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Alright, here comes my rant, it might get moved, but its got to do with students.

Is it just me or should most teenagers be characterized as legally retarded? In my high school, there are approximately 1500 kids, of those 1500 kids, there are about 3 or 4 who I can have an in depth conversation with about somethign more than sports, women, celebrities or how drunk they got on the weekend. Most teenagers(in my school anyway) seem complteley unwilling to admit that there is life outside of sitcoms and their little circles, and are become downright indignant if you attempt to start a conversation about anything other than beer, hockey or jennifer lopez is sleeping with this week. In discussions in the classroom betwen teachers and more often than not, just myself, about politics, world issues, geography, or someone elses opinon, my peers will often times become verbally abusive if they are not heads down asleep. My schoolmates do not seem to give a shit about anythign outside their ltitle worlds, if I mention the Sudan, Iraq, or any world leader other than George Bush, they give me a blank stare and I can almost hear them thinking "I wonder whats on T.V. tonight".
Does it seem to anyone else that it is a rule, that around teh age of 14,the majority girls develop breasts and lose any logic they might have possessed, and boys began to find hair and lose any interest in something other than their genitalia. At times I feel liek I am the only person below the age of 20 whos knowledge oft he world expanded the further my testes grew from my body.

People say how scary it is that George Bush might win the election again, and the world might go to shit. If only they knew what the next generation had in store for them. THere are a lot of children who should be left behind.

Well, I for one enjoyed your little rant!

I think I'll extend your rant to my age group as well, except when you get to be my age (26), in addition to tv shows, j-lo, and beer, conversation shifts to career, bills, kids, and the like.

No, to be serious, I attended high school from 1992-1996, and I think I got a great education - but then I took it seriously as well. My brother attended high school from 1996-2000, and granted it was in a different school system, but he had the lamest education ever -- laughable. I think education in the US has, and will, continue to become more lame....but I'm being pessimistic here. It's just that when you read the papers and see the youth walking around the mall with g-strings coming out of their pants, and you see the crap that's on tv now (i.e. reality shows), it makes one shudder to think about the next generation!!

There is hope...as long as GW doesn't get re-elected...

Any other people on the boards in High School, or at least 5 years younger than me, who can boost my pessimism with uplifting points??

Lynn

i hated high school!! everyone tried their best to conform to the popular kids. everyone had their own little group of friends that perpetuated high school stereotypes. granted, i used to hang out with the 'middle-class' kids, but THANKFULLY i stopped making myself do all the things that i actually didn't want to do, like listen to RnB/hip-hop, wear tommy hilfiger and nautica 'gear,' blowing all my paychecks on the cheapest prada bags, etc. (damn that just brought back a lot of memories though!) that happened around the end of my sophomore year.. 1999. by the time summer was over and junior year was about to start, i was sick of all that bullshit. i dropped out of high school, lost touch with a lot of my friends, but i managed to get into a local community college. damn was i lucky!! i got back into high school but i joined a program that allowed me to take classes at the college and get college as well as high school credit. this way, i didn't have to even go to the high school. and this college, i was in love with it. my first quarter, i took political science, psychology and philosophy. even though i was the youngest person there, it was so intellectually stimulating, being around other people that actually cared. and i didn't assume they cared just because they chose to take that class and they were older - i knew they cared because they always organized rallies, stayed after class, and really got into whatever we were discussing. in those three months, i learned more than i ever did in the 2 years of high school. plus, i got to graduate on time, and by the time i started college, i already had junior standing! do you have any programs like that? you should take advantage of it if you can.. mines was called running start. kanadiankid, you know you're better than all those naive little kids that obsess over the vanilla parts of life so don't torture yourself by slowing yourself down.

by the way, have you guys heard about bush's earpiece during the debate? i heard it from a coworker. so, i guess when bush was trying to argue a point, he was getting flustered and then he said 'wait wait, let me finish this!' but no one in the debate was even saying anything to interrupt him.

Its been 3 years since I left high school.

I never had any social problems in high school, the friends I grew up since elementary school grew up into the "cool" kids, combine this with the fact that I was good friends to many of the college driven kids (being in the same classes) and I pretty much had hundreds of people to party with.

Furthermore, I met my two closest friends (still extremely close) whom I consider by brothers, I met my fiance (former-cheerleader future-doctor... mmm ) all in high school.

So overall I think I did quite well in high school. HOWEVER, that being said, I cannot explain how much better life is when you get out of highschool.

I have 1000% happier now than in high school.

I've always thought how strange the difference between high-school and college is.

In high school I had to have a "note" to be outside of the classroom, was always considered guilty until proven innocent, and was never taken with any seriousness (always being told why I could or should do something.. travel included).

In college, even in my freshman year, I attend classes whenever I want to, I have access to HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars worth of equipment, Within 5 minutes I can have a manuscript in front of me worth $500,000 without any supervision, I am always innocent until guilty, and everything is consider acceptable (travel, love, life).

