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Another thread from The Teacher's Corner
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Michio-kun Offline
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Post: #1
Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Another fail thread from theteacherscorner.

Quote:I have offered to work with the child on separate projects to challenge them. Usually the child doesn't really want to do anything extra.
It's true, we don't care about school. At all.

Quote:At some point, parents have to realize the limitations of public education. Like the saying goes, we work hard, but we can't work miracles.
One of the few good comments in this thread. Parents are often a big part of the problem when it comes to school.

Quote:Request a conference with both mom and Junior to find a solution to the problem.
Lol, if this happened with me and my dad, my dad would just end up telling me to quit being a baby and just do the work because that's real life. Parent-teacher-student conferences are idiotic, I'm sorry.


Quote:I heard the same "stuff" from a parent last year. The problem with this student is that he didn't do any work at all! You can't differentiate nothing! I told her I would love to challenge him but he has to show me what he can do first! She told me that if he doesn't think the work has value, he won't do it. I reminded her that he is 12 years old and until he has a degree and his own class room, he doesn't get to determine what is of value. That felt so good to say...and so true
FAIL.

Not even sure how to respond to that.

Quote:Oh the things we'd love to say but would lose our jobs over! So often kids who are "bored" really aren't. That just seems like an easy thing to tell their parents when the students really just aren't interested in doing the work. I agree with the previous posts, it's probably more a case of mom being more interested in having jr. do more challenging work, than anything else. It's almost like the "I'm bored" excuse backfires, because then the student is faced with tougher, higher level thinking skills challenges, but what they really wanted was an easy out for the work they weren't doing already!
FAIL.

Helix Wrote:post is too long, see link
Helix almost got it, but then failed.


There's a lot of retarded threads on this site. Lol. I'm sorry but reading this forum causes me to facepalm pretty hard sometimes. They just totally miss the point and they're extremely condescending to "kids".

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-01-2008 09:02 AM
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Milk2Go Offline
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Post: #2
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

It's always so much easier to condemn a child than it is to understand one.
10-01-2008 09:36 AM
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Sunbourn Offline
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Post: #3
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

I'm going to copy/paste this there. Hope you don't mind.

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10-01-2008 09:43 AM
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Michio-kun Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

|55555| Wrote:I'm going to copy/paste this there. Hope you don't mind.

Do it. I love interforum warfare.

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-01-2008 09:44 AM
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Sunbourn Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Done.

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10-01-2008 09:47 AM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #6
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Quote:It's always so much easier to condemn a child than it is to understand one.
So true.

Quote:Do it. I love interforum warfare.
lol... not with a link, I hope?

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10-01-2008 09:55 AM
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Michio-kun Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Nah. We can just shoot messages back and forth. 55555 will be the messenger, but he'll probably get banned.

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-01-2008 09:58 AM
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Rebelnerd Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Stratovarius Wrote:Nah. We can just shoot messages back and forth. 55555 will be the messenger, but he'll probably get banned.
yeah...we've been through this quite a few times before. lulz.

I think Buenaventura Durruti is a pretty cool guy. eh kills fascists and doesnt afraid of ruins.
The quickest way to kill a revolution is to wait for it.
10-01-2008 10:23 AM
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mudkip liek Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

The sentences you bolded from those quotes are seriously the biggest epic fail I've come across in a long time.
10-01-2008 11:16 AM
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John Tuttle Offline
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Post: #10
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Stratovarius Wrote:
|55555| Wrote:I'm going to copy/paste this there. Hope you don't mind.

Do it. I love interforum warfare.
GET IN ZE CHOPPA!

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10-01-2008 12:59 PM
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monkey Away
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Post: #11
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Oh sweet! Time to annoy the hell out of some teachers!

This means war!

(Lol I wonder if they critisize the stuff we post here)

*goes to get acount there

Had to move on. Account is dead.
10-01-2008 01:27 PM
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liq3 Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Quote: So often kids who are "bored" really aren't. That just seems like an easy thing to tell their parents when the students really just aren't interested in doing the work.
Wtf How can anyone be so stupid?

