Thought inducing? Nothing -in the curriculum- at school is intended to be thought inducing. The challenge of school is to find ways and means of inducing said thought. Like seeking out the teachers that will recognize a person who needs to be challenged and needs something other than the useless fucking rote learning techniques they use. People with half a work brain and any goddamn curiosity have no place in the education system of today. The methodology used in the schools we have is not intended to challenge or stimulate. It's only purpose is to keep the ignorant little pop-culture saturated bastards as busy as possible for as long as possible. We aren't supposed to think, or ask legitimate questions. Read the chapter, answer the questions. Take the useless fucking test. Nothing there is designed to make us learn. It's there to prove to the government that "look-they are learning. We are doing our job. Give us money" when in all actuality it's merely regurgitated knowledge-not learned only remembered.

And it isn't as if the teachers actually care. They get paid shit. Less than shit. They work 12 and 13 hour days. Spend all their free time grading papers and preparing lesson plans. So they make around 35k a year, but 8-10k of that goes back into the classroom. They spend money out of pocket because the school can't give them any. But Alex fucking Rodregez makes $250 mil to play baseball. A child's game, being played by adults. What socially redeeming aspect of swinging a fucking bat and catching a ball have that deserves more money than those who prepare the leaders and workers of the world for their roles as such?

The only true test of the education system is in the success of those who are processed through it. We've already shown that standardized testing means nothing. The system itself refuses to embrace any other method, claiming high cost and time required for such. [side note- did you know they have a pictographic test-in addition to around 18 languages-to get a food handler's card from the department of health? How fucked is that? If you can't acceptably read or write in English, you shouldn't be preparing food. Ok, maybe Spanish, German, Italian or other similarly-accepted tongues, but if you don't know anything other than, say, Swahili, though shit. Just my opinion, I may be wrong] Not that I agree with policies such as that of the Puyallup school district, where you must have a certain amount of community service, a huge senior project, etc.

We should hold students to a higher standard. A high school diploma doesn't mean shit anymore, and it should. Every idiot shouldn't be able to get one. That's what the GED is for. We've created a working world where you have to have a college degree to get anywhere. Bullshit. So what do the schools do? Drop occupational courses in favor of "AP" classes. This is a trend that has pissed me off for a few years now. If you want Advanced classes, go to fucking college it's free now, through running start. But the people who leave high school and go straight to the working world (77% of BHS's class of '99) get little to no prep from high school anymore. Where is the AP metalworking class? For that matter, where is the metalworking class? What happened to auto shop, metal shop, small gas engines, and all the other staples of industrial education? They've been replaced by AP calculus. WHO FUCKING CARES ABOUT CALCULUS? Ok so I must applaud the Voc dept. for bringing back construction, and Cox is also trying to get a welding class. That is good. But the state needs to do its part too. In Washington, there is no requirement to take any computer class. The state graduation requirement includes TWO credits of PE, but only one of occupational ed. ???????

Anyway, I feel much better now that I've vented a little.


Later.