The sorry state of 'murrican education.

[Salty]

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Sort of long, but had to be done.
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After thinking about my last rant for awhile, thinking about WHY people with all that flesh and blood and busy endocrine systems allow themselves to be sealed up like the pretty packages they see on the teevee, and after reading a portions from an essay called Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work I am more angry than I usually am. It just won't quit naggling my brain.

I honestly think that almost every human being has the potential to do great things, even if those things are small in the eyes of others, things that matter. Yeah, you can look at those assholes waving pathetic DAY of RAGE signs and point and say "Well, at least they're doing something." Bullshit. They're not doing any more than I am doing right now, drinking coffee and yelling with a keyboard. Their problem is they actually think they're accomplishing something, or that they're on the right track to accomplishing something. And that's what pisses me off and makes me laugh at the same time. I guess it's better than watching teevee.

Uh, sidetracked.

What happened in Egypt, as Demolition Squid so aptly illustrated, shows us that humans CAN do SOMETHING of SUBSTANCE. They can reach into their sallow, over-ripe bellies and pull out something genuine and important. And you've all seen it in your lives (in others and in yourself), it's possible and nearly every person on the planet contains that possibility.

So what keeps it down so low, so seemingly out of reach?

I think the largest component is education. Or, rather, the lack of it.

I am grossly undereducated. Working in a bookstore for years and coming here, talking with you very smart people, has been the only thing that has saved my mind from turning into the same useless goop that fills the skulls of All These Assholes. And there are others like me who, despite a deficiency in formal education, are capable of using their minds effectively. Critical thinking, problem solving, etc.

But the majority, the people who are allowing awful things to happen when we could instead live in a golden era of technology, knowledge and freedom, are not so...lucky? Is it chance? I think so.

How in the hell are people supposed to think for themselves when they don't know how to think. At best, some of them learned WHAT to think, they collected all the right bits of knowledge that allow them to pass by all the right doorways to enable them to be "successful". And most of them are still idiots.

It has been said here "If they treat education like a product they can't very well bitch when you act like a consumer." Yeah. Not that I disagree but that's a tiny fragment of the problem. THEY do not want an educated society. Period. They want a society that knows how to dot their i's cross their t's, fill out forms. God, every single class I've had since the 1st grade has consisted of a series of forms to be filled in with the right answers. Math? Nothing but a chunky books, do problems 1-113 odd or evens, your choice. MY choice would be to learn how to solve problems, MY choice would be to grasp the fundamental of certain skillsets and how they related to other skillsets which give me an opportunity to use the best of my brain.

But THEY tailor education to fit the social class. By the time kids reach highschool it is way, way, way too late to undo six years form learning, unstable teachers, rote memorization, etc. And then, AND THEN, when little pieces of shit who think their families have money because their parents went deeper into debt to purchase them some giant fucking gas guzzler (might be my local there) act like spoiled little shits in class and a teacher with no patience for their petty, ignorant, undereducated bullshit lays down the law their parents come in "How Dare You, MY Child Would Never." and the teacher has to fucking EAT IT.

What is the fucking point?

I'm pretty good at explaining things to people so they can understand them. I'm a very good public speaker. I like talking. I have always had it in the back of my mind that I would like to teach someday. But you what? FUCK that shit. Not in 'murrica. Not when the best teacher I had, a simple guy from Chicago who taught me the WONDER that is a star and how they work, blew his heart into tiny pieces with a .44. Not when I've seen spineless administrators cower behind a bureaucracy so massive it can pay its superintendent $250,000 a year but can't afford textbooks and other materials for US government class. Not when some kid gets bullied, and despite the parents and teachers talking and talking and FUCKING TALKING, and the kid kills himself and the districts settlement ensures the story doesn't reach the papers.

All that shit and the pay the give to the people at the front lines with ZERO backup from The Man? No. I don't think so.

So maybe I'm a part of the problem too. No, I definitely am. And I don't know what to do. And I'm very pissed off.

[Luna]

This is the ugly truth, Alty.

The first time I went back to classes as an adult, I was utterly horrified by my classmates.  I was surrounded not just by teens and young-twenties "adults" who not only didn't know how to think, but who had no desire to do so.

[Salty]

I know what to do about it now for myself. I'm learning things, I'm getting an education. But the more I learn and the more I become aware of the deficit left by the school system I was in I just get more angry.

