took notes and studied that when they needed to. I only took notes when I felt like it was important, but I mainly listened and actually tried understanding what was going on.

I wasn't first in my class, nor would I care to be, but at least I felt like I left high school learning a lot and remembering a lot of which I was taught.

taj7575
its pretty obvious that the girl only took regular courses. if she had taken AP/honors courses, she would realize its not always about memorizing for tests. You have to be able to form your own ideas and opinions from the facts as well as defend them for a grade. She really has no idea what she is talking about.
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#42 Memberino
Member since 2004 • 2253 Posts
I'm sorry but her speech was complete BS
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IAMTHEJOKER88

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#43 IAMTHEJOKER88
Member since 2008 • 934 Posts

i don't think she has been failed by the system at all. she is clearly bright and her intelligent and well articulated speech is a testament to that, interests don't have to be sparked at such a young age...

The standardised education system creates a balance. Otherwise we'd all be astronauts. Yay.

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#45 Grodus5
Member since 2006 • 7934 Posts
[QUOTE="taj7575"]

One thing she is certainly right about though, is how many people who were considered smart in high school just focused on a test and then again studied for the next test.

Although it might sound boring, I took almost every new lesson I learned at school and tried to research it one way or another, or try to remember it as best as I can. Not for school, but just for learning purposes. For example, I knew I was going to go into the field of business, which deals a lot with globalization nowadays, so in my world literature class, I tried learning as much as possible. I can't even explain how much I learned from that class, but the majority of people found it boring and only studied when there was a test. They normally just took notes and studied that when they needed to. I only took notes when I felt like it was important, but I mainly listened and actually tried understanding what was going on.

I wasn't first in my class, nor would I care to be, but at least I felt like I left high school learning a lot and remembering a lot of which I was taught.

NintendoNite
its pretty obvious that the girl only took regular courses. if she had taken AP/honors courses, she would realize its not always about memorizing for tests. You have to be able to form your own ideas and opinions from the facts as well as defend them for a grade. She really has no idea what she is talking about.

At my school its impossible for someone that takes basic classes to even be in the top 10 percent of the class. AP classes are weighted a full point about Regular classes at my school (a 100 in a basic class is 4.87 I belive, a 100 in an AP class is 5.87, and a 100 in an honors class is a 5.37), but I guess no where else does this (or do they? I have no idea whatsoever). But I agree, I haven't even taken AP Language yet (I'm taking it this year) but I've always felt challenged in even my honors English classes to think for myself and like you said, be able to defend myself.
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#46 travisstaggs
Member since 2008 • 10562 Posts

Great speech. :D

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IAMTHEJOKER88

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#47 IAMTHEJOKER88
Member since 2008 • 934 Posts

She needs to work on speech. She didn't get me riled up, she got me freakin' bored.dreDREb13

Her delivery was standard, but her content was good. Weren't you listening?

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#49 taj7575
Member since 2008 • 12084 Posts

[QUOTE="taj7575"]

One thing she is certainly right about though, is how many people who were considered smart in high school just focused on a test and then again studied for the next test.

Although it might sound boring, I took almost every new lesson I learned at school and tried to research it one way or another, or try to remember it as best as I can. Not for school, but just for learning purposes. For example, I knew I was going to go into the field of business, which deals a lot with globalization nowadays, so in my world literature class, I tried learning as much as possible. I can't even explain how much I learned from that class, but the majority of people found it boring and only studied when there was a test. They normally just took notes and studied that when they needed to. I only took notes when I felt like it was important, but I mainly listened and actually tried understanding what was going on.

I wasn't first in my class, nor would I care to be, but at least I felt like I left high school learning a lot and remembering a lot of which I was taught.

NintendoNite

its pretty obvious that the girl only took regular courses. if she had taken AP/honors courses, she would realize its not always about memorizing for tests. You have to be able to form your own ideas and opinions from the facts as well as defend them for a grade. She really has no idea what she is talking about.

No, thats not true at all..You can get away with memorization even in AP courses..

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#50 mattbbpl
Member since 2006 • 23048 Posts
[QUOTE="NintendoNite"][QUOTE="taj7575"]

One thing she is certainly right about though, is how many people who were considered smart in high school just focused on a test and then again studied for the next test.

Although it might sound boring, I took almost every new lesson I learned at school and tried to research it one way or another, or try to remember it as best as I can. Not for school, but just for learning purposes. For example, I knew I was going to go into the field of business, which deals a lot with globalization nowadays, so in my world literature class, I tried learning as much as possible. I can't even explain how much I learned from that class, but the majority of people found it boring and only studied when there was a test. They normally just took notes and studied that when they needed to. I only took notes when I felt like it was important, but I mainly listened and actually tried understanding what was going on.

I wasn't first in my class, nor would I care to be, but at least I felt like I left high school learning a lot and remembering a lot of which I was taught.

its pretty obvious that the girl only took regular courses. if she had taken AP/honors courses, she would realize its not always about memorizing for tests. You have to be able to form your own ideas and opinions from the facts as well as defend them for a grade. She really has no idea what she is talking about.

I had similar thoughts when reading the text of her speech. Through most of my classes, I could recognize inherent bias and question the ideas presented - and we were encouraged to do so. Perhaps it's largely because I spent most of my time in honors courses, but I rarely had classes in which the discussion and challenge of ideas presented was frowned upon.