An Education Rant

[SRP76]

I figured I'd come on here to vent some frustration.

Here's the trouble: my cousin graduated high school this past year (how the fuck that happened is anyone's guess, but it's just an example of the rant I'm about to go on), and his 18-year-old pregnant (of fucking course) girlfriend is "going to college".

Well, I happened to stop by and noticed her "college" text: a Pre-Algebra book. Pre. Fucking. Algebra. "College".

This kind of sent me off the deep end. Made me wonder why the world hasn't exploded, with the rampant stupidity allowed to run. How fucking dumb do you have to be to graduate highschool and go to college now? Did they replace the SAT with a watermelon seed-spitting contest now, or something?!

So, I researched my cousin's last report card. I was in for a nice surprise:

Seems that to pass a class, you need a whoppingly high 60 average now. WOW! Those are some high standards!

Adding to that, is the fact that they divide the grade up in the most ridiculous manner possible:

Tests = 60% of grade
Homework = 40% of grade

This is for 3 six-week periods. At the end of the semester, they have a semester exam, which counts for 25% of the semester grade.

Homework is graded on a simple pass/fail basis. As in, if you do a homework assignment, you get 100 on it (doesn't fucking matter if it's actually been done correctly, mind you). If you don't do it, you get 0.

Here's where I hit the roof. I, unlike some of the "educated" shitheads walking the street, can perform this mystical art called "math":

Say a student refuses to do homework. Guess how it shakes out?

No homework done + 85 (B) on every single test + 85 (B) on final exam = FAIL SEMESTER

Now let's say he does all the homework:

All homework done + 44 (F) on every single test + 44 (F) on final exam = PASS SEMESTER

Now...excuse me?! Some fucktard that simply does the busywork (and doesn't even do it correctly, might I add) and fails - miserably! - every single fucking test gets to pass...while the guy who does NOT jump through the hoops, but scores in the 80s every single time he picks up a pencil, fails?!

Which guy do you think actually knows more about the material? It sure as fuck isn't the one pulling 44s, I can assure you. Even the pathetic Vinnie Barbarino was breaking out 50s in Kotter's class.

That's a big, huge problem as far as I'm concerned. The whole point of school should be learning. NOT doing busywork for the sole purpose of conforming. This is why the world's so fucked up now. Everybody is only concerned with appeasing everybody and jumping through the "proper" hoops, while nobody actually gives a rat's furry brown ass about results! That's why you never actually see any results out of our "leaders".

Makes me want to slap somebody.

...okay, rant over. Thanks for listening.:D

[JDFP]

The American educational system is an absolute joke. Hell, look at the overwhelming masses of 18-25 year old kids who helped put that insane socialist into the White House...

I remember back in high school during my senior year (1999 - 2000) I swore to myself that I would do everything I could to get into a private college, I wasn't about to go to the local University of Tennessee with most other people in my class so I could sit in "classes" with 200 other people to watch a television monitor of a teacher's assistant ranting on something they didn't know any better than I did after reading a book or two. Luckily, I managed to get into a good private college and busted ass there so I could get a good job for a great company (after going through a few duds first).

The public education system is another spectacular failure of government, up there with the likes of the Social Security Administration. I swore a long time ago that if I ever had children I'd find some way for them to go to a good private school no matter the cost.

On the bright side, I think there is a benefit to being more intelligent and capable than the masses of idiots out there, you have a better chance of being successful if you work hard and strive for it. Idiots generally muddle their way through things.

j.p.

[Mike70]

Makes me want to slap somebody.



dude, i used to have to deal with these idiots on an everyday basis after they escaped high school. some of the crazy ideas kids have are unbelievable. i had tons of students who were talking about going to law school and medical school but yet, they would cry, bitch and whine about how much they hated reading and how they didn't ever want to do it again after school.

well guess what dickheads, doctors and (esp.) lawyers spend a huge amount of time reading!

i resigned myself to the fact that most students don't care about learning. they go to college so they can get a piece of paper that will allow them to get some cheesy job in middle management or fucking business and that's it. the 15 or 20% of folks that acutally have functioning brains and are interested in learning and acquiring knowledge tended to gravitate towards the sciences and the humanities.

in my experience, the dumb asses who really don't care go into shit like business (i guess this goes some way to explaining our current economic clusterfuck). they don't give a shit about anything other than money and getting that piece of paper that will let them become a stock broker or a banker. learning? knowledge? they don't seem to care about those things any more than a woodpecker cares about plastic trees.

don't denigrate public universities nor throw a blanket over the entire american educational system. that is completely ignorant. there are many, many top notch public school districts that do turn out good students who go on to graduate from college. likewise, lots of public unis are world class research institutions with top rate faculty. it isn't their fault if students don't give a shit. when you reach the university level it's all on you. if you want to do well, apply yourself and actually learn something, you will. if you only care about a diploma and simply want to muddle through, there isn't anything the faculty or university can do about that.




