School Damage

[Avenio]

Next, I am told I can have my own opinions and that schools shouldn't teach opinions. Then my school pounds me with the Theory of Evolution which is absolutely pointless. How does a chemical cause love? And then explain to me how such a chemical was attained from random reactions of other chemicals and then through these reactions my prehistoric ancestors suddenly went from fur-covered apes with no real emotions to loving, hating, and hairless humans. When I ask my teachers this they simply pause and contiinue on with their one-way discussion which to me seems akin to the ramblings of either a drunken senile bafoon or an imaginative young mind looking for a way to pay for his travels throughout the world(Charles Darwin)

Why the nerve of them, teaching you valuable skills in chemistry and biology and physics. I mean, those heretical beliefs, beyond being able to get students jobs in anywhere from medicine to engineering, (The SECULAR job market! Blasphemy!) they violate the very word of Jehovallahweh! We should go back to bleeding people for treating the plague and measuring our buildings in angels' feathers, not prostrating ourselves at the unholy altar of science, just as Jehovallahweh intended.

[Barringtonia]

And then explain to me how such a chemical was attained from random reactions of other chemicals and then through these reactions my prehistoric ancestors suddenly went from fur-covered apes with no real emotions to loving, hating, and hairless humans. When I ask my teachers this they simply pause and contiinue on with their one-way discussion...

..I suspect you're lying.

[NERVUN]

ME AS IN ALDARMINIA CUZ MY QUOTES WON'T WORK RIGHT: But alas, we have the union. You can't just fire them. Especially with public schools.

Stop watching the one-sided leftist Hollywood movies you leftist elitist [Removed pre-post because I don't fell like getting a warning or ban for flaming even though I am simply trying to make a point rather than flame]. My family is far from rich and I was able to attend a private school. A very good one too. After Katrina, and after we moved, with a year of homeschooling thrown in before, I attended a public school and I was at least two years ahead. I couldn't skip a grade because it would've been unfair to my fellow students.

This goes for everyone on NSG, stop making generalizations about private schools. I almost punched one of my friends because he said private schools were filled with snobby brats who didn't have a social life. I don't know what started this stereotype, but I'm tired of it. You know, my grades have declined since I attended public school despite me knowing the material way before my classmates did. This is because, honestly, public education plain and simple sucks. It gives you grading curves on test(for those of you who don't know what curves are they are enhancements of all students in a class's grade on an assignment). These curves are meant purely so that the failing don't look bad, the teacher look good, and the school gets more funding. It's disgusting and corrupt. I completely disagree with the assumption it lets sports players to cheat. That's BS.

In public school, you're taught to be friends with everybody and not offend or hurt anyone. I would be arrested if I was jumped and I fought back and broke my attacker's nose. I am hushed harshly when I state the obvious truth that people just hate each other. I am taught hate is too severe of a word and that I should use dislike instead(obvious similarities of 1984 newspeak double-meaning words method). I am very nearly sent to the principal's office when I say that the Vietcong all deserved to die, including the woman snipers, in history class. And God forbid if I state my political views to a classroom majority of people who agree with me and a small minority who couldn't care less. I've had to prove at least one of my teachers wrong on a certain topic every year since fifth grade.

Next, I am told I can have my own opinions and that schools shouldn't teach opinions. Then my school pounds me with the Theory of Evolution which is absolutely pointless. How does a chemical cause love? And then explain to me how such a chemical was attained from random reactions of other chemicals and then through these reactions my prehistoric ancestors suddenly went from fur-covered apes with no real emotions to loving, hating, and hairless humans. When I ask my teachers this they simply pause and contiinue on with their one-way discussion which to me seems akin to the ramblings of either a drunken senile bafoon or an imaginative young mind looking for a way to pay for his travels throughout the world(Charles Darwin).

Ugh.

I've had enough for awhile. NSG always irritates me but yet like a Jewish guy with an electronics store, I always seem to be pulled back in(Zohan reference). Feel free to go ahead and rip this post apart with whatever lop-sided views you have. Whether they be right- or left-wing. they're both insane. I'll still continue to believe in my center-right and/or seesawing ideaology.

You spend a lot of time ranting how people shouldn't use their experience as a general measure and then proceed to do the same...

