So how bad was/is your education?

[XIII Heartless]

I taught myself most of the stuff I know. The teachers at school were so focused on testing instead of actually educating. I don't know how many times I heard "Just learn enough to pass the test" I mean that is all anyone is ever focused on anymore. Test, test, and more test. I'm sorry but the whole American Education system focuses far too much on testing. It needs to be focused actually educating kids.

I was always interested in History so I spent most of my free time researching historical things that caught my interest and I learned a hell of a lot more than I did in the classroom. Ever since I started doing my own research I feel so much more confident.

I say the education system needs to be reformed. Get rid of some of the test. Have the system focus on science, math, and most important History. Get rid of bad teachers and hire ones that have a passion for teaching and kids. Don't have testing be the central focus of schools. I also believe God needs to be in schools once again as well as the teaching about the love of country and a moral decent society. But that's another debate for another day.

Anyways there is my little rant. lol

I'm extremely God-fearing and I still don't really see what that has to do with the issue. Unless you're insinuating that education is reaching an all-time low because of His removal? But I'm sure it was headed that way anyways, so I'm gonna slightly disagree with you.

Trying this new open-mind thing out -_-

 

[Oberon]

I went to two high schools. One was awesome and not so hard to pass but it was also in the city, so it was a bit on the ghetto side. The other was in a country-ish area and had a huge bureaucracy problem. It honestly didn't care about passing students with a good education.

To give you an example of how I know this, they actually switched their "official grading system" from the A, B, C, D, F scale (which is essentially get 60% or better or fail) to a system of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. Basically 4 = A, 3 = B, etc etc. It was a clever way of saying "get better than 20% and you'll pass." =/

 

[Maxyli138]

I live in a family town, and education is very important, so I've grown up getting a pretty good education. But I've had a few teachers who had no idea what they were doing. They taught the wrong things, never explained what they were teaching well, and never helped improve my education. Then there are the students who just don't try to do well in school.

In my town, there are classes to help any students. We have special education classes for the disabled, help classes for those failing or in danger of failing. We have honors classes for people who need more of a challenge. Then there are just average classes.

 

[Evello]

Middle school was an absolute waste of three years of my life. Learning at around the pace I do now (I'm a senior in high school), I could have covered all of middle school in a year, possibly less. For three years I came home every day complaining that I was bored out of my skull. The school was obsessed with helping slow learners, but left all the advanced kids out to dry. Despite my parents' complaints every year, there was not a single advanced class in the entire school. Well, I suppose there was one attempt at a short math program (about fifteen minutes a day), but it wasn't actually a class, didn't replace the dismal normal math class, and it ended up just being some gym teacher trying to explain trigonometry without explaining anything leading up to it. Of course, as soon as I moved to high school, they started an advanced math class that gets you out of your freshman year of math in high school.

My high school is good, though. I live in a very good town, and my school has a good reputation, so despite a few little nit-picks I have it must be good in comparison. I think the administrators read a little too much Machiavelli, but I suppose there could be worse problems. I like most of my teachers, and there are decent amount of advanced courses and such. However, I think a large part of my opinion on the school is based on the fact that my class is just so jam-packed with overachievers. Last year, there were two students in the graduating top ten that had approximately a 4.0 GPA. This year, you can't even crack the top 30 with a 4.0. I've never got a single A-, took four AP classes, and I still am only 11th. So I think the fact that my class is brilliant had a lot to do with my experience. Competition with my classmates has lead to me learning more than I think I could have otherwise. Working with those peers also teaches you lots of new things that no teacher could ever explain.

 

[XIII Heartless]

you can't even crack the top 30 with a 4.0.

I feel that. I had a 4.0 myself and was number 33 in my class -_-

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

My high school was the only place I received quality education. But that had to be paid for...and I didn't take advantage of it until the very end of my Sophomore year when I realized I needed to go to college.

Even in university, I was being taught lies. I learned a ton of stuff from my Art History and Politics courses. And some stuff from my two interdisciplinary courses...but I learned squat from biology, and more lies than truth so I have to completely restructure and self-teach myself from a HS level. Thank goodness they were teaching us to remember and not to memorize.

Middle school screwed me over because of bad teachers, being forced in remedial English courses when I should have been in Honors but they had no room. Hell, my 8th grade history teacher couldn't handle our class so she switched us with the dean's history class. Best decision that was ever made. The dean meant for us to learn and there was no bullshitting her class. The fact she was frightening as hell (even if I worked in the office during my free period) made all of us work hard in her class.

Even so, the rest of the school was crap if you weren't an Honor student (or didn't get the luck of the draw and make it into the Honors program) Bonking LAUSD.

Going to a private HS was the best decision of my life. And leaving my University (even though I miss my Art History classes) was the best decision as well.

 

[Tenyas]

Ha.

Try being in a school where Highschool is alongside Middleschool and the sixth grade class is twice as big as the entire Highschool student body combined. I think we have four graduating seniors, around fifteen or so juniors, and maybe 20 to 30 sommat sophomores. Freshmen are around 50 at the most.

The issue with this is that the entire Highschool schedule is completely dictated by the Middleschool's. With an A-day to B-day pattern, anytime the Middleschool has an event that disrupts the pattern the Highschool ends up having to rewrite their schedules. Having a Four-block a day period schedule where I only have a class every other day of the week, this gets very hectic very quickly.

Now, although having smaller classes is nice, this also means many of my classes are mixed with different grades. So, while I'm in Algebra II [which is mixed pre-calc and some pre-trig], I'm learning alongside a couple Juniors and some Freshmen. This is how it is for all my classes, making the line between learning levels rather blurry.

