Our School System Blows
Offline [RANT]
I'm so fed-up with the school system where I live. It's entirely driven by the union (the Alberta Teacher's Association), it supports an 'us-and-them' adversarial relationship between teachers and parents, it makes no attempt to eject poor instructors from their profession (on the contrary: it shields them)... and the grading system is fucked up.
It's understandable that we want to test people about what they actually learned froma program. It's also understandable that we want to correct people who put forward incorrect proposals about worldly mechanism.
It is fucking bogus that punitive action be taken against someone for simply being wrong (in an academic sense), and downright infuriating that we reinforce the notion that regularly being incorrect = poor student / hopeless idiot.
In what way can it be at all argued that students are encouraged to learn when one of the basic tenets of exploration and discourse (the chance that you're incorrect, or not initially 100% right) is looked upon with such negativity. Being wrong is not a negative thing. Being ignorant is, but the two are not married concepts.
Likewise, acing exams and doing every dopey task without question is not the same as being brilliant, and I would argue is nothing to be rewarded for. That isn't using positive reinforcement to forge a room full of skeptical minds - it's using it to to train quiet submission and obedience.
Homework is a bogus concept. What if your employer told you to drag home a bunch of stuff they wanted you to get done off-hours after supper tomorrow? All that it does is further entwine students into the machinations of the school, and give instructors something else to punish students about. Homework projects should be things that a student has a genuine interest in accomplishing on their own through personal passion and ambition, and should be applaudable acts of periodical awe.
The double standards are bizarre at best. Students are taught about how great and wonderful democracy is, but are put in the position of subservients to a totalitarian regime and told it's for their own good. They are taught that conformity leads to creative stagnation and that those who break away from it should be rewarded, yet the same rule apparently doesn't apply on school grounds. Teachers wax on about important students are in their lives and how they teach as a passion, but are all too happy to go on strike when the ATA thinks it is in a political position to earn them a few extra bucks and then do nothing but bitch and moan in order to gain public support about what rough waters it is to be a teacher.
I'm sick of this ridiculous institute. If ID wants it, as far as I'm concerned (where I am, anyway), it can have it. No responsible parent should surrender their children to the public school system. Teach them from home, send them to a private school, hire a tutor...
Every public school in Alberta can crumble to dust tomorrow morning, as far as I'm concerned.
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
- Login to post comments
that's funny. i was studying in london in the spring of '03 and i took pictures of the protestors in front of parliament. i recall the fierce debate in our classrooms and everyone's frustration with me. i was an even more jaded fuck in those days than i am now. my whole basic line was always, "it's gonna happen whether you jackasses whine about it or not. if you don't like it, you should've thought of that before driving your fucking cars and buying into the capitalist bullshit. i drove and bought too, so now i'm reaping what i helped sow. this problem is too big to ever change democratically."
you know, what many people forget is that marx didn't necessarily believe a violent revolution was necessary. he believed that communism was inevitable and that bourgeois capitalism digs its own grave. i think bourgeois capitalism adapted better than he anticipated (once again, FDR's bullshit), but i still hope it only delayed the inevitable. still, in most of the third world, i think violent insurrection is the only answer, but it should be coordinated by a single body. i think che guevara's vision of starting many vietnams simultaneously could work, if anyone can ever pull it off. in the information age, it's definitely more possible.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
My uneducated hunches, and rant,
I wish I'd studied economic/political systems more. As I AM basically a pacifist, my "eat the rich" and "abolish work" barking is merely a rally call to wake up the apathetic brainwashed working class robots. Our present system seems "fundamentally workable" but it's not being worked, overhauled, amended etc. In these times of instant communication, voting every 2 and 4 yrs and sending a rep etc to Washington or the state capital is a crude "horse and buggy" continuation of the past, and what I'd call proof of non-participation and non-progress. The 50% voter turn out is truly sad reminder of public sick apathy. State run lotteries is proof of mass induced insanity. Why, why why ? ....
Waking up the public, into demanding participation in all decision making, is the only way positive change will prevail. No secrets. The radical stifeling wealth distribution due to the rich controllers and sleeping masses is an embarrassment to human dignity. Political revolution is emanate. "Royalty" needs to be eliminated. The rich are not "smarter" than the poor. There must be a cut off point of personal wealth. The whole corporate thing is half a shame. The unfair tax system is a lawyers joke. If a group of 8th graders can't understand and essentially run the social system it needs revision. Confusion is a nightmare of our fear and the controllers design. God "worship" as in religion is all our enemy. The leaders need be equal slaves of burden, not kings. No masters. No secrets, no tricks, ..... Asking or hoping the rich will cure the ills the world is like praying to the devil ....
