Category: Think about it.

What has it become?

It seems like it’s become nothing more than a competition.

Between me and my friends.

Between me and the rest of the school.

Between me and the world.

It seems as if in this competition, we’ve lost sight of what school really is about.

Colleges say they look at grades. They look at numbers that an individual attains.

But what is the REAL point of school?

TO LEARN.

So, in this mad scramble to achieve what we can, to get as close as possible to that 4.0, we study and study.

But 90% of this knowledge we gain is forgotten right when the test is over.

Let me ask you this:

We see videos of  Americans being “stupid” like

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE&hl=en&fs=1&]

and

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww&hl=en&fs=1]

Who do you think is to blame?

Okay, maybe not the second video.

But I blame the schools, man.  Schools put too much emphasis on the competitive part of schooling.

They don’t even bother to bring up the fact that we’re supposed to be learning.

I don’t know. Maybe they think it’s a given.

But think about it. Does your school do anything that shows that you haven’t been learning?

YES. It’s called a beginning-of-the-year-review!

Why do you need a review if you’ve made sure you’ve learnt it already?

What you’ve done now is  relearn what you had learned all last year, but in a fraction of the time.

But it’s a serious waste of time. We could be learning new concepts during that time.

Either way, this competitiveness of school is stressing kids out, man.

Some of them are driven to their limits. Some bully others. Some commit suicide.

All this for what–to have the child’s family spend more money to learn more stuff that he’ll forget right as the test is over?

Think about it.

Please poll before you read.

[polldaddy poll=1830709]

I have tried many a year to find the perfect ratio for this quiz. And I really want to know what people think.

I have, honestly, always thought that I would enjoy solitude more. As I saw it, groups corrupt the mind. And they do. But if you try to make decisions without groups, you might be in trouble because you might not think of certain consequences.

But individuality is awesome. I really enjoy being me. An individual. I have my thoughts. I have development of ideas. I get what I want, basically. Whatever I want goes. Like communism? You got it. Too bad you’re the only person in the vicinity.

If you don’t mind, I would like a comment on what you voted for and why. That would be great.

Again, I only posted this because I want to know what people think.

Thanks.

If you had to describe the internet to someone who has never heard of it and has never imagined that there could be anything like it, what would you say?

I thought about this for a while. And then I came up with a nice metaphor.

The internet is a town.

People venture to this town from all over the world. Some, just for a few moments. Others, however, stay in this town for years at a time.

This town can only be seen through special glasses.  When you first arrive, a pair comes complimentary. It’s called Internet Explorer. But as you go along you will realize that it’s not sufficient, so you ask someone or go to a website to find a better one. E.g. Firefox or Opera.

You must pay monthly for a means of transportation.  The company you seek out will affect the speed of your transportation. If you get AOL, you’ll have to pay about $25 a month for a snail to take you places. If you get Comcast, you’ll have to pay maybe $40 a month and ride a Mustang, but you run the risk of your horse getting tired. A LOT.

In this city, there’s many things you can do. You can watch short clips at youtube, hulu, or vimeo. You can listen to music that people post there. You can talk to people through special programs that will allow you to connect to them. You can go to certain websites, register for free, add people as “friends” and proceed to stalk them effortlessly.

You can play games with people.  You can play games with yourself.

People go and share their ideas all over the town. Some get feedback. Some don’t.

It’s all good ‘n’ fun.

Until you go to one of “those” places.

People will try to attack you. People will try to mind-control you. They will try to go and steal your personal information. Make you their own. They will put parasites in you. They will throw fatty food in your direction so you get fat and get slooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

But hey, if you’re responsible and use the internet like you should, there should be no problems.

That is the internet.

Sounds like something from the future, doesn’t it?