Post by Departure on Apr 10, 2010 22:12:22 GMT -5
Throughout High School, and parts of Middle School I struggled with getting the grades that I was "supposed" to be getting. Now, there are many reason's behind that this so called "failure" could have arisen from. The reason I feel I need to point out, however, is along the lines of Dan's open letter to educators. Back in middle school, I had one of those moments where you have instant change that had been building up for quite some time but ended up being released all at once. I realized in one brief moment that I was not learning what I felt like I wanted to learn. My brain, along with myself, decided to take my own education on a different route. I began learning different things in different ways as compared to what the school was teaching me. Instead of spending another year learning about the revolutionary war, fractions, and Shakespeare, I felt it necessary to spend my free time watching Nova, reading books, and using the internet to obtain information that I felt was fascinating.
Now obviously this had a serious effect on my grades, I would show up to class with my homework only partially completed, and not a sense of whats going on. Needless to say the teachers became worried and started to treat me like I was stupid, and had some sort of mental disorder that didn't allow me to learn properly. Instead of fighting it, I stopped caring what they wanted and continued my search for knowledge over the next few years. While every other kid was learning what the school was teaching them, I refused to give in. I continued to absorb information such as Einsteins theory of relativity, black holes, evolution, and other stuff like algebra, and graphing in 3-D. I felt compelled to take in information that would keep me up all night thinking about it. Information like this regular school was not giving to me.
Once I reached high school, certain things started to drastically change. I had always had friends, but now I was closer with my friends than I ever was before, I was beginning to see my school department for the lie that it was. I began to realize that my school department was not about getting the information into the mind of the kids. It was about a bunch of little numbers placed next to those kids names, that stated how "good" they are. Being the non-conformist I am, I felt absolutely no motivation to do well in any of my classes all so that the school could get better numbers. In a way I felt like I was one of the few in my school system who actually realized it for what it is. To me it was just another big money scam, better numbers for the school = more money in the schools pocket, while sacrificing something very important in the process, a young mind's education. All 4 years of high school, every teacher, counselor, and faculty member in school was putting unbelievable amounts of pressure onto every student to do everything they possibly can in order to get into the best college they can. Unfortunately that's the way my school feels.... that you HAVE to go to college, that you HAVE to have some piece of paper to be successful. It was so unbearable sitting in those classrooms listening to them drone on about how not getting a 4 year degree in some bullshit field will make you unsuccessful. They would give us these ridiculous charts, and graphs about how much more money a college grad can make that a regular high school grad. They would force us to go visit colleges and they would force us to send out applications for college... except for me, I was the ONLY student to refuse to give into there bullshit. I knew in the back of my head that they don't care about whether you make it through college, or are even ready for it. The only reason they want you to go is because each year they do a survey of Alumni to see what percentage went to college. BAM there it is... a number, and that's the only thing they care about. A number that states "this % of kids went to college after going to our school."
Fast forward for a second to the present day. About 2 days ago, I received a phone call from the head of guidance at the high school, asking about what I had been doing since I graduated. Now, I work at a local private golf course maintaining the course, I love every moment of, I'm outside working as hard as I can doing something I enjoy. So I told them that, straight up told them I was doing something way more meaningful to me than sitting in a classroom for hours at a time, possibly learning nothing (yeah yeah, flame on). There response was a measly, "Oh, I see." and then hung up the phone on me. I let this go, knowing that I never have to step foot in that school ever again.
During my high school career, I was called down to guidance many times, because they kept trying to pressure me to apply for some expensive "know it all" college, because they felt it was in my best interest (yeah... right). I told them I was happy doing what I was doing for the time being, and that college was just to much for me to do, not to mention there is no way I can afford it. You know what they told me? They told me that if I didn't get a 4 year college degree and make $xxx,xxx per year that I wasn't going to be successful. I lost it at this point, I walked out on my guidance counselor, and have purposely ignored them ever since.
It made me so furious to think that society has reached a point where the more money you make = how successful you are. I still
refuse to believe that we have stooped this low. It angered me so much to see any morals, or inner laws we had as human beings are lost, still there floating around, but lost nonetheless.
I'm sickened at the very thought that it's assumed that a person with a big fancy college degree from some expensive college, who wears a special business suit, carry's a briefcase and makes a 6 figure salary, thinks that just because they have that piece of paper, and just because they make tons of money, that it makes them more successful than a person like me. They think because I go home covered in dirt, and grass, and sweat, while they cruise around in there brand new luxury SUV that they can look down on me and scoff. They look at me as if I'm scum of society, as if I'm just dirtying up there perfect world, they look at me as a waste of there space.