Also, my side-classes like Art, Choir, Tech, and PE are largely affected by the number of Middleschool students in spite of us having different curriculum entirely. If there are a lot of students in this and this block, then Highschoolers who had signed up for this and this class at the beginning of the year are booted into different classes completely. I have friends who had wished to take a Tech class for the credits they needed [one was a Junior who really needed it] and ended up being stuck into Choir.

I guess I should also mention that this school has to deal with a large sum of military children, which is why you see that sort of bottleneck numbers as the grade levels rise up. Most military families only have young kids and, by the time those children are older, they've either moved to a new state or country or their parents have left the military. So, you get a hell-ton of middleschoolers from grades six to eight and then hardly any students in grades nine to twelve.

It's infuriating beyond belief to have to deal with such an unsteady structure, it seems as if the Highschool grades are being ignored while the Middleschool has issues dealing with such a large amount of sixth and seventh graders while trying to keep room to teach their eighth graders.

 

[XIII Heartless]

Working, living independently.

That's a good look. You plan on ever going back?

 

[Urbane]

For grades 4 through 8, I was in my school's gifted program.

...

It was, let's say, not right for me. As in, I failed nearly every subject. And then, in ninth grade, I go back to regular schooling... and lo and behold, I'm actually doing well. I understand the subjects, even. Wow. Breath of fresh air.

So, not much room to speak, having spent so little time in regular schooling. All I can say is, that goddamn program sucked.

 

[Luap]

Damn, where are you?

Washington.
The only reason I stay at the High School I'm at is because none of my friends can leave, and without my help (I do most work independently w/o teachers help/instruction) they'd all drop out. I know it's a poor decision, especially when ironically one of the most top rated public schools in the State is closer than my current school is now to my home, but, meh.
I don't plan on going to University- I'll just do Running Start next year and Senior year, and then in 2013 graduate high school with an AD in general education, then Technical School for whatever I choose upon, then to, possibly, Boise Bible College for a year (because my church would pay like 80% of it for me, as they are now for a friend of mine).
I'm not going to get stuck in this town like a lot of people I know.

 

[Essence of Elegy]

Washington.
The only reason I stay at the High School I'm at is because none of my friends can leave, and without my help (I do most work independently w/o teachers help/instruction) they'd all drop out. I know it's a poor decision, especially when ironically one of the most top rated public schools in the State is closer than my current school is now to my home, but, meh.
I don't plan on going to University- I'll just do Running Start next year and Senior year, and then in 2013 graduate high school with an AD in general education, then Technical School for whatever I choose upon, then to, possibly, Boise Bible College for a year (because my church would pay like 80% of it for me, as they are now for a friend of mine).
I'm not going to get stuck in this town like a lot of people I know.

Yeah Washington seems to have it really rough, ironically, being the nation's capital and all.

 

[Chakolat Strawberry]

I've been pretty good at math until I entered high school.

Whenever the class was being disruptive, the teacher would either brush it off and continue talking or just stop and let us socialize for the rest of the class. I had to either self-teach myself or go see another teacher for help on pretty much everything.
Then I entered Geometry with a really hard-headed teacher. The current class average is a 68 (and at my school, anything under a 70 is considered failing). Yet he continues to teach at a fast pace and he assumes everyone knows the material.

He says he teaches like this because it's an honors course at a math and science academy. But when you're getting into fights with administration about the course being too hard, receiving a crapload of angry e-mails from parents, and the majority of your students failing, it's blatantly obvious you're doing something wrong. I'll probably have to repeat the course again next year. And this is the only class I'm doing bad in. :/

 

[The Conquerer]

After attending a Catholic/Private School from 3rd grade to 7th, my 8th grade education felt like ass. The only thing 8th grade taught me was that I wasn't as well off as I thought I was. I had to show heart and fight in me to get respect, or get trampled upon. Sadly, that's how DPS (Detroit Public Schooling) was. There were some teachers who didn't give a damn and told you that half of us in the room would be dead or locked up. High School was decent, could have gone better if I applied myself more, College is allowing me to express the best and worst of my traits at once. I'm seeing where I'm going in the future, so I'd like to think that's a positive influence College has had on my life.

 

[LongLiveLife]

anything under a 70 is considered failing

In my last exam, that was the Distinction mark. University Pass/Fail marks are ridiculously low.

 

[Muse]

My school's pretty stupid. In recent years, it's decided that all that matters are test scores at the end of the year. Not actually learning the subjects, but rather having the teachers simply beat into your head what is going to be on the EOI test. We don't 'learn', we memorize.

They've even come up with incentives for you to do well on your EOI test. If you get a satisfactory or advanced score, they will look at your grades from the current and previous semester and bump you up a grade.

 

[Maxyli138]

My school's pretty stupid. In recent years, it's decided that all that matters are test scores at the end of the year. Not actually learning the subjects, but rather having the teachers simply beat into your head what is going to be on the EOI test. We don't 'learn', we memorize.

They've even come up with incentives for you to do well on your EOI test. If you get a satisfactory or advanced score, they will look at your grades from the current and previous semester and bump you up a grade.

Wait so do your other grades that you receive in your classes count toward your overall grade at all? Or is it just the test you're graded on? That sucks that you don't really learn anything though. But if you memorize whatever it is now, maybe you might remember later in life if you ever need it.

 

[Muse]

the grades we receive in our classes don't seem to matter too much, no

at the very least, if you have a c in every class, but get a satisfactory on your test, then you'll end the year with all b's :/