Epic win book.
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10-01-2008 02:19 PM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #13
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Quote:So often kids who are "bored" really aren't. That just seems like an easy thing to tell their parents when the students really just aren't interested in doing the work.
OMG LOL plz look up 'bored' in a dictionary! Giggle

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10-02-2008 12:36 AM
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Sunbourn Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

So what thread do we do next?

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10-02-2008 12:57 AM
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Aya Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Stratovarius Wrote:
Quote: I reminded her that he is 12 years old and until he has a degree and his own class room, he doesn't get to determine what is of value. That felt so good to say...and so true

I had a teacher tell the class that my senior year in highschool. Almost a third of us responded by walking out of her class. That showed her how much we valued her degree. She never made another comment like that again.
10-02-2008 01:34 AM
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Michio-kun Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Ayliana Wrote:
Stratovarius Wrote:
Quote: I reminded her that he is 12 years old and until he has a degree and his own class room, he doesn't get to determine what is of value. That felt so good to say...and so true

I had a teacher tell the class that my senior year in highschool. Almost a third of us responded by walking out of her class. That showed her how much we valued her degree. She never made another comment like that again.

Ya I remember some kids my freshmen year who walked out of class the last day of school and just stood outside the door. It was only like 10 out of 25 kids but that pissed him off so much the teacher transferred to another school.

OWNED

See? Walkouts work. Now imagine a school-wide walkout.

... Scratchchin

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-02-2008 01:40 AM
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PunchingYou Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

teachers are so stupid, this only confirms my suspicions Yes

JESUS SAVES... ON THE PRICE OF DETERGALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!!
10-02-2008 09:23 AM
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monkey Away
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

"I reminded her that he is 12 years old and [b]until he has a degree and his own class room, he doesn't get to determine what is of value. That felt so good to say...and so true"

FAIL
I mean thats just sad...

Had to move on. Account is dead.
10-02-2008 09:55 AM
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NiteRaidah Offline
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Post: #19
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

PunchingYou Wrote:teachers are so stupid, this only confirms my suspicions Yes

Not all of them, and I wouldn't call the ones at the Teacher's Corner stupid. I would call them ageist & close-minded, however.

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10-02-2008 10:15 AM
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mudkip liek Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Quote:See? Walkouts work. Now imagine a school-wide walkout.

My dream come true.

I should put that on my things-to-do-before-I-die list but it isn't going to come true, so why bother?

I want to be in a food fight once too. I almost was twice but they always stop it.
10-02-2008 11:10 AM
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Aya Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Stratovarius Wrote:Ya I remember some kids my freshmen year who walked out of class the last day of school and just stood outside the door. It was only like 10 out of 25 kids but that pissed him off so much the teacher transferred to another school.

OWNED

See? Walkouts work. Now imagine a school-wide walkout.

... Scratchchin

Walkouts work on a small scale. A school wide walkout would only result in mass suspentions and the possible expulsion of the ring leaders.
10-03-2008 01:32 AM
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Sunbourn Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Somebody dissect this response in that topic.

Quote:NOTE: I use the term "you" in a general sense. I am speaking to students as a group. This isn't for anyone in particular. Read my other posts, and you'll see how I write.

If you are smart enough to judge what is the "right" and "wrong" way to be taught, you are also able to determine something else: There are certain things you need to do to get by.

I'll do everything I can to help a student learn in thier own style and succeed. However, I expect cooperation. If a student isn't willling to help me help them, it is over.

Now, I'm talking the upper grades here. I take a different tactic with my little ones.

If a student is just so dead set against school, fine. Suffer the consequences. We all learn to do things we don't like. To borrow from ecconomics, the world is about tradeoffs. Although the Queen said "Let them eat cake!", we can't have that cake and eat it too.

Therefore, a student can either choose to pass or to fail. A typically developing student without challenges impairing understanding or judgement should be allowed to fall. This is a last resort, but it can come down to it.

Frankly, I don't care if you don't like school. If all you are going to do is whine and aay teachers are wrong, that isn't going to help. Yes, NCLB srewed things up. So, we do what we can. If you have an ideal way in which to learn, let your teacher know. Work with instead of against.