Can everyone be "Rich"? If we re-define "rich" I say absolutely yes. Utopia is a goal to never abandon. Much of the privately owned free market industries are basically monopolies. Health care, energy, water, food, housing, education, money lending, and the media need to be socialized, while still allowing private, fairly regulated, competition.
I think the "incentive" to create, invent and improve is an innate human quality. "All for fun, no more work", as Bob Black says in the essay I posted above makes a lot sense to me. To be "happy" is more than massive wealth accumulation. A system including "have nots" is hell. Humm, so buddha friendly, that Bob Black .... YES,
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as ONE" ~ prophet, John Lennon
.... So what to do ? Educate and implement what the people want.
Debate: "Who's to Blame for the Brave New Economy?" Some interesting comments here too,
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=whos_to_blame_for_the_brave_new_economy
He who is not angry this day, is my sick enemy to heal. -->
, and jesus wept ....
Atheism Books.
prophet #2, bob dylan:
There's an evenin' haze settlin' over the town
Starlight by the edge of the creek
The buyin' power of the proletariat's gone down
Money's gettin' shallow and weak
The place I love best is a sweet memory
It's a new path that we trod
They say low wages are a reality
If we want to compete abroad
My cruel weapons have been put on the shelf
Come sit down on my knee
You are dearer to me than myself
As you yourself can see
I'm listenin' to the steel rails hum
Got both eyes tight shut
Just sitting here trying to keep the hunger from
Creeping it's way into my gut
CHORUS
Meet me at the bottom, don't lag behind
Bring me my boots and shoes
You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
Sing a little bit of these workingman's blues
Now, I'm sailin' on back, ready for the long haul
Tossed by the winds and the seas
I'll drag ‘em all down to hell and I'll stand ‘em at the wall
I'll sell ‘em to their enemies
I'm tryin' to feed my soul with thought
Gonna sleep off the rest of the day
Sometimes no one wants what we got
Sometimes you can't give it away
Now the place is ringed with countless foes
Some of them may be deaf and dumb
No man, no woman knows
The hour that sorrow will come
In the dark I hear the night birds call
I can hear a lover's breath
I sleep in the kitchen with my feet in the hall
Sleep is like a temporary death
(chorus)
Well, they burned my barn, they stole my horse
I can't save a dime
I got to be careful, I don't want to be forced
Into a life of continual crime
I can see for myself that the sun is sinking
How I wish you were here to see
Tell me now, am I wrong in thinking
That you have forgotten me?
Now they worry and they hurry and they fuss and they fret
They waste your nights and days
Them I will forget
But you I'll remember always
Old memories of you to me have clung
You've wounded me with words
Gonna have to straighten out your tongue
It's all true, everything you have heard
(chorus)
In you, my friend, I find no blame
Wanna look in my eyes, please do
No one can ever claim
That I took up arms against you
All across the peaceful sacred fields
They will lay you low
They'll break your horns and slash you with steel
I say it so it must be so
Now I'm down on my luck and I'm black and blue
Gonna give you another chance
I'm all alone and I'm expecting you
To lead me off in a cheerful dance
Got a brand new suit and a brand new wife
I can live on rice and beans
Some people never worked a day in their life
Don't know what work even means
(chorus)
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
See I'm not sure we really have a choice but buy into capitalism a lot of the time. I mean sure, I boycott a few corporate products on ethical grounds, McDonalds, Coca Cola, Nestle etc. but you can't feasibly boycott them all. I like to think that I'm not doing my bit for capitalism, but actually I am. I've bought over £1,000 worth of musical instruments/equipment over the last 7 years, all of which is big brands like Fender, Marshall, Yamaha, Zoom, Boss (not the clothing manufacturer). Now I could argue that I need this stuff, which as a musician I probably do, and I want quality instruments too (my Fender telecaster is the most beautiful guitar to play), but at the end of the day, I bought a product that was made in some factory by some low paid workers in Japan (or Mexico in the case of my tele).
In terms of marching through London I only went to the march a year on from the war. On the day war broke out I was in my final year of high school, was supposedly a "ringleader" in a mass exodus of students from the school and was striding through the streets of Manchester with a massive crowd of protesters and being brutalised by the police. I actually got charged by a police horse that day and found myself on the other side of the police line unhurt. I personally think protest is an extremely important democratic right, it might not change the government's mind, but it does show the world that people care and won't stand for it. I mean look at the recent protests at the Olympic torch relays. Ok, so people were brutalised by police and by blue-tracksuited Chinese thugs, but what it achieved was to weaken China's international reputation, and prevent the torch relays from running smoothly, even canceling them in some places. I'm not sure the Iraq protests actually achieved anything like this, after five years we're still in Iraq, this quagmire we can't escape from. The point is though, that many of the people protesting weren't against capitalism or wanting revolution, they were just people who didn't like what the government was doing, the Labour Party wasn't re-elected in 2001 on a war manifesto. The reason protest is necessary is that voting can't change policy, there's no option for "I'll vote for you but I don't actually agree with this particular policy", ordinary people have virtually no power except every four-five years when they get to choose between two or three parties (no one's really sure if its a two or three party system in the UK) all of whom would probably end up making the same decisions. So, we have to make our voices heard in other ways.