I really don't understand why it "clicks" from one to the other.. but oh well.. I'll just enjoy it.

i'm 21 almost 22 and finishing college and no it doesn't get any better. i have about 2 friends who i can have an indepth challenging conversation with and other than that its about boyfriends or parties that i don't wanna hear about! too much drama.....

and bush was not wearing a wire..how was he supposed to hear it if it was there but not in his ear???

It's funny. I really enjoyed high school. I attended from 1997-2000 (though I finished my diploma requirements in 1999). I think the reason was because I actually got to pick my HS. Edmonton was the first district in north america to have open school boundaries, so most of the schools here have a specialty program. Mine specialized in science and technology. Some people I went to school with (not me) conducted research projects that would be at least as advanced as what some grad students I know work on.

What we specialized in isn't so important as the fact that about a third of the people there had actively chosen the school, instead of it just being the closest to where they lived. And you could tell who was part of that 1/3 from their attitude.

The other thing that happens here, and I don't know about other places, is different streams of courses. There's an academic stream (10,20,30), and a vocational stream (13,23,33). Some courses (Math & Science) also have a 14 & 24 class which is enough for people to get a high school diploma. While even the "academic" stream is hardly challenging (I did no work for 3 years and still had no problems), it does seperate out the people who had no intention of going on to a post-secondary degree. Strike up another few points for having classmates who actually care.

Some of this is may be some theoretical thoughts that the people who organize education systems can use to make more effective schools at the same price, but more than anything I think it shows that there are bright and thoughtful people out there. It's just that in another type of school system, they're watered down to the point where even the bright and thoughtful people are pressured to fit in with the dimwits, so you can't find them.

That's just my experience. The few schools here that don't offer specialty programs are definately more known for their violence and have a much lower rate of people going on to a post-secondary education, so I think that speaks for itself.

Oh yes, I was also going to suggest that your basic problem is that you live in southern Ontario. There's something about that area, I don't know if it's the heat (you're WAY too far south) or the polution, but it's like it fries the brain.

Luckily whatever it is, you seem to have an immunity. Don't lose it.

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and bush was not wearing a wire..how was he supposed to hear it if it was there but not in his ear???

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I agree, no president or election advisor is stupid enough to risk complete and utter humiliation by the american public, criminal charges by the election commitee, and impeechment by congress just so they would not have to remember some statistics.

half the problem with school is that you are thrown together with people you have nothing in common with. I will never never never be interested in watching football and then taking lots of coke! Uni can be the same, but you have a bigger group of people to chose from!

I say, join stuff. Find groups of people who have an interest - something that gives them something else to think about apart from boys (or girls) and drink. Like here for example! All the people I have met while travelling have been really cool coz they have an interest -they don't just take their conversations from what MTV told them.

tassy

Ah Neil, like a standard westerner (and the rest of the country), you had to burn Southern Ontario.

My high school was different. I went to the only French Immersion high school in the district, and was with a lot of really smart kids. Generally, the smarter kids (and I hate to say this because it sounds snobby) are the ones who make it through French Immersion into high school. I had some excellent teachers (and some crappy ones), and had a relatively decent time. The only problem I had with high school is that it was really political - towing the party line, and the like. I didn't do well with that. I'm a shit disturber, especially when I don't agree with something. But in terms of the teaching, especially in my OAC classes, and the classroom discussion, I couldn't complain.

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Originally posted by meagicano:
Ah Neil, like a standard westerner (and the rest of the country), you had to burn Southern Ontario.

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Yeah, I wrote the big message, and then realized I hadn't made any derogatory comments towards southern Ontario. So I'm going "oh crap, that's just wrong..." and I had to come back with a pretty weak line.

Hey, don't make fun of southern ontario, i mean we have toronto, which has the cn tower, which is very useful because......

But the little town I live in was forced to join hamilton despite 99.5% of it's residents voting against the almagamation, so now I am officially part of the armpit of ontario, i mean, the New city of Hamilton as it's called. And no we may not have mountains, or prairies, or coastlines, or unpolluted air, or wide open fields that will not contain subdivisions next year, or a lake without genetically mutated fish, but we have....the CN tower, which serves a good purpose, which is...

Fortunately, I went to one of the best public high schools in the nation. Though I started to hate it towards the end (I was bored and had gone crazy), I thought I got a pretty good education. My senior year of high school consisted of the following: AP English Literature and Composition, AP Calculus, CIS Spanish (the highest 200's aka intermediate Spanish class given through the University of Minnesota) AP European History, Biochemistry, and an independent study program where I got to be mentored by a neurologist. And I didn't even take advantage of all the opportunities presented to me. I could've did post-secondary at the U of M but decided against it. But the majority of the kids at my school were also fucking retarded. Luckily, I was not one of them.