[Aldarminia]

Next, I am told I can have my own opinions and that schools shouldn't teach opinions. Then my school pounds me with the Theory of Evolution which is absolutely pointless. How does a chemical cause love? And then explain to me how such a chemical was attained from random reactions of other chemicals and then through these reactions my prehistoric ancestors suddenly went from fur-covered apes with no real emotions to loving, hating, and hairless humans. When I ask my teachers this they simply pause and contiinue on with their one-way discussion which to me seems akin to the ramblings of either a drunken senile bafoon or an imaginative young mind looking for a way to pay for his travels throughout the world(Charles Darwin)

Why the nerve of them, teaching you valuable skills in chemistry and biology and physics. I mean, those heretical beliefs, beyond being able to get students jobs in anywhere from medicine to engineering, (The SECULAR job market! Blasphemy!) they violate the very word of Jehovallahweh! We should go back to bleeding people for treating the plague and measuring our buildings in angels' feathers, not prostrating ourselves at the unholy altar of science, just as Jehovallahweh intended.

You look at nly a few words and you jump to conclusions. Exactly what I am talking about. I never once said I didn't like them teachingme chemistry. I love chemistry! Biology too despite the the evolution part of it. I consider both subjects fascinating. I'm just stating a major flaw in evolution. Chemicals =/= emotions. So there is no way we can geneticly obtain emotions. Thus, our emotions could not have evolved from primitive apes. Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to believe that love and anger are emotional things that scientists no matter how much bullshit they cannot be explained scientificly.

But then again... Why do I even try? I thank God that I changed my beliefs recently and my methods of debating. Because if I hadn't, I would've started to sound like you.

[Ryadn]

If you can't see how ridiculous you're being, I can't be bothered to give any real thought to an answer. Don't like school? Run away to Haight-Ashbury.

[Avenio]

Why the nerve of them, teaching you valuable skills in chemistry and biology and physics. I mean, those heretical beliefs, beyond being able to get students jobs in anywhere from medicine to engineering, (The SECULAR job market! Blasphemy!) they violate the very word of Jehovallahweh! We should go back to bleeding people for treating the plague and measuring our buildings in angels' feathers, not prostrating ourselves at the unholy altar of science, just as Jehovallahweh intended.

You look at nly a few words and you jump to conclusions. Exactly what I am talking about. I never once said I didn't like them teachingme chemistry. I love chemistry! Biology too despite the the evolution part of it. I consider both subjects fascinating. I'm just stating a major flaw in evolution. Chemicals =/= emotions. So there is no way we can geneticly obtain emotions. Thus, our emotions could not have evolved from primitive apes. Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to believe that love and anger are emotional things that scientists no matter how much bullshit they cannot be explained scientificly.

But then again... Why do I even try? I thank God that I changed my beliefs recently and my methods of debating. Because if I hadn't, I would've started to sound like you.

You'd do well to learn a bit about debating as well, the technique I used was called reductio ad absurdum, or, in English, 'reduction to the absurd'. I purposefuly highlighted the aspect of you disagreeing with evolution and apparently neurochemistry; by denying evolution, you're denying a cornerstone of modern biology, and practically reducing it to old men playing tiddlywinks. I just took your statements to their logical end, being the denial of modern science, and, eventually, the things it gave us, like medicine and architecture.

[Ryadn]

Chemicals =/= emotions. So there is no way we can geneticly obtain emotions. Thus, our emotions could not have evolved from primitive apes. Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to believe that love and anger are emotional things that scientists no matter how much bullshit they cannot be explained scientificly.

That's not old-fashioned, that's just ignorant. Humans are not the only creatures to feel emotion. Not by a long shot. And while you may believe that emotions are too complex or special to have anything to do with science, we know for a fact that, for instance, irrational anger can accompany a developing brain tumor, because the tumor can put pressure on an area of the brain that regulates emotions or aggression. We know that all sorts of psychotropic drugs can affect emotions; hence the category of "mood stabilizers". We know that smiling even when you don't feel like it can actually improve mood, because of the associative neural pathways between the physical act of smiling and happiness. Possibly, if you listened to your teachers, you would know some of these things.