[Luna]

I know what to do about it now for myself. I'm learning things, I'm getting an education. But the more I learn and the more I become aware of the deficit left by the school system I was in I just get more angry.

Get yourself elected or appointed to the Alaska board of education, and fix shit.

Fuck, if Palin can get elected, you can.   

[Salty]

Eh, I dunno, I'd rather throw poop at them.

[Salty]

More seriously, perhaps you're right. If it's that important to me that would be a good route to follow. My immediate thought is that it's impossible. Anchorage is a very political place where even small offices are fiercely fought over. We once had an election for Anchorage Assembly where the two major candidates spent over three times what they would earn in a year in that position in ads and such. One of them sent his coke-head son to hawaii, bought him a condo, to get him out of the way.

I doubt I'd make a good elected official since I have very strong views and previous habits and experience that, once come to light, would not do well in this very conservative town.

But maybe that's just me making excuses and you're right.
First thing's first though, get a degree.

[Luna]

Biggest reason in the fucking world that shit doesn't get done is people thinking "I can't."

I'm not saying I've got the right answer...  I'm saying, look around until you find AN answer, if it's that important to you.

[Doktor Howl]

Education is fucked because we elect politicians that promise to fuck it.

Reality does not line up with conservatism very well, so the obvious thing to do is ignore reality.  This is more easily accomplished with an ignorant population.

[Salty]

See that's exactly why I think school boards are useless (well, not to politicians, they're VERY useful to The Man). So my though has often been, get in at the ground level, try to give some kids a chance as early as possible, or even in High School and do for some of them what a few teachers did for me: Be honest, teach me something of value, teach me HOW to learn.

But the steady erosion of my patience, wits, and mental stability is something I can see from here. I might get a handful of students a year if I'm lucky. And they'll probably only realize what was going on years and years later. Meanwhile, I do not take people's bullshit lightly (parents) unless I'm getting seriously paid. And even then, I'm not good at hiding my hatred for idiocy.

[Doktor Howl]

See that's exactly why I think school boards are useless (well, not to politicians, they're VERY useful to The Man). So my though has often been, get in at the ground level, try to give some kids a chance as early as possible, or even in High School and do for some of them what a few teachers did for me: Be honest, teach me something of value, teach me HOW to learn.

But the steady erosion of my patience, wits, and mental stability is something I can see from here. I might get a handful of students a year if I'm lucky. And they'll probably only realize what was going on years and years later. Meanwhile, I do not take people's bullshit lightly (parents) unless I'm getting seriously paid. And even then, I'm not good at hiding my hatred for idiocy.

School boards serve no purpose other than to allow non-educators to joggle the elbows of educators.

[Salty]

Yeah that, and to earn a pretty good paycheck. Here, anyway.

I've been thinking about writing something like the OP, only a bit shorter and more polite (in the beginning, not so much at the end) and going to one of their meetings.

[Doktor Howl]

Yeah that, and to earn a pretty good paycheck. Here, anyway.

Also to make sure that biology classes consist of nothing but endless disclaimers.

[Freeky]

PAUSE.

By the time kids reach highschool it is way, way, way too late to undo six years form learning, unstable teachers, rote memorization, etc.

Rote memorization is perhaps the best way to learn certain things, like your multiplication tables, alphabet and letter sounds and general guidelines to pronunciation, things that never actually change.

RESUME.

[Doktor Howl]

PAUSE.

By the time kids reach highschool it is way, way, way too late to undo six years form learning, unstable teachers, rote memorization, etc.

Rote memorization is perhaps the best way to learn certain things, like your multiplication tables, alphabet and letter sounds and general guidelines to pronunciation, things that never actually change.

RESUME.

THIS.

Why can't Johnny do math?

Because they've stopped making kids memorize the multiplication tables.

[Salty]

Yes, but there is a limit to the kind of knowledge necessary using that tool. It's one tool and one used too heavily, IMO.
Very basic math, basic letters and such.

But its usefulness ceases very quickly and does not offer any lasting value beyond what it contains. By a certain grade lever students should already have those skills locked down and move on to things that require application of concepts. I was taught using rote memorization in the 8th grade. For phonetics.

It has value, perhaps what you quoted was not formed as well as it should have been.