Thoughts on the Public School System
posted June 12, 2007, 8:15 pm | Log In To Post Comments | 
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Tags: School, cafeteria food, gym class, Vietnam, Egypt
A thought to begin with: Why do we learn about Ancient Egypt so much in school? What did they contribute to civilization that lasted?
Now that I’m a high school graduate (does that automatically make me a college student, or am I in some sort of educational limbo for these 3 months of summer?), I’d like to look back on the failings, successes, and peculiarities of the public school system.
Successes: I’m not dead. I know how to talk, read, write, and properly gather food for myself and possibly others. I know how to properly procreate. I know how to find the integral and derivative of complex functions and equations—if the need ever arises. I know that the large, purple structure above a fetal pig’s stomach is his liver, not his lungs. I know that books can never be enjoyed until you dissect them for all their symbolic and metaphorical potential, and that our government is in serious trouble—as always. I know that despite how hard I sweat and participate in fitness activities, I’ll never improve on my mile time.
Failures: I’ve never learned about Vietnam. Or Korea. Or the previous 4 presidents. Sure, I’ve read about all those things myself, and feel fairly knowledge on the topics, but no teacher is to thank for that. From kindergarten (can you imagine teaching little kindergarteners about ‘Nam?) to senior year—my history classes have never made it past the Civil Rights chapter. Also, I don’t know how math applies to real life. Does it? Beyond simple addition, subtraction, and other basic functions that is. Sure, if I go into business and need to chart long-term profit forecasts, but where else? That was a major theme, no possible applications for material—unless one went into math or bio or whatever the topic was. Not only could teachers not provide possible applications, most couldn’t admit that there simply were none. That’s fine! I know we’re in school to gain knowledge for the sake of learning, because when else will we be able to do that? At least admit it.
Peculiarities: At least in Illinois, it’s a state law that we must dress and participate in some sort of physical education class everyday. As a result, everyone is just as fat and lazy—we just hate working out a lot more than the other states. If lawmakers in Springfield want to make kids less fat, maybe they should start with the state of high school cafeteria food. The pizza had to be soaked with a napkin first, to soak up all the…juice. Grease? Fat? Do you really want to find out? No. Also, if crowding is such a problem in schools, why don’t they make teachers move from classroom to classroom, instead of the thousands of students? Just some thoughts. Anyone come up with an answer to that Egypt question? I sincerely want to know.
Comments:
Maybe your pizza was mummified?
On a more serious note http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/egypt_alcohol.html
Additional Tags: Alice In Chains, Slayer, Facelift
posted on June 21, 2007, 8:22 am
I've always hated math and always make jokes on when we'll use it in life. But it's gotten to the point where my teacher says "you need it on the HSPA/SAT". The HSPA is a standardized test NJ kids need to take to graduate from High School.
"Without trigonometry, there'd be no engineering."
"Without a lamp, there would be no light."
Oh the Breakfast Club...
posted on June 17, 2007, 2:10 am
It sounds like Egypt was way over-emphasized in your school. I don't think any "teacher" is smart enough or knowledgable enough to dive into Chinese history. There's too much to it :p
Finance, bah, join the rest of your country in overspending and living a life of debt. Here's a site I visit regularily to give me all sorts of personal finance tips: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/
Oh, and while you are at it, pull up some trans-fats and a super big gulp and see if you can't put on an extra 50 pounds.
posted on June 15, 2007, 10:56 pm
Egypt had and has a lot of great things, but what did that contribute to modern society? Yeah, their architecture is amazing, but we still don’t know how they did it. Same with their religion, we didn’t really have a good grasp of it until we could decipher their writing. I understand why it’s a good idea to learn about it (what with the farming, art, and calender), but in my school curriculum we learned about it every year since 1st grade, and then spent half a semester on it in freshmen World History. I don’t know, seems like there are a whole load of other civilizations (try China—again, never learned about that) that are a heck-load more important and influential. We do have too much of our own history. What Crimean War? Armenia Genocide...what? We don’t even get a suitable Native American history lesson, just that we killed them all.We had a required “finance” class (dubbed Consumer Economics) that tried to teach us about credit cards and check books, but their material was from the 1980’s and (having been using a checkbook since sophomore year), it was all pretty much outdated stuff. As for more complex stuff like mortgages, insurance, and savings accounts: I’m still clueless. Not like that’s important or anything though, right?
posted on June 15, 2007, 1:24 pm
While I don't have an definitive answer to your Egypt question, I do believe that ancient Egypt had many things right. Their religion, for instance, was much superior to Christianity, making much more sense. As for contributions, just go to Egypt to find out. Their architecture was amazing. They were superior farmers due to the Nile flooding every year and delivering perfect soil to the surrounding area. The devised the first 365 day calendar, they had great medicine and doctors, and their art is still admired today.
I have noticed that Americans concentrate too much on their own history. I'm surprised that you spent so much time on Egypt.
And yes, everyone wonders about math. Trigonometry? Is it necessary? I do computer programming with some pretty complex formulas, and at times I do find myself wishing that I paid more attention in Algebra but I manage to get my way through it. There are many practical uses for these complex equations, electricians, programmers, architects, engineers but outside of that I'm not sure what use the math is to any other fields.
One question I have, did you learn anything about finance?
Additional Tags: Barrhead, books
posted on June 15, 2007, 11:34 am