[Aldarminia]

Stop watching the one-sided leftist Hollywood movies you leftist elitist [Removed pre-post because I don't fell like getting a warning or ban for flaming even though I am simply trying to make a point rather than flame]. My family is far from rich and I was able to attend a private school. A very good one too. After Katrina, and after we moved, with a year of homeschooling thrown in before, I attended a public school and I was at least two years ahead. I couldn't skip a grade because it would've been unfair to my fellow students.

This goes for everyone on NSG, stop making generalizations about private schools. I almost punched one of my friends because he said private schools were filled with snobby brats who didn't have a social life. I don't know what started this stereotype, but I'm tired of it. You know, my grades have declined since I attended public school despite me knowing the material way before my classmates did. This is because, honestly, public education plain and simple sucks. It gives you grading curves on test(for those of you who don't know what curves are they are enhancements of all students in a class's grade on an assignment). These curves are meant purely so that the failing don't look bad, the teacher look good, and the school gets more funding. It's disgusting and corrupt. I completely disagree with the assumption it lets sports players to cheat. That's BS.

In public school, you're taught to be friends with everybody and not offend or hurt anyone. I would be arrested if I was jumped and I fought back and broke my attacker's nose. I am hushed harshly when I state the obvious truth that people just hate each other. I am taught hate is too severe of a word and that I should use dislike instead(obvious similarities of 1984 newspeak double-meaning words method). I am very nearly sent to the principal's office when I say that the Vietcong all deserved to die, including the woman snipers, in history class. And God forbid if I state my political views to a classroom majority of people who agree with me and a small minority who couldn't care less. I've had to prove at least one of my teachers wrong on a certain topic every year since fifth grade.

Next, I am told I can have my own opinions and that schools shouldn't teach opinions. Then my school pounds me with the Theory of Evolution which is absolutely pointless. How does a chemical cause love? And then explain to me how such a chemical was attained from random reactions of other chemicals and then through these reactions my prehistoric ancestors suddenly went from fur-covered apes with no real emotions to loving, hating, and hairless humans. When I ask my teachers this they simply pause and contiinue on with their one-way discussion which to me seems akin to the ramblings of either a drunken senile bafoon or an imaginative young mind looking for a way to pay for his travels throughout the world(Charles Darwin).

Ugh.

I've had enough for awhile. NSG always irritates me but yet like a Jewish guy with an electronics store, I always seem to be pulled back in(Zohan reference). Feel free to go ahead and rip this post apart with whatever lop-sided views you have. Whether they be right- or left-wing. they're both insane. I'll still continue to believe in my center-right and/or seesawing ideaology.

You spend a lot of time ranting how people shouldn't use their experience as a general measure and then proceed to do the same...

I probably jumped to the conclusion that Corp has never attended a private school. If he has and that was his experience then he went to a bad one. That really wasn't my point though. The left-wing media tends to portray private schools in the same way he seems to. So does Hollywood. I've been to three different public schools. Two in the same state. Same things pretty much happened. There was one where the experiences were rather inconsistent.

And then explain to me how such a chemical was attained from random reactions of other chemicals and then through these reactions my prehistoric ancestors suddenly went from fur-covered apes with no real emotions to loving, hating, and hairless humans. When I ask my teachers this they simply pause and contiinue on with their one-way discussion...

..I suspect you're lying.

I tend to leave out details that I find are irrelevant. Bad habit I know. The teachers will usually think for a moment then offer me a hastily-made explanation such as everything is a theory or that what I have stated is a matter that should be discussed later. The worst incident and the most recent one, she really did just pause and then continue without responding.


Damn.It's late. A few more posts maybe. I'm actually liking this discussion though. Something I've always thought about. Anyways, I'm not completely aganst public education. I'd like it to actually be able to go above and beyond private education if that's possible. I just think it needs serious reforms and higher standards from its staff. if you're going to teach a subject you should have a high-level degree for that subject. I'm not sure if the system doesn't already have something like this but I also think teachers are to swear an oath they will not express political views of any sort if they're students are not allowed to themselves.

[THE Bruce Dickenson]

You look at nly a few words and you jump to conclusions. Exactly what I am talking about. I never once said I didn't like them teachingme chemistry. I love chemistry! Biology too despite the the evolution part of it. I consider both subjects fascinating. I'm just stating a major flaw in evolution. Chemicals =/= emotions. So there is no way we can geneticly obtain emotions. Thus, our emotions could not have evolved from primitive apes. Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to believe that love and anger are emotional things that scientists no matter how much bullshit they cannot be explained scientificly.