Atheist Books
Yeah, Bob Dylan , cried into the river of "love and pain" ....
Bob Dylan - Masters of War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWkWSLEW-Ds
I fucking love that prophet BOB DYLAN !
Everybody must get stoned
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FrbLRYw1yE
HEAVY !
Atheism Books.
under the current system, we have no choice but to buy into capitalism, yes. and because the proletariat is quickly disappearing in the US, it's unlikely the system will change anytime soon. that's why i put my faint hopes on the increasingly self-conscious illegal immigrant population.
i think protest can achieve things when it's focused and organized. i wasn't talking about the protestors in front of parliament "whining" about the war, but my fellow american students who were with me at the time: all whining, some whining for, some whining against. it's the fucking sexy chic rich white kid "i'm protesting but i have no idea what the fuck about but i feel cool" hippie bullshit protesting i hate.
still, i'm afraid i've grown very jaded about popular demonstrations in general, especially in the US. in late 2006/early 2007, public opinion in the US was overwhelmingly against sending more troops into iraq (ms. rice's "surge"--that fucking cunt, i really hate her), i think it was something like 70%, and bush basically said on national TV, "fuck what you people think, i think this is right, so i'm going to do it." and he did it. and now the administration is lying every fucking day about how it's "getting results." bush even "set" a very tentative, very vague date when troops could be withdrawn and even started sending some home, then, surprise surprise, more shit broke out so we had to put the brakes on. when a coke-addled fuckwit is about to drive a bus over a cliff, you don't show him a petition; you forcibly take the wheel from him. i only wish our workers had the guts. they're the ones paying billions each day for the war out of their own pockets.
as for my musical instruments, i'm almost clean.
i have a martin d-16gt, made in nazareth, pennsylvania, and a fender '52 telecaster reissue, also made in the USA. but the tele's not really clean; i had to work 7 months at the fucking GAP to pay that off. late night stock shifts unloading boxes from indonesia, malaysia, etc.: the most humiliating period of my life. my amp is a fender blues jr., made in china or korea i believe. so i'm fucked there. oh yeah, and my cheap epiphone banjo, china. jeeesus christ, i'm not as clean as i thought. still, i heard that the asian gibson/epiphone plants have decent conditions. i don't know. of course, my banjo could have been made by samick. most of the knock-off instruments are.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I read a foreign policy analyst say "Two countries that a McDonald's within their borders have never and will never go to war". The cold war effectively ended when the first McDonald's opened near Red Square. The proletariat and bourgeoisie were united in their desire for cheeseburgers and a coke, lined up for blocks.
Another stat, any two countries with a least one golf course per million people have never gone to war against each other.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
US Tele's are usually pretty expensive. I got a Mexican one because it's pretty much the same guitar (slightly different type of wood) but half the price. There's no way I'm gonna fork out £700 for a guitar. I like Martin acoustic strings although I haven't tried their guitars. I'm not really one of those people who goes on about what model of guitar they have, except with my tele because it's my pride and joy.
Atheist Books
the US tele was very expensive, that's why i had to work for 7 months as a university student with pretty much 100% of my paychecks going to pay for it. when i do something as big as buying an instrument, i always know exactly what i want, and i wanted the '52 model.
i didn't mean to "go on" about the martin, but i cut my teeth playing bluegrass and early country. i'm primarily an acoustic player and a big traditionalist, so it was nothing but a martin for me from the start. i really wanted the d-28 but after the tele, there was no way i was forking over that much again. our country band here in slovakia just got a train company to sponsor us (the bass player is old friends with the owner), so i'm pressing for a gibson j-45 rosewood. i really need something with a pick-up since i'm using a dean markley soundhole pick-up in my martin and it has problems. not to mention it's very ugly.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Yeah, I wish I'd bought a semi-acoustic (i.e. with pickup). I got a Yamaha acoustic for about £100 when I was 14. Good acoustic pick-ups are pricey and I've never really had much money, if I was gonna spend that it would probably be towards a new guitar rather than a pick-up. I'm currently using a bottletop transducer on it, which sounds alright, but can be a bit tinny sometimes.