Because you do need to learn the things school teach. That lesson I learned about leaves and photosynthesis? I needed that to explain to my preschoolers why not to pull leaves off a tree. Knowing how cells divide? Now, I know why people get cancer.

I'm not trying to convince you school is useful. It is, but you don't have to take my word for it. My point is this: Life is what you make of it. You choose to say FU, and life will say it right back. You suffer those consequences. You choose to be creative and find alternatives. Life will reward those attempts.

Just get through school, and move onto your next goal. Why fight it? You're going to lose. THe tighter you grip a handful of sand, the more it slids out of your fingers. The more relaxed your fist, the lessl you lose. Think about it.

There comes a point, my friend. There comes a point when you have to decide your own destiny.

Even my threes and fours learn this. For example, I'll set out lots of activities and leave open the multiple centers in my room. However, a student will sometimes decide they don't want to do anything. Instead of running around the room trying to find exactly what they want, I let them know that not playing is their choice. That sutent can stay on the rug if s/he wishes. The conswquence is boredom. Of course, I try to be flexible by intially asking what would the child like to do. If the child suggest something that can easily added or added with moderate ease, I'll allow it. On the other hand, it might be something like painting with feet or riding trikes. These choices aren't feasible unless a large group is involved. That child has to pick an alternative or sit it out.

My line of thinking is that we always have choices. As teachers, we try our best to provide excellant options and little resistance to self-direction. However, there comes a limit. There is a time when we chose between the lesser of the "two evils". Because we are all what we are. You cannot expect the mirciles you can't even name, the solutions you can't invent, and the scenes you can't sketch.

Complaints are nothing but the verbal equivilant of empty calories. Proposed solutions and rational speech are the nutrients fro healing borken systems.

This is a lengthy post, and i hope I've expressed myself in a coherant manner. You will have to be the judge of whether or not I've been an effective poster on this thread.

One more thought for the road: Turnabout is fair play. You don't care about school, don't expect it to care about you.

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10-03-2008 01:39 AM
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Michio-kun Offline
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Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

What a pathetic response...Time to rip this apart.

brb 55555, I'm about to destroy this dumbass.

----

I love how loaded this entire post was. I was trying to look for a place to quote so that I could respond to the implications you keep making, but then I realized the entire post was uninspiring naive tripe basically saying the same thing in way too many words.

Your message is this: There are some things in life that you have to do. One of them is school. You can't change it. Give up, give in. There are no alternatives. Your life in this mechanic western society has 1 track and there is no way you can leave it. Go to school. Go to college. Get a pathetic suit-and-tie job. Die. There are no options but this. Just fall in line, you must do it. I have no real reason why you must do it, but you must.

From your post, I see that you're attempting to be pragmatic, but the problem with pragmatists of your kind is that you simply say, "You just have to do it." and you never back that up with anything except for naive excuses like, "Well, you need a job so that you can eat and have a place to live." This is true, but you keep making the implication that school is the only way to achieve these things and that, without it, you're going to have a hard life. Are you serious? Do you know that people exist that have never finished school that ended doing all the things they wanted to do and have a more fulfilling life at the same time?

I also like how you attempted to tell me that cell division was somehow important just so you can understand cancer. There are many more examples of unnecessary "knowledge" that school tries "teach" you, but let's just talk about this one. First, my 48 year old mother who is an illegal immigrant from the Philippines is currently running her own small business. Her net profits at the end of each month amounts to around $4000 dollars. She has a hard time speaking in the past tense. I had to show her how to do long division one time. She probably doesn't know what mitosis is and definitely doesn't know that tumors are a mass of cells that were the result of uncontrolled cell division.

Oh and by the way, I didn't learn that at school. Believe it or not, I learned that from wikipedia when I was reading their cancer article. And gee, I could talk about the 3 checkpoints a cell passes through in the division stage to make sure that sensitive DNA wasn't damaged along the way among other things. I don't remember us ever talking about that in my 9th grade biology class. We were too busy filling out worksheets and doing useless activities that took way too long.