But then again... Why do I even try? I thank God that I changed my beliefs recently and my methods of debating. Because if I hadn't, I would've started to sound like you.

Since you're so "fascinated" by biology and chemistry, you might try examing more of it:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Che ... i=scholart

Examine even a portion of that and you might find that the "major flaw" you're claiming, not to mention the conclusion you attempt to predicate afterward, might not be what you think it is...

But then, it looks like you're going to "tend to believe" whatever you want and label any research as "bullshit", then claim there isn't scientific support. That's not being "fascinated" with chemistry and biology. There's a different word for what you're doing.

[Barringtonia]

The worst incident and the most recent one, she really did just pause and then continue without responding.

I suppose that does tend to happen when a student repeatedly asks the same question with no intention of learning the answer. As Ryadn notes above, we can moderate emotions through chemicals, indicating emotions are chemical reactions in and of themselves.

Mostly people confuse the semantics of emotion - and, really, what is love defined - with the basic chemical reactions that we place a description on, a confusion of sentience.

[NERVUN]

You spend a lot of time ranting how people shouldn't use their experience as a general measure and then proceed to do the same...

I probably jumped to the conclusion that Corp has never attended a private school. If he has and that was his experience then he went to a bad one. That really wasn't my point though. The left-wing media tends to portray private schools in the same way he seems to. So does Hollywood. I've been to three different public schools. Two in the same state. Same things pretty much happened. There was one where the experiences were rather inconsistent.

Oh, you've been to three... and yet this, since you admit you are still school age, gives you the ability to pronounce how ALL public schools are and how private schools are?

And then you complain when someone might do the same?

Pot? Kettle. I'm sure you'll get along swimmingly.

[The Norwegian Blue]

By the way, as far as biology teachers not answering your questions goes, biology teachers (and indeed all teachers, but especially bio teachers) have a LOT of material to cover for all students in a limited amount of time. There's only so many digressions they can allow before they really do have to move on whether you want them to or not, particularly when the digression appears to be "I didn't pay attention to anything you've said so far about evolution, so explain how humans 'suddenly' (it wasn't sudden, and there's no plausible way any discussion of evolution wouldn't cover the general non-suddenness of the evolutionary process) came from 'emotionless' (they're not, by any measure) apes!" That sort of question doesn't sound to me like, "I am genuinely trying to learn about the subject we're working on," so much as "I resent having to learn this at all, so I'm going to ask stupid questions that betray the fact that I haven't been paying any attention so far in the hopes that I might somehow 'trap' you." That may not be your intent, but that's how it reads, and that quite rightly annoys the shit out of teachers who are simply trying to get through as much material as they can and don't like having everyone's time wasted.

[Johz]

I probably jumped to the conclusion that Corp has never attended a private school. If he has and that was his experience then he went to a bad one. That really wasn't my point though. The left-wing media tends to portray private schools in the same way he seems to. So does Hollywood. I've been to three different public schools. Two in the same state. Same things pretty much happened. There was one where the experiences were rather inconsistent.

Oh, you've been to three... and yet this, since you admit you are still school age, gives you the ability to pronounce how ALL public schools are and how private schools are?

And then you complain when someone might do the same?

Pot? Kettle. I'm sure you'll get along swimmingly.

I got called racist for using that phrase once...

In reference to the topic, it was at a comprehensive (public) school.

The worst incident and the most recent one, she really did just pause and then continue without responding.

I suppose that does tend to happen when a student repeatedly asks the same question with no intention of learning the answer. As Ryadn notes above, we can moderate emotions through chemicals, indicating emotions are chemical reactions in and of themselves.

Mostly people confuse the semantics of emotion - and, really, what is love defined - with the basic chemical reactions that we place a description on, a confusion of sentience.

Although there are still some flaws with human sentience and evolution, which, as long as you pay attention, you should be able to pick up. Such as traits not linked to survival of the fittest, and why humans are so radically different from other organisms. But they don't disprove evolution, and they're the sort of thing that eminent professors from foreign climes work on, so don't bother attempting to solve the problems.