Also, a lot of people at my high school were very knowledgable about the world and whatnot. Then again, in the 8th grade kids all over the United States were supposed to take a geography test. The two middle-schools that composed my district were #s 1/2 in the state of Minnesota, and 2/3 in the United States. Beaten out by some rich Naperville cocks. Fuckers.

But yeah I also didn't go for the majority of my last semester of high school, there were better things to do. Like skiing.

I wonder if there are more members from Ontario of Minnesota on here...

Don't worry Kanadiankid you're almost done. Then freedom.

Southern Ontario here too! London, to be exact.
And KanadianKid, college is much better than high school in many respects (FREEDOM), but I still look back with fond memories. College seems so much more serious, but then I went to a high school with 400 kids, so things were a bit lax, hehe.

High School is crap, this sounds dumb but it's for kids. The real education comes from growing up, which only happens once you leave the cotton coated world that is high school. I went to uni, and it is just as full of immature wasters and layabouts, but then there are the people who choose to be there, like at Neils' school. I got disillusioned after a couple of years, and even now (in my fifth year) I am dismayed to see certain folk there who have cheated and blatantly lied their way through. But they will be found out eventually. I have taken advantage of the opportunities to me. I'm in a group of like minded poeple (and get good CV fodder) and I've studied in the US for a year. And now I'm studying in Japan for half a year.

I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing now, but in future I don't know. The only thing I know is that High school is nothing for me, I don't even remember any of it. I had friends etc, like everyone else, and I was one of the smart kids (best grades in the school) but I hated the place; I always hated school, which no-one ever believed. They always said stuff like 'But you're quite smart!' or ' But you do so well' like that was anything to do with it...I couldn't wait to leave, it was just so immature and the 'cool' guys and the 'sports' guys and the 'in' girls, I know they won't achieve anything with their lives. I might not, but I'm having fun getting there.

It does get better, but my education has come outside of school. School teaches you to conform to the same general theory as everyone else, you only learn when you do what YOU want to do, WHERE you want to do it, and WHEN you want.

So keep your chin up, you'll get out soon, and then you can do whatever it is that you want to do. The whole world's out there, you just gotta get through for a little while longer!

Garry

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am dismayed to see certain folk there who have cheated and blatantly lied their way through.

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Oh man I can relate to this. Jenn (pre-med) teaches a chemistry lab for some extra cash every week. Last week she discovered that one of her students (a science major) has NEVER HEARD OF ROUNDING NUMBER!!!

Round numbers is something you learn in middle school and use in every single math AND science class. This girl managed to go all the way TO A HIGHLY COMPETATIVE UNIVERSITY without ever learning it (not that there is much to learn)

Rounding Numbers:

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How to round numbers Make the numbers that end in 1 through 4 into the next lower number that ends in 0. For example 74 rounded to the nearest ten would be 70. Numbers that end in a digit of 5 or more should be rounded up to the next even ten.

The number 88 rounded to the nearest ten would be 90.

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I mean COME ON!!! You mean when I was working my butt off to get into that school I was competing with PEOPLE LIKE THIS?!?! That just pisses me off.

jesus christ thats really pitiful.

once there was a show on how to cheat.. i mean the whole point of the show was trying to find out how easy it is to cheat, etc. but it was basically just 'here college kids! don't take your education seriously!'

i would hope that people like that aren't planning on continuing to pursue careers in which they'd work with other people.. especially whne it comes to health care or in lab environments. but then again i doubt they'd be mature enough to realize that they shouldn't. at least not until they kill their first patient, or burn their own hands off with chemicals, or mutate their DNA because they don't care to know why gloves are required for a reason.

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It does get better, but my education has come outside of school. School teaches you to conform to the same general theory as everyone else, you only learn when you do what YOU want to do, WHERE you want to do it, and WHEN you want.

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unschooling, autodidactism, natural learning, self-directed learning, delight-directed learning would be one way out

It's been quite a while since I was in high school, but I remember that I most certainly was not the least bit interested in world affairs, national economy, or any of the things KK mentions. Nor was I interested in travel, other cultures, foreign language, or any of that stuff. HS was exactly as described by others...
parties, rock and roll, girls, cigarettes, alcohol, and usually one or two other things depending on the individual. Mine was racing motorcycles. I have no regrets. HS should be fun and carefree. (As long as the grades are ok)

Plenty of time to figure things out later...

It's funny how people mention the sports and the jocks - my high school didn't really have a football team, and my university definitely does not have a football team! I think that Dal is one of the only schools without a football team, and I love it. It's absolutely hilarious.

We didn't even have jocks, really, in high school. No "in crowd" either, since everyone had their own group and sort of did their own thing. That's why I can't really identify with the stereotypical teen movies. Is life really like that at high schools?

We do have a hockey team at Dal, though, and that's the important thing. Just to get back on the jock discussion and all.