One more thing, my mom is a great mother. They don't teach you how to be a good mother at school do they? Even if they tried, they would fail, because that's one of those things in life that cannot be taught, but only learned. There are many other things in life that are most important that you cannot learn at school. There are many other things in life that cannot be taught, only learned.

Quote:Just get through school, and move onto your next goal. Why fight it? You're going to lose. THe tighter you grip a handful of sand, the more it slids out of your fingers. The more relaxed your fist, the lessl you lose. Think about it.

There comes a point, my friend. There comes a point when you have to decide your own destiny.

So naive... Hey, did you know I dropped out of school? Yep. I dropped out several months ago. I'm 17 and I'm supposed to be a senior this year. I've tried quitting school many times because school is in fact unnecessary, and there are other pathways in life despite uninspiring naysayers like yourself trying to convince brainwashed and damaged children (from school no less) that there is but 1 pathway in this completely homogenizing and meaningless society that we live in.

I'm sorry, but when you say the things that you've just said, you are committing an injustice. Your words and your attitude are the sort of thing that causes teenagers to lose faith in themselves, their peers, the culture they live in, and basically everything else in existence. Funny how suicide is the third (?) leading cause of death in the age group 10-24. I wonder why? You put a mentally healthy, curious, inventive, thoughtful child aged 5 into a school building and you psychologically damage them for at least a decade in what is fundamentally a prison.

The next time you go to work, look around you if you're in a middle school or a high school. You see those kids "acting up"? You see all the bad behavior happening around you? None of that is normal. None of it. Even the worst behaved kids that get into fights, go binge drinking on the weekend, shoot cocaine using an insulin syringe they share with their friend, swear at their teachers and parents etc... They are the product of that ugly hand made up of the commodified and meaningless society around them, their broken parents, their confused and disheveled teachers, the 22,000 TV advertisements they that view by the time they reach age 18 and more horrific things.

Inside these broken kids is a compassionate and intelligent human being ready to unleash everything they're worth onto humanity. And why don't they do it? Well, all the behaviors I just listed above is a kind of rebellion against something they hate which they may not even realize. Over time, this behavior will entirely replace their identity. It is a slow death of a human being and the most heinous crime that society decides to commit in the background to 100s of millions of people.

I liked the book Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It was his personal journal that he kept while campaigning as emperor. He said in one part of his journal that the physical death of human being was nothing, and that our entire lives were a drop of water in the ocean of time, but a spiritual death harms eternity itself.

Fine, I'll suffer those "consequences" you speak of. When Victor Frankl was being tortured in a Nazi death camp, he let it happen, and he never let go of his humanity. Even with all the physical death around him, he found a meaning to his existence. There is even something beautiful and meaningful in the story of Sisyphus. Even he was able to find meaning in the eternal act of vanity.

School is just an insult to humanity and I will never stop fighting it and condemning it.

Still, you may be wondering what I'm doing now since I've quit school. As I said earlier, I've tried to quit for a very long time. In the 10th grade I decided to go to the Texas Academy of Math and Science. I thought that would be a great place where I could truly start to actually learn and hopefully find some peers like me that I could talk with. Unfortunately people there only cared about getting into Ivy League schools, getting a 120 on that differential equations test so their parents wouldn't kill them, studying all the time and never having any real human moments with anyone else. In short, it sucked and I hated it. People there would be willing to trade in their friends if it meant they would get into a college of their choice.

This was supposed to be the #1 rated accelerated pre-college program in the entire country. I got there and I found it just as suffocating as high school. I ended up quitting during my term as a junior. Ah, and there goes society's hand imposing itself again. My family labeled me a failure, my dad said he was embarrassed by me and he basically kept telling me my life was over. Ya, just because I decided to quit school, my life is over. HAHAHA! I laugh at you people.