Although if you find a way to create life from no life, without the need for God, and find proof for it, Dawkins will full on love you.

[Barringtonia]

Although there are still some flaws with human sentience and evolution, which, as long as you pay attention, you should be able to pick up. Such as traits not linked to survival of the fittest, and why humans are so radically different from other organisms. But they don't disprove evolution, and they're the sort of thing that eminent professors from foreign climes work on, so don't bother attempting to solve the problems..

I'd be very curious as to what these flaws are exactly, I tend to find 'survival of the fittest' is generally misunderstood and this creates supposed 'flaws' where there are none. Additionally, I'd be interested in how humans are 'radically' different given we share 50% of our genes with bananas let alone animals.

Although if you find a way to create life from no life, without the need for God, and find proof for it, Dawkins will full on love you.

Find any proof of God's involvement in absolutely anything and the Pope will allow you to kiss his ring.

[Vectrova]

Ahahahahaha. This is a hilarious topic.

Teenagers raging against high school systems, claiming both that (a): they are corrupt, totalitarian regimes that make the U.S.S.R. or North Korea look fantastic and (b): that they are staffed with incompetent, moronic, and neglectful (if not outright malevolent) faculty.

Stupid Evil can't be that organized and claiming a regime of that nature is so dramatized that nobody could ever live up to such a reputation. But I'm sure you're so smart that you don't need to worry about these details.

Get off it. The system has problems, but student perspective is a far bigger one.

[Dazchan]

So you are forced to government schools, backed by taxpayer dollars.

Nobody forces anyone. There are other options if you don't like it.

You are obviously taught things in a completely one sided way (especially in history, where the telling of it depends on which side won).

Where I am, all social studies are taught from a number of perspectives. English writing compositions are taught to allow students to take their own viewpoint. Science and mathematics are taught one-sided, but what "other side" would you want?

Children are essentially forced into segregation in the form of cliques out of racial/social tensions.

Students choose who they socialise with. What do you want teachers to do about it?

Many students who are rotting inside a classroom would much rather be doing vocational work.

I'm sure they would. Developing the necessary skills will allow them to do so.

Sometimes the students are more qualified to teach the classes than the teaches.

But evidently not spelling classes

Seriously, though, we're all looking forward to your examples.

Your freedom of movement is restricted by draconian rules, such as hall passes and bathroom passes.

We call it "duty of care". For those six hours that Johnny is at school, I am responsible for his safety and wellbeing. He is under my direct supervision and I need to know where he is. Passes are simply an easy method of ensuring this.

Also: I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as "freedom of movement" in the context in which you're using it.

You are taught to respect a central authority figure (teacher).

Just like at home they respect a central authority figure (parent).

Or when at work, you'd respect a central authority figure (manager).

Or when driving, you respect a central authority figure (policeman).

Respect for authority isn't a bad thing.

You are not allowed free speech in a classroom.

Experience tells me otherwise, but I'll humour you. Source?

Kids are bullied and humiliated.

And teachers work harder than you'd think trying to minimise this.

Kids are taught that things like sports actually matter, with sports players being allowed to cheat on tests.

Sport does matter. Source on the cheating?

Kids are put through stress over relentless tests and busy work.

"Busy work" usually refers to pointless tasks a teacher sets to occupy the children while he/she cleans out their desk drawer or something. It is generally not found in any classroom after nineteen-dickety-two.

So what exactly is the allure of the public education system?

That whole thing about how people should be able to receive an education, regardless of wealth/class/religion/location/gender/sexuality/culture?

[Old Erisia]

Wasn't there a thread about this like 2 days ago...



Anywho, I'm sure we can all agree that there are things we don't like about the current state of the US public school system. That said, i don't think these problems stem from the fact that these schools are publicly run, as several posters have already stated their mixed feelings of private institutions from experience. I was also glad to see that another poster visits the TED talks site, and actually saw a speaker.

As I have in almost all of these threads, I support the idea of internal school reform without turning fully to the private sector. I also think that there is much promise in much less structured, student driven educational systems.

[Norstal]

So what exactly is the allure of the public education system?

The allure of a public education system is so that poor people can get educated and get into Harvard if they choose to. The rest of your post has been addressed by Dazchan, especially the "respecting authority figure" part.

