Canadium
Ian
Or perhaps a better title would be 'Two lessons about school I wish I had learned before I started school'!
I just couldn't let @Susquatch 's post go unanswered altho it was so off topic I decided to put my reply here.
@Susquatch said "Because I was a highschool drop out, I had to take the required engineering entry courses in night school in order to get into University. That included English. But I opted for first year English at University instead of night school. BIG MISTAKE! Not like high school English at all. No grammar or spelling. Just stuff like Shakespeare. I was bombing BADLY despite the motivation to succeed.
One day, the Prof asked me to stay after class. Then she asked me about my assignment - which had a big red F at the top. "What were you thinking she asked." "I dunno, it reminded me of how cold and nasty a blizzard is in the winter." I said. She just stared at me for 5 minutes. Then said, "lt's about a virgin who is afraid of sex." I stared at her for 30 seconds and then blurted out something about how all the virgins I had met were hot and horny as hell just trying hard to save themselves. More staring at each other. Then she laughed and said "You don't belong here. But I understand why you are here. If you show up for every single class and hand in all your assignments on time, and give this course a sincere effort, I will pass you." And that's how that went. I was grateful as hell. But I still don't understand the snowstorm or Shakespeare."
In my many years at school there were two events that really stood out for me as profound lessons about school itself. The first event was in Grade 12 English class. We were instructed to read a particular novel, that novel was then analyzed extensively in class, and at the end we had to write an exam about it. The instructor was adamant that we were not to use Coles notes and that we must read the novel. After the exam the instructor did a quick informal survey of the students asking which had used Coles notes, which had read the novel, and which had done well in the exam. It turned out roughly half the class had used Coles, never read the novel, and aced the exam. The other half of the class, myself included, did as they were instructed, read the novel, avoided Coles, and failed!!! For me it was glaring proof positive that the teaching system they used didn't work, that the problem wasn't me, and that they knew it!!!!
My second revelation about school happened in early University. I had learned to hate English so bad in high school that one of my conditions to entering University was that I wasn't going to study any more English!!! Miraculously I managed to weasel a program that excluded English but I had still to finish two "electives". That is to say two courses in fields other than my main focus of sciences. For one of these courses I chose philosophy. I was expecting to enjoy this course but after the mid term exam I found myself failing despite the fact that I enjoyed the subject. The course was very different from most of the other course I was taking where I had mostly to understand complex equations and know how to crank out the right answers. Altho it was difficult it was pretty cut and dried. Philosophy on the other hand was a very different kettle of fish. Exams here involved essay type questions. I was good at writing but my strategy was to write short, concise, to the point, thoughtful answers. Since I found myself failing I desperately asked around in search of advise on how to improve my game. What I predominantly heard were embarrassed admissions that the people who marked papers rarely bothered to actually read what was written!!! It was actually impossible for them to decipher the vast mountains of hand written essay answers!!! So what they often did was judge the paper based on its volume!!! To do this they might just weigh the paper or in some cases toss the papers down a stairs to see which went the farthest!!!! So I told myself OK, for the final exam I will just write as much bullshit as I possibly can with the objective of producing as much illegible and unreadable volume as possible!!! To make a long story short I aced that final exam and passed the course with flying colors!!!!! How insane is that!!!!!
I just couldn't let @Susquatch 's post go unanswered altho it was so off topic I decided to put my reply here.
@Susquatch said "Because I was a highschool drop out, I had to take the required engineering entry courses in night school in order to get into University. That included English. But I opted for first year English at University instead of night school. BIG MISTAKE! Not like high school English at all. No grammar or spelling. Just stuff like Shakespeare. I was bombing BADLY despite the motivation to succeed.
One day, the Prof asked me to stay after class. Then she asked me about my assignment - which had a big red F at the top. "What were you thinking she asked." "I dunno, it reminded me of how cold and nasty a blizzard is in the winter." I said. She just stared at me for 5 minutes. Then said, "lt's about a virgin who is afraid of sex." I stared at her for 30 seconds and then blurted out something about how all the virgins I had met were hot and horny as hell just trying hard to save themselves. More staring at each other. Then she laughed and said "You don't belong here. But I understand why you are here. If you show up for every single class and hand in all your assignments on time, and give this course a sincere effort, I will pass you." And that's how that went. I was grateful as hell. But I still don't understand the snowstorm or Shakespeare."
In my many years at school there were two events that really stood out for me as profound lessons about school itself. The first event was in Grade 12 English class. We were instructed to read a particular novel, that novel was then analyzed extensively in class, and at the end we had to write an exam about it. The instructor was adamant that we were not to use Coles notes and that we must read the novel. After the exam the instructor did a quick informal survey of the students asking which had used Coles notes, which had read the novel, and which had done well in the exam. It turned out roughly half the class had used Coles, never read the novel, and aced the exam. The other half of the class, myself included, did as they were instructed, read the novel, avoided Coles, and failed!!! For me it was glaring proof positive that the teaching system they used didn't work, that the problem wasn't me, and that they knew it!!!!
My second revelation about school happened in early University. I had learned to hate English so bad in high school that one of my conditions to entering University was that I wasn't going to study any more English!!! Miraculously I managed to weasel a program that excluded English but I had still to finish two "electives". That is to say two courses in fields other than my main focus of sciences. For one of these courses I chose philosophy. I was expecting to enjoy this course but after the mid term exam I found myself failing despite the fact that I enjoyed the subject. The course was very different from most of the other course I was taking where I had mostly to understand complex equations and know how to crank out the right answers. Altho it was difficult it was pretty cut and dried. Philosophy on the other hand was a very different kettle of fish. Exams here involved essay type questions. I was good at writing but my strategy was to write short, concise, to the point, thoughtful answers. Since I found myself failing I desperately asked around in search of advise on how to improve my game. What I predominantly heard were embarrassed admissions that the people who marked papers rarely bothered to actually read what was written!!! It was actually impossible for them to decipher the vast mountains of hand written essay answers!!! So what they often did was judge the paper based on its volume!!! To do this they might just weigh the paper or in some cases toss the papers down a stairs to see which went the farthest!!!! So I told myself OK, for the final exam I will just write as much bullshit as I possibly can with the objective of producing as much illegible and unreadable volume as possible!!! To make a long story short I aced that final exam and passed the course with flying colors!!!!! How insane is that!!!!!
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