I wasn't about to go to the local University of Tennessee with most other people in my class so I could sit in "classes" with 200 other people to watch a television monitor of a teacher's assistant ranting on something they didn't know any better than I did after reading a book or two. Luckily, I managed to get into a good private college and busted ass there so I could get a good job for a great company (after going through a few duds first).


j.p.

oh, i have dealt with so many people like you. overinflated ego. check. overinflated sense of own importance. check. Teaching assistants are most often graduate students with several years of exp in what they are being asked to teach. therefore, i fail to see how you could possibly read a book or two and know as much. get over yourself.

[Danny]

you see the same sort of thing over here, kids expect something for nothing. Right now for the second time in a row my university lost my work, so i dont graduate till i ressubmit it, -BUT! i know i failed one sysmetsers work and as well as reorganizing the missing work can you guess what im doing?

I'm fucking resubmiting that piece and improving on it, what was a 6 page essay is now a 28 page 30,000+ word essay, i got a kick in the pants then fucking did it.

-Now another guy in my class, who im not ashamed to say had no talent whatsoever, had no idea what a pan was, and in the last week of the course accused me of being a dick head with a god complex for talking about mise-en-scene in a group short. Well he failed every single module, got less than 6% on anything. Does he redo it?, no he sends a literal "fuck you" to the whole class, the proffessors and claims they did nothing to help him, he learned nothing and hes going to a "real school" to become a big name filmmaker who "will make the next batman film" and will not pick up a book for his life, he just expects it to fall into his lap.

Now i used to be like that IN HIGH SCHOOL, then i tried getting a job with 3 grade c G.C.S.E's and realized "oh fuck, im on the lowest rung of the ladder", so I retook my a levels, blew my original grades out of the water, then figured youve got one life to live, and every-things hard, ive always wanted to make movies, why should i be put off that because its hard?
So i read all the books on my college course back to front, got my grades and progressed. But i had the drive, for every student like me, adn that was 3 to 5 per class, there was 25 who where only there to avoid having to get a job, and leeching the system for student loans to spend on booze money.
Course then when it comes to sit in an exam and break down an episode of csi-new york and talk about subtext and iconography they complain they werent taught any of this stuff.


The system can help people progress, but that doesnt mean jack to most wannabe academics who dont give a shit about work that takes more than a wikipedia copy-pasta stint to complete.:rolleyes:

[JDFP]

oh, i have dealt with so many people like you. overinflated ego. check. overinflated sense of own importance. check. Teaching assistants are most often graduate students with several years of exp in what they are being asked to teach. therefore, i fail to see how you could possibly read a book or two and know as much. get over yourself.

Hardly. Yes, there are some good T.A.'s, but it doesn't make up for being in an environment where you can learn from a professor who knows his/her field and has had years and/or decades of actual practical experience as opposed to "theory". The largest class I had in college was 15 people, my professors knew me by name and not a number. If you want to say I have an over-inflated ego for wanting to get the best from learned people and not from a graduate student than help yourself (and I want the same for my children if and when I ever have any children). Yes, there are some great public universities, but when students become a number instead of an individual then we've lost something in the mix.

Ironically, I agree with most of what you say in your first paragraph to the OP's comments. By the time I was a senior in college I had completely burned out on the silliness of theory alone. In classes on theology/philosophy we would sit around and mentally masturbate on postulates for the teleological proof of the existence of God while people two streets down were laying on the side of the streets hungry. It's why it was so important for me to get a career in the private sector where we could actually work to help people as opposed to sitting back like most of the government does and mooch off of taxpayer's -- if you want to slam me for that, fine, but I certainly don't make any apologies for it.

Education is so very important in this day and age, and not just wanting to get that piece of paper. Apply the knowledge, take what you learn and goes into your mind and put that into your hands for action.

j.p.

[SRP76]

don't denigrate public universities nor throw a blanket over the entire american educational system. that is completely ignorant. there are many, many top notch public school districts that do turn out good students who go on to graduate from college. likewise, lots of public unis are world class research institutions with top rate faculty. it isn't their fault if students don't give a shit. when you reach the university level it's all on you. if you want to do well, apply yourself and actually learn something, you will. if you only care about a diploma and simply want to muddle through, there isn't anything the faculty or university can do about that.


Are you trying to tell me 70% ("C or better") won't get you a degree? You would be lying.