And I have no idea of this "stress" you talked about. If going through high school is stressful, then I can only wonder how much traumatic experience you get from paying your taxes and bills.

The sports part though, I would agree. Why not create a class devoted to video games? It does nothing.

[Atheimsa]

Don't know what schools you know but here you are encouraged to discuss ideas and it is valued to have a wide viewpoint as well(so there is free speech). of course it will always be a bit biased eg you learn more about your history than nepalese history , but you can be sure you get a good education thats neither leaning right or left.

[Dagnia]

So you are forced to government schools, backed by taxpayer dollars. You are obviously taught things in a completely one sided way (especially in history, where the telling of it depends on which side won). Children are essentially forced into segregation in the form of cliques out of racial/social tensions. Many students who are rotting inside a classroom would much rather be doing vocational work. Sometimes the students are more qualified to teach the classes than the teaches. Your freedom of movement is restricted by draconian rules, such as hall passes and bathroom passes. You are taught to respect a central authority figure (teacher). You are not allowed free speech in a classroom. Kids are bullied and humiliated. Kids are taught that things like sports actually matter, with sports players being allowed to cheat on tests. Kids are put through stress over relentless tests and busy work.


So what exactly is the allure of the public education system?

Please note that I personally am not advocating any specific alternative in this OP, which is just questioning the current system without inherently presenting a different system of education. So please refrain from the typical "your an anarchist so you think kids should be stupid and uneducated and get killed" statements.

1. To create a standardized citizenry that all thinks mostly alike and that obeys the government and corporations with no real questioning. Everyone knows our education system sucks, but suggest we just scrap the whole thing and let education be the responsibility of the parents, and you get shocked gasps from all positions on some "spectrum" (the very idea that we use a spectrum when ideologies are so complex that they cannot be so simply placed on a one-dimensional line and it shows just how narrow the schools have made our thoughts).

2. To prepare the coming generations for what they will be doing to everyone in the near future. The uncontested absurdities of today become the accepted ideas of tomorrow. Nearly all high schools (and some on levels lower than that) require students to display an ID card at all times. Surveillance cameras and are a feature of nearly every school, and metal detectors are not unheard of. Your diploma is held hostage for you to perform some number of "volunteer" hours. And look what is happening today. A national ID card usually with all sorts of vital information attached to it (and that if the database for it is penetrated or your information stolen in some other way, will leave you in more trouble than than any current identity theft can) is being seriously discussed as a solution to many social and political problems. Security cameras are also seriously discussed. And look at those body scan things at the airports (in addition to the fact that they are finding some places don't delete the scans like they should, I help people recover deleted and damaged data to pay for my Information Systems degree and know for a fact that when you hit delete or empty recycle bin/trash on any OS, even the Macintosh, the data is NOT gone). In addition to the Orwellian doublethink required to accept the idea of involuntary volunteering, holding college degrees hostage for "volunteer" time is practiced at some colleges, and compulsory labor conscription for all people regardless of whether or not they are in an educational institution cannot be far off.

3. To create a mentality dependence on higher authorities. You could be shot to death tomorrow when your kinda freaky goth lab partner finally can't take the teasing anymore.The inner city kid who gets up an hour before you do because he is bussed in wants to take out some of the anger he had to repress last night when his mother's most recent boyfriend used him as a human basketball. Next period might be gym where you are going to be paired with a repressed homosexual trying to convince everyone (most of all himself) that he is so macho and butch, so he may decide to press you so hard against those mats that you are going to require skin grafts. Your only relief from this constant low-level anxiety is the sight of an authority figure. Your constant thoughts are, consciously or not, your peers cannot be trusted and people need to be controlled. Maybe even the fact that the ability to perform your bathroom functions is a privilege that has to be begged for is there for your own good.

4. To turn you into a perpetually bored person and therefore a rabid consumer. Your movement is restricted for around six or seven hours a day with only a few minutes between periods when you can get around and most of that moving involves getting to the next place where you will be restricted. Most of what you do has little or nothing to do with anything you will encounter in the real world, is little or nothing you are interested in and you know both of these facts on some level. They are a hodgepodge of random subjects without the slightest hint of how they all fit in together, that are taught almost in their own languages. To anyone with a truly working reasoning brain this is incomprehensible, mentally indigestible and yes, boring. They follow you home with homework, which is not intended so much for the "reinforcement" they claim (I don't think any real child psychologist or pedagogue actually believes in this theory) but rather to tell you "there is no escape, I can get you where you live". When this is finished, you turn on the television and turn off your brain. You are pitched to constantly with products mainly aimed at relieving boredom. They will fill that void where there should be a well-developed mind and an ability to form non-forced relationships. You may even find your soul in a pair of Air Jordans, a Plasma TV, an iPhone or a Playstation. In fact, the Playstation is opposite of the school, as it can be turned on and off at will and its goals and how to achieve them are easier to understand. Your perpetually bored state will make you want the latest, newest thing and want it now. Throw out the old and get a new one when there is something (you think is) better coming out. Sony, Apple and Nike make billions off of perpetually bored and anxious people.

5. To provide jobs for people who are totally useless in any other position. Teachers are stupid. Even their union leader some time ago admitted that people going for education degrees tend to be the bottom of the barrel college students. If schools were really designed to teach anyone anything, they would have mathematicians teaching math, writers and editors teaching English/grammar/language arts (whatever you call it where you live) and similarly. The only teacher I liked was my German teacher, probably because he was the only one of all of them who knew what he was talking about (he was Austrian). With just about all the rest of them and almost everyone else with or going to college for an education degree, we could line them up on a wall, shoot them and sell their bones to a Mah Jongg factory, and we'd be a better country for it.

[Katganistan]

Next, I am told I can have my own opinions and that schools shouldn't teach opinions. Then my school pounds me with the Theory of Evolution which is absolutely pointless. How does a chemical cause love? And then explain to me how such a chemical was attained from random reactions of other chemicals and then through these reactions my prehistoric ancestors suddenly went from fur-covered apes with no real emotions to loving, hating, and hairless humans. When I ask my teachers this they simply pause and contiinue on with their one-way discussion which to me seems akin to the ramblings of either a drunken senile bafoon or an imaginative young mind looking for a way to pay for his travels throughout the world(Charles Darwin)

Why the nerve of them, teaching you valuable skills in chemistry and biology and physics. I mean, those heretical beliefs, beyond being able to get students jobs in anywhere from medicine to engineering, (The SECULAR job market! Blasphemy!) they violate the very word of Jehovallahweh! We should go back to bleeding people for treating the plague and measuring our buildings in angels' feathers, not prostrating ourselves at the unholy altar of science, just as Jehovallahweh intended.

Sorry, how does Creationism cause love? Because I'm having a tough time seeing how being made from dirt or from a dirt-rib has anything to do with affection.

[Katganistan]

Ahahahahaha. This is a hilarious topic.

Teenagers raging against high school systems, claiming both that (a): they are corrupt, totalitarian regimes that make the U.S.S.R. or North Korea look fantastic and (b): that they are staffed with incompetent, moronic, and neglectful (if not outright malevolent) faculty.

Stupid Evil can't be that organized and claiming a regime of that nature is so dramatized that nobody could ever live up to such a reputation. But I'm sure you're so smart that you don't need to worry about these details.

Get off it. The system has problems, but student perspective is a far bigger one.

Most of which is "I don' wanna, you can't make me, I'm smarter than alla you but I can't spell simple words in my rant."

[Bendira]

Oh, you know, silly things like universal literacy, basic scientific literacy, basic history, not thinking things like 'The Sun Revolves around the Earth' or 'Diseases are caused by God's will'

Silly things, I'm sure you'll agree. Who needs an education in this day and age?

Like I said in the OP, im not saying that children should not be educated. I would just say that our current system is broken.

[Bendira]

Also, the bit about free speech being banned is entirely untrue, as demonstrated by Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District

Shhhhh. Don't confuse the issue with FACTS.

If I say the word "ass" in a classroom, im going to the office. How is that freedom of speech.

[Person012345]

Home school? Private school? Public hardly seems like the best.

Home school? Now you have not only imperfect teachers in the school system, now you have UNQUALIFIED teachers as well? There's a reason why teachers go through college. Private school? Far too many are religiously oriented.

Also, not everyone can afford a private school.