I was planning on either getting into engineering but I decided I didn't like it. I always wanted to be a teacher, so I wanted to teach mathematics. I found out I really loved math and I've been devoting myself to it for the past several months. I taught myself calculus 2 and 3 so that I could take matrix theory online (I'm doing that now) to please my father. I'll probably continue studying math on my own time. I was going to go to a community college but I decided against it. This month I'll be visiting a sustainable community and living there for 2 weeks to learn some things about sustainable living. In January, after I turn 18 in December, I'm going to live for at least a few months on an organic farm to continue learning about sustainability to prepare myself for a post-oil world or at the very least, to become a better person.

All the while everyone is criticizing me especially my idiotic father (who I despise) and my family except for my mother (who I love).

You know what's funny? When I quit school, I realized there was so much stuff I should know that I don't know. I had to teach myself personal finance and modern economic issues at www.investopedia.com, I had to learn about international relations, and politics, and how elections worked through the internet (thanks wikipedia) and a nice little series called "Very Short Introductions". They have a lot of books on history, philosophy, science, and politics that are 150 pages long. Also, school tells you nothing about real contemporary social and political issues that are so important to being an informed person. Unfortunately, if all the pessimists are correct and the economy crases due to this economic perfect storm, nobody is going to know what to do. There's going to be a lot of hungry and scared people, I can guarantee that.

So you know what? Quitting school had to be the most liberating thing I had ever done. Thanks to prison wardens like yourself, this whole process has been unnecessarily hard for me, and hard for other people I've met who decided to go against the grain of the socioeconomic status quo. Society just makes it way too hard to grow up in this post-industrial crapfest. I can't understand anyone that would defend it.

In his documentary "The Cruise", Speed Levitch (tour guide in New York) was talking about the grid plan of New York and he said it's so homogenizing and arbitrary in a city with so many different ethnicities and beings. He talked to this woman and she basically said, "Well, I couldn't imagine it being another way!" In the same way, people like you couldn't imagine society being another way just because after all this time it seems to have "worked". On the contrary, I think people have simply gotten used to it, and have given in to it. This grid plan has far from worked. This grid plan is a catastropic disaster.

Even after all this, you may still say, "Well school does work for some people!" True, some people do honestly, sincerely enjoy the process of going through school, and a university etc... And I say, hey, if it works for you, go for it. I won't stop you. And no, that was not sarcasm. But in the meantime, I do think there is another way that this system can change so that those people who honestly do like to go to school can have their cake and eat it too along with people like me who want to have their cake and eat it too. The fact that you just said this is impossible just goes to show how very damaged this society has become. There is another way, and what gets me up every morning is the hope that maybe one day, just one day, this will all change.

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-03-2008 02:09 AM
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aaaaaaasd Offline
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Post: #24
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

someone who fails at life Wrote:Boxcar, that was beautifully stated!
10-03-2008 02:46 AM
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Michio-kun Offline
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Post: #25
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Bad_Engrish_Whatever Wrote:
someone who fails at life Wrote:Boxcar, that was beautifully stated!

lol @ someone who fails at life

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-03-2008 03:43 AM
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Sunbourn Offline
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Post: #26
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

It was too long, so I had to split it into 2 posts, and when I tried to post the 2nd one it triggered a spam filter so now a moderator will need to verify it. -_- I'll try again in a few minutes.

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10-03-2008 04:00 AM
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Michio-kun Offline
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Post: #27
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Shit, um, edit out crap and damned if those words appear anywhere.

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-03-2008 04:02 AM
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Sunbourn Offline
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Post: #28
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Fuck, uhhh one of yall post the second half for me. I made a second account to try to post it and it still required mod verification.

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10-03-2008 04:07 AM
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Sunbourn Offline
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Post: #29
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

I used pics of notepad to finish my post. Biggrin

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10-03-2008 04:21 AM
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Michio-kun Offline
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Post: #30
Re: Another thread from The Teacher's Corner

Creativity Win.

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. - Chuang-tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. - Baba Ram Dass
The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass. - Dogen
Great Faith. Great Doubt. Great Effort. - The three qualities necessary for training. - Zen saying
Possessing much knowledge is like having a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but the fish is always an inch beyond the hook. - Zen saying
10-03-2008 04:51 AM
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