I was originally planning on going on a spiel about essays and the idiocy involved in having an incredibly strict guide for creative writing, since that's the entire point of "creative" writing, but I was reminded instead of that depressing time of the school year with counsellors cropping in English classes throughout the school to lecture us on course selections for the next year. Basically, it’s a way for me to tell the administration what I want to do, and them replying by saying “lol u wanna lern? mate pls.”
To be honest, it’s bad. I’ll be entering various AP courses next year, most of these have been chosen for me. That leaves me with 2 spaces for classes. Ridiculous. I thought the program was designed to stimulate a world-class thought process, not confine its students to a system. As much as I understand its intentions to make each student a well-rounded thinker, it’s doing much more harm than help. For example, take the maths program. Because maths is a little different from all the other subjects, and many students are coming in from different abilities and backgrounds, the maths program has to be tailored to the average level for high-school juniors. That level is incredibly low. I had intentions to take AP Calculus BC this year, in fact. Actually, because of my upbringing, I have completed extensive calculus courses outside of school 3 times. See, when the brain is deprived of that sort of stimulation for 2 years, it begins to atrophy, and I simply cannot handle that. I scheduled a meeting with the AP/IB coordinator of my school to discuss this last year. No, wait… I had to schedule two meetings with her, and both of those were overlooked at the last minute. The only reason I did get to speak with her was because I ran into my friend (who had the same problem) who was just about to begin his own meeting. She basically told me that I couldn’t learn what I wanted with extreme nonchalance and apathy.
But moving on, let’s talk about grades for just a second, because along with a course selection sheet, our counsellors handed us an unofficial copy of our transcript thus far (a list of all our grades and credits). Immediately, there was competition and bickering among the alleged “smart kids.” I personally don’t take much part in that, although they are my friends. The thing is, grades are unimportant. It’s a letter and a number, so what? Neither your life nor your high school career is defined by the grades you receive. I almost failed and had to redo primary school because I never did the homework (I rarely do homework at home, still. Home is Nationstates time). Quite honestly, I never study. When you study, you are forcing your brain to try to absorb massive amounts of information out of the blue. Imagine a glass. In order to fill it, one must do it slowly. Pour water in all at once, and it splashes right out of the cup. Now imagine a sponge at the bottom. It will soak with water, which will begin to dry over time. After that, more water can be added, etc., ad infinitum. This is much how the brain functions, and it is far easier to make those connections and additions as it comes. When I write an essay for English class, I don’t focus on the score it will merit according to the rubric. I devote all my energies into making it beautiful and insightful, and this works. My point is, grades aren't to be bragged about. They’re meaningless. I don’t understand how our society could have gotten to the point where they do. In fact, I would be willing to bet that part of the reason why students struggle with school is because they worry far too much over their grades than learning for the sake of learning. This is certainly something I've had to discover myself. Constantly, my parents tell me that I’m only as good as my grades are. I ignore them; I spend the majority of my day after school practising my piano, obsessing over video games, listening to music, trying to learn German by myself, reading up on current events, (writing long-winded rants about essays and school), reading. I learn. Because I can assure you I do none of that at quite possibly the most unholy waste of eight hours called school.
And then they brand their classes with things like “honours” or “AP” or “IB.” In all but one of my classes (that being AP Physics), I feel like the majority of the time I spend is not dedicated to learning, but to doing nothing while the rest of the class “masters” concepts. And I'm not insensitive to this; I understand that this is an average speed, and I understand that there are children to whom the material doesn’t “click.” But sweet mercy, why do I have to sit around and wait? Give me the next set! Test me and let me pass out of the class! I certainly don’t wish to sound bigoted or braggadocio in any way, but for the students who desire it, why is there not a class that moves at a quicker pace, goes into more depth, and teaches more in smaller amounts of time? That just gives more room to learn, doesn’t it?
Anyway, that’s my problem. I don’t feel that my school is flexible enough, and I feel it doesn’t give me the kind of challenge and stimulation I need to gain that sense of accomplishment. It upsets me yearly that I’m not permitted to do the things I’d love to do simply because I don’t have the “space” on my timetable.
Discuss?
I recommend replacing office names with Flintstone Character names during the drafting stage. It's a real trick I learned from editing academic papers. It keeps bias and assumption out of it. You can fight about names later and focus on the viability of the work.
I recommend replacing office names with Flintstone Character names during the drafting stage. It's a real trick I learned from editing academic papers. It keeps bias and assumption out of it. You can fight about names later and focus on the viability of the work.
Right. I was kind of just assumed that. I'm not sure if when Darkesia talks about "automatic membership for HGA members" she means only current members though. I think anyone who would be able to join the HGA but hasn't yet ought to be able to join the constitutional convention likewise. That may be what Darkesia meant--I'm just trying to be doubly sure.
I hereby dissolve the HGA and call for a Constitutional Convention.
It is my belief that our current set of laws and constitutive documents have too many holes and missing details that would need to be fix. And that the best and optimal way to solve it is through the creation of a new Constitutional document.
Elegarth
Prime Minister
it was 2006, original Triumvirate was Lanier, Tao, and Eli,
then Biyah replaced Lanier,
Biyah then resigned theatrically claiming us to be tyrannical,
that idea kind of fizzled because unlike Caesar I couldn't find anyone willing to shoulder the work, so we devolved to just Eli, moved here and I entered a six month or so negotiation to reform the community, government, forum which all ended up being successful.
it was 2006 Llamas, you can silence your false indignation
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Darkesia got a reaction from Mediobogdum in Democratic Union Party of The West Pacific