"Nothing they can do"? So, it's just impossible to adjust things so a 44 test average won't allow a person to pass? I don't buy that, either.

Just because one group of students might actually learn something does NOT excuse the system's failure to demand performance. Those students do it because they choose to; the system would let them by on a lot less.

They can start by actually making students show they have learned by proving it. And no, a 65% reading score on the FCAT doesn't fit that definition; that's an absolute joke.

For anyone that thinks 60% - 70% is "good enough", think about that next time there's a life-threatening emergency announced on your televison. Purposely miss 30% - 40% of the announcement. See if what information you gleaned from it is "good enough". You might be surprised how sorely lacking it really is.

[Danny]

Are you trying to tell me 70% ("C or better") won't get you a degree? You would be lying.

"Nothing they can do"? So, it's just impossible to adjust things so a 44 test average won't allow a person to pass? I don't buy that, either.

Just because one group of students might actually learn something does NOT excuse the system's failure to demand performance. Those students do it because they choose to; the system would let them by on a lot less.

They can start by actually making students show they have learned by proving it. And no, a 65% reading score on the FCAT doesn't fit that definition; that's an absolute joke.

For anyone that thinks 60% - 70% is "good enough", think about that next time there's a life-threatening emergency announced on your televison. Purposely miss 30% - 40% of the announcement. See if what information you gleaned from it is "good enough". You might be surprised how sorely lacking it really is.

i think your putting too much emphasis on the final piece of paper, i look at it the other way, if i dont resubmit my work and fail my degree i have no piece of paper, i dont pass, but i can look at any non blockbuster movie and view a shot or effect or something a go "this is how it was done, heres how i could do it- or improve on it".

-And thats not on the final piece of paper, and theres people who passed who are less talented than me, and theres one guy who failed who is infinitely more talented than me, he didnt get the grade because he couldn't be arsed but hes the next spike jones regardless.

[rightwing401]

You're frustration is well founded. My first 'math' class in college was quite an experience for me. My professor asked the class what -2+3=. Less than half knew the answer. I almost shouted, "How the f*** did you idiots get here?"

It didn't get any better as the years went on. For an english class, we had to give a five page report on some book, and were given a month and a half to complete it. On the day we had to turn the report in, a guy told the professor that he hadn't completed it and asked if it could be turned in for the next class. She calmly told him that it was going to cost him a letter grade. He started going off about how unfair that was to him. I can still remember what she said. "Unfair? I gave you over a month to do this report. I could just fail you right now for having not turned it in. I'm being more than fair to you."

I could go on, but yeah I've been through the higher education system and it's not very encouraging.

[Tricky]

Its like that over here too, Hells post covers a lot of it, but theres also things like examiners arent supposed to mark them down for poor spelling & grammar now "as long as they know what the kid means", so rather than learning to at least spell properly, the kids write out their answers in text message speak & get away with it, then when they start work in the real world they think the same applies, so we see appallingly badly put together job applications coming into the office & they really expect us to employ somebody who can barely string a sentence together! Then out of those who do manage to get past the application process & land a job, they start circulating "text speak" emails & official letters until somebody senior drags them over the coals for it.

"rich can u luk at this invoice 4 me an put da corect amount in pls thanks" is a prime example of the emails I get from our junior accounts girls at work who left school a year or so ago after obviously learning nothing, completely illiterate!

[MoonSylver]

"rich can u luk at this invoice 4 me an put da corect amount in pls thanks" is a prime example of the emails I get from our junior accounts girls at work who left school a year or so ago after obviously learning nothing, completely illiterate!

"Sur, whn u cn fukng lrn to spel thn no prob, thx!"

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2004/11/26/lemony_wideweb__430x292.jpg

I'm sorry I don't speak MONKEY...

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i14/AUBURN_MYSTIQUE/Foniks.jpg

[Chic Freak]

Its like that over here too, Hells post covers a lot of it, but theres also things like examiners arent supposed to mark them down for poor spelling & grammar now "as long as they know what the kid means", so rather than learning to at least spell properly, the kids write out their answers in text message speak & get away with it, then when they start work in the real world they think the same applies, so we see appallingly badly put together job applications coming into the office & they really expect us to employ somebody who can barely string a sentence together!

I agree with Tricky. Lowering marking standards doesn't do students any favours, it puts them at a disadvantage.

[Danny]

I agree with Tricky. Lowering marking standards doesn't do students any favours, it puts them at a disadvantage.

thats what i said, if someone gets a cop out degree in something like engineering, they can use it to get a job, and first day on a job have no idea whow to do somethign basic.

hell a guy im my class cant even separate video from sound:rolleyes: