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To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.

I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.

I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.

I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.

Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.

Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.

-SoulRiser

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Senior Project Finale
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..V.. Offline
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Post: #1
Senior Project Finale

In order to graduate from my school (not the state, you can still graduate from the district if you don't do this, you just won't be able to participate in any of the "end of the year" senior bullshit and "walk" on stage for the diploma, you would get it in the mail), you must pass a Senior Project Finale thing with mandatory shit like min. of 4 pieces of "information" printed from a fucking database.
Proposal letter, you need a mentor and multiple proof of you doing it, a min. number of time you have to spend on the project and then you must present it in front of judges, and before that students.

This is useless and only my school seems to do it.

What a bunch of fucking morons.

And everyone should just not do it, but of course they've been indoctrinated to do useless assignments.

I'm not doing this, I don't want to fucking walk in front of people anyway.
Nor present.

I can't even get a professional mentor from a store, and I'm not asking a teacher here.
Why do I need a mentor anyway, all I want to do is take fucking photos.

Fuck the System. Each time someone conforms, a bit of society cease to exist.

09-19-2013 11:07 PM
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brainiac3397 Offline
Machiavellian Amoeba

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Post: #2
Senior Project Finale

Don't do it. Don't think about it. Don't care about it. And ignore it.

That way it'll never bother you again while you can be humored by the fools who do do it.

Personality DNA Report
(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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09-20-2013 02:03 PM
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..V.. Offline
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Post: #3
Senior Project Finale

I just want to do it because maybe my mentor could lend me a camera because I do want take photos. The Senior Finale Project class teacher had me send her an email and she forwarded the email to the teachers throughout the school saying that I was looking for mentor who knows about nature and/or photography (I want to take photos of nature).
A teacher recommended me to talk to a digital class teacher.
I am probably going to just not do it.

09-21-2013 02:41 AM
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Trapacity Offline
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Post: #4
Senior Project Finale

Judges? What is this, a pagent? That's such bullshit.
09-21-2013 03:36 AM
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..V.. Offline
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Post: #5
RE: Senior Project Finale

It is bullshit.
A few teachers are helping me get a mentor.
I just want to take photos and need a camera.

09-22-2013 01:42 AM
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..V.. Offline
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Post: #6
Senior Project Finale

The teacher said that if I could type a good reason to why I don't believe in doing sheets of work and writing down information from my sources, citing them, the project outline, etc., then she would give me credit on the work. It is due by tomorrow.

10-09-2013 12:41 AM
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xcriteria Offline
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Post: #7
RE: Senior Project Finale

Maybe use School Survival as your project?

There's lots of information here. Even pick some questions you've asked and some of the responses, or just something you've learned from here.

If you do want to get "a professional mentor from a store," there are some options, but it'll cost you. Pivot Planet has an index of paid profession-specific mentors. Or, go with someone who specializes in life mentorship, like Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation, or one of numerous other paid mentors. (I have a whole index of them.)

But, there are other ways to find mentors, and more generally people who can help you learn (and even peer-mentors.) A related concept is "Personal Learning Network" -- basically a network of people you learn from.

(Maybe that includes people you've met online and learned from, or people you haven't even met, but whose information you've found useful.)

Here's a clip about that from Will Richardson, author of Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. Maybe you can use that as a source.



Watch on YouTube

Maybe all that can be part of your "good reason." But in the process, you could cite sources and information and just do part of the assignment. Smile

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10-09-2013 02:35 AM
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..V.. Offline
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Post: #8
RE: Senior Project Finale

The sources must be articles, etc from known sources. Also the mentor needs to sign something before and after the project, we must meet a few times. Therefore I think it has to be in person.
The project must be an activity I think and something that could be argued about and proven.

10-09-2013 12:51 PM
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no Offline
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Post: #9
RE: Senior Project Finale

(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  The sources must be articles, etc from known sources.

This site has articles and you know where they are coming from.

(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  Also the mentor needs to sign something before and after the project, we must meet a few times. Therefore I think it has to be in person.

So? Get a forward minded mentor.

(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  The project must be an activity I think

"Protesting"

(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  and something that could be argued about and proven.

If you can't argue that school sucks after reading the articles here, I don't think it would be possible to argue very much else.

Hello, traveler.

This is an ancient account I have not used in a long time. My views have changed much in the intervening months and years.

Nonetheless, I refuse to clean it up. Pretending that I've held my current views since the beginning of time is what we in the industry call a lie. Asking people to do so contributes to moralistic self-loathing. "See, those people have nothing damning! I do! I'm truly vile!"

Because you can never be a good person with a single blemish on the moral record, I thought that simply entertaining some thoughts made me irredeemable. Though I don't care for his writing style, William Faulkner presents a good counterexample. He went from being a typical Southern racist to supporting the civil rights movement. These days we'd yell at him for that, probably.

People are allowed to change their views.

Nevertheless, this period of my life has informed some of how I am today. In good ways and bad ways. To purge it would be to do a disservice to history. Perhaps it will not make anyone sympathetic, but it may help someone understand.

If, after reading all this, you still decide to use the post above as evidence that I am evil today, ask yourself if you have never disagreed with the moral code you now follow. In all likelihood you did, at some point. If some questions are verboten, and the answer is "how dare you ask that," don't expect your ideological opponents to ever change their minds.
10-09-2013 08:25 PM
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xcriteria Offline
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Post: #10
RE: Senior Project Finale

(10-09-2013 08:25 PM)planetfall666 Wrote:  
(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  The sources must be articles, etc from known sources.

This site has articles and you know where they are coming from.

Check my walls of content. Read through Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley (new TED talk), watch the videos there, check the links, and check out Doc Johnson's book chapter about School Survival that I referenced near the bottom of the thread.

(10-09-2013 08:25 PM)planetfall666 Wrote:  
(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  Also the mentor needs to sign something before and after the project, we must meet a few times. Therefore I think it has to be in person.

So? Get a forward minded mentor.

Exactly. If you think nobody understands, just consider this quote from Michael Wesch, a college professor. (See his video further down on that "Death Valley" thread.)

Last spring I asked my students how many of them did not like school. Over half of them rose their hands. When I asked how many of them did not like learning, no hands were raised. I have tried this with faculty and get similar results. Last year’s U.S. Professor of the Year, Chris Sorensen, began his acceptance speech by announcing, “I hate school.” The crowd, made up largely of other outstanding faculty, overwhelmingly agreed. And yet he went on to speak with passionate conviction about his love of learning and the desire to spread that love. And there’s the rub. We love learning. We hate school. What’s worse is that many of us hate school because we love learning.
(From .)

(10-09-2013 08:25 PM)planetfall666 Wrote:  
(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  The project must be an activity I think

"Protesting"

If not protesting, do a survey of students and teachers in your school, or prepare a document or presentation of some kind. Maybe even see if you can perform it for your teachers, "here's why I didn't like high school," and film it. Then edit the film into a YouTube video or find some other kind of sharable output (make a PDF, a Prezi, etc.)

Then share it with people and get feedback. Or brainstorm some other options (5m video.)


More inspiration... from some other graduating seniors

Two students recently approached one of their teachers with an idea for a graduation project:

”Mr. S,” they said on Tuesday afternoon, “we have an idea for the school-wide seminar program. Have you seen Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk about how schools kill creativity?”

Yes, I said, I’ve seen it several times … and I love it. Then O told me how profoundly it had moved her – so profoundly, in fact, that she’s focusing her graduation project on the topic of schools and creativity. ”It seems like schools spent 10 or 11 years beating the creativity out of us,” she said, “and now, all of a sudden, when we’re seniors, we’re being asked to be creative and independent learners.” We talked for a while, and O left with a challenge: to find a 5-8 minute segment of Sir Ken’s talk that encapsulates his message and to develop the questions and the structure that the Student Seminar Assistants will be using when we have this seminar. She and B will also be talking with the Relevant Powers about creativity and independence and about how we might possibly avoid that feeling of beating them out of future groups and generations of students.
("Unexpected Convergence," http://joyfullatinlearning.wordpress.com...nvergence/)

(10-09-2013 08:25 PM)planetfall666 Wrote:  
(10-09-2013 12:51 PM)..V.. Wrote:  and something that could be argued about and proven.

If you can't argue that school sucks after reading the articles here, I don't think it would be possible to argue very much else.

Exactly. For bonus points, explain how you'd prefer school to work.

By the way, V, what are your plans for the future? That might help guide what to do for the project.

Peter Gray & allies launching the Alliance for Self-directed Education

ASDE Newsletters: #1 Announcement | #2 History of ASDE | #6 Education Liberation


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10-09-2013 11:21 PM
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..V.. Offline
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Post: #11
Senior Project Finale

If I were to change my topic to this, how should I go about protesting?

10-10-2013 02:32 AM
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xcriteria Offline
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Post: #12
RE: Senior Project Finale

I'd focus on somehow educating people and/or interviewing/surveying people about how people feel about school.

Collect all your issues about school (and maybe other people's) together into an info-sheet or packet, reproduce it, share it, and include questions in it about what people think... something like that.

Here's another resource: Student Voice -- check out their "digital backpack."

Peter Gray & allies launching the Alliance for Self-directed Education

ASDE Newsletters: #1 Announcement | #2 History of ASDE | #6 Education Liberation


School Survival & Catalyst Learning Network featured on AlternativestoSchool's blog
“Mom, Dad, can I stop going to school?”

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when the Stakes are High

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10-10-2013 05:12 AM
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..V.. Offline
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Post: #13
Senior Project Finale

That seems like a lot of work. I'm not saying I wouldn't do it, but I don't even plan on doing that much even on any Senior Project I decide to do, if I do it at all.

10-10-2013 02:56 PM
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RashedMohamed Offline
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Post: #14
Senior Project Finale

When approaching your dissertation or project, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind:

* Remember that your dissertation is an especially important piece of work and will typically count for a quarter of your mark for your final year (30 credits). It may be used as evidence in the event that your final degree classification is very close to a borderline, or that you are applying for postgraduate study. Achieving a good grade in your dissertation should therefore be a key goal of your final year.

* Producing your dissertation or project is a much bigger task than writing a typical essay, and is often an unfamiliar exercise in several respects. The importance of planning this process effectively is therefore central to achieving a good result.

The importance of your dissertation or project
10-11-2013 04:21 PM
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