I think us muso's might have inadvertantly stolen this thread. I'll post some more on Marxism tomorrow.
Atheist Books
I won't lie and pretend I've read this entire thing because I didn't. I had no time to log on for 2 days or so and there was all of a sudden 60 new posts and I still have no time to read them all.
But the general attitude I'm getting from the most recent posts is that the school system is basically just training grounds to fit into the social and economic system. Of course it is. But some people also seem to think we're kind of stuck in it and there's no use fighting it.
Well I guess I'm wondering if the school system is really just a product of the technological/industrial society we live in. We're taught bullshit because it's to the advantage of the system. And I'm really wondering if that's the sort of society I want to even be a part of. It makes getting physical necessities easy, but at the cost of a lot more.
I've never really considered myself an anarchist, but does anyone else think the only way to have any real improvement in education system is to get rid of the society it is a part of? Remember, the word anarchy applies to a variety of beliefs, mostly revolving around individuals and small groups of people, so education would have to be personal. And without modern technology providing for them, it would definitely be stuff kids want to learn (if they want to preserve their life).
"We are the star things harvesting the star energy"
-Carl Sagan
Of course the education system is deeply rooted in what is advantageous for the economy. You hear government officials all the time in this country, talking about schools as if they were job factories. This type of education system is favoured because it is better suited to the economic environment than the 'education for education's sake' system that myself and other people here would like to see. I'm not a traditionalist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think that traditional academia is an important part of education, and I think this has been wiped out of schools in the past few years. I'm not saying that we should abandon all vocational education or that we should go back to chalk, blackboards and canes, but I do think that education should be about teaching young minds to think for themselves, and not just turning young minds into future workers.
Human life is not about work, sure its something we have to do to get by, and probably always will be, but it is also about discovering and understanding, about creativity and individual and communal happiness. Education should reflect this.
Atheist Books
Yeah Jacob, what is Utopia?, anarchists do ask .... but that ... is not much brought up in our schools, media , nor voting options ....
No masters, no Rich, no Kings, is that A caring message .... oh yeah, and "EAT THE RICH" .... "NO MASTERS" .... ???
YUP, Thing is, I AM a, "ONE for ALL" dreamer ..... no more presidents , no more countries, one earth , one human race ..... Defeating all Masters and division is the anarchists message of all is ONE ..... and of course some are simply crazy lunatics too ....
FIGHT FOR WHAT, Division .... ??? Fuck no .... all is ONE ....
Atheism Books.
You know the Bunny Ranch has a school of prostitution?
Yea, but the customers say it blows..........BA DUM CHA!
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
How do you propose we adopt an all for one system? Humans won't stand for it. We have a biological hunger for power, and if others don't give it to us we take it. Maybe not everyone, but it only takes one to decide he won't live as an equal to disrupt that system. And more likely there will be more than one, enough to create an organization large enough to enforce their will on others.
"We are the star things harvesting the star energy"
-Carl Sagan
You have to learn not to pay too much attention to I Am God As You. As entertaining as he is, it's almost impossible to tell what he actually thinks.
Atheist Books
Yeah. sometimes I have that problem with my own thoughts.
But still, does anyone think we can actually introduce empirical education in our industrial-technological society? It's the exact opposite of the needs of the system; it encourages individuality and could cause kids to pursue their own paths rather than those that benefit the system. That causes economic collapse, which leads to poverty, etc.
Maybe it's because I'm young, or in process of watching my classmates have their brains drained for the sake of society, but the more I think about it the more I'm liking some form of anarchy. At least after society collapses we can regain our self-reliance and of course our freedom.
"We are the star things harvesting the star energy"
-Carl Sagan
Yeah, pyrokidd. It's basically a goal or desire as is the "Golden Rule" message, echoed by the founding fathers, "All men [people] are created equal". A perfect Utopia is unattainable, but a joined effort and "will" to ending "unnecessary" suffering needs to be truly desired and pursued. "Greed" needs to be redirected .... ie "We are Family" .... "one for all, all for one" .... Yeah, there will always be "trouble makers", and this sad day they are in almost total control fueling chaos.
Religion and Patriotism are prejudice hindrances to coming together as One. "Come Together" John Lennon
Yeah, How? Who and what is dividing us ??? Will war, poverty and royalty ever become an embarrassment of our greedy fearful past? I don't know, but we must never give up trying to make it so. True happiness is in the active pursuit to make the world as "fun" as possible for all .... ie anarchist, Bob Black
Imagine!
To many religious people are waiting for the "next life", what a cop out.
Atheism Books.