This brings me to my point of success. I feel happiness combined with respect brings success. Money doesn't bring success, it is just a tool created by society, where happiness and respect must be earned in a much different way, and can be held by a person forever. One cannot be respected just for how much cash is in there bank account, or by the car they drive, or by how many houses they have on the beach.
Respect must be earned in a manner some don't understand, a fancy object such as a brand new mustang does not get people to respect you, it may bring attention but attention is not respect. In order to get both happiness and respect, you cannot put yourself above others, you must put everybody on an equal playing field. While impossible for anybody to accomplish, I feel like it's something that's worth giving a shot, even if it is only me who tries.
Who do you think deserved more respect, some business dude who is telling a construction company how he wants his new house built, or the people who bust there ass to build that house? The CEO of GM, or the factory workers who assemble all the cars? you see what I'm getting at..... I went to McDonald's the other day with a couple of friends, and some stuck up dude was bitching out the cashier about how he wanted a certain type of onion on his burger. I looked at the cashier, and when he caught my glance, I said "Don't worry about, this guy is just to picky to just enjoy his food, but note that down to earth people like me still have loads respect for you even though I don't know you. Because I know that you stand behind that counter for countless hours so that people like him can order a burger and then complain about it."
We had a career day at the high school about 2 years ago, and my dad decided he wanted to attend. My dad works for a Naval Shipyard, he was a pipe-fitter for many years, and now he is a training specialist for the Navy yard, he has been there for 30 something years, he never went to college, never went to any sort of school after high school. How much he makes is not really important, my point is that he loves his job, and he has worked hard to help build submarines that help protect this country for the past 30 something years. Anyways.... They had some slide show setup with the guidance department and it was all about sending your kid to college and, making sure they get a degree... blah blah blah. All the parents of the kids in the high school had attended. At the end of the presentation they asked if anybody had any questions. At this point my dad stood up and said "Yeah I have a question. If every single kid was to go onto college and get a degree in fuckin' rocket science, who the hell is going to be the one to build the house you live in, who is going to be the one to build the ditches
on the sides of the roads, who is going to pave those roads, who is going to fix your toilet when it breaks and you have no clue how to fix it, and who is going to do the oil change on your car when your to damn lazy to get dirty for once? Us baby boomer's are getting older, we can't be around forever, and if every kid in America is trying to be a rocket scientist, who is going to take our places? No wonder all our jobs are being shipped overseas, because nobody has the motivation to do skilled labor anymore."
Well anyway, I think I covered my point. Success cannot be measure by wealth or numbers, but by happiness and respect. So... thoughts anybody, well that is if you were willing to read this entire thing =P
p.s. I can't write these thing when I am awake, so I wrote it when I was super tired, it just seems to make the words come out better on the screen, so yeah... sorry for any typo's or non capitalization. Oh and I'm not very good at writing stuff down, it was actually better in my head =/
Now obviously this had a serious effect on my grades, I would show up to class with my homework only partially completed, and not a sense of whats going on. Needless to say the teachers became worried and started to treat me like I was stupid, and had some sort of mental disorder that didn't allow me to learn properly. Instead of fighting it, I stopped caring what they wanted and continued my search for knowledge over the next few years. While every other kid was learning what the school was teaching them, I refused to give in. I continued to absorb information such as Einsteins theory of relativity, black holes, evolution, and other stuff like algebra, and graphing in 3-D. I felt compelled to take in information that would keep me up all night thinking about it. Information like this regular school was not giving to me.
Once I reached high school, certain things started to drastically change. I had always had friends, but now I was closer with my friends than I ever was before, I was beginning to see my school department for the lie that it was. I began to realize that my school department was not about getting the information into the mind of the kids. It was about a bunch of little numbers placed next to those kids names, that stated how "good" they are. Being the non-conformist I am, I felt absolutely no motivation to do well in any of my classes all so that the school could get better numbers. In a way I felt like I was one of the few in my school system who actually realized it for what it is. To me it was just another big money scam, better numbers for the school = more money in the schools pocket, while sacrificing something very important in the process, a young mind's education. All 4 years of high school, every teacher, counselor, and faculty member in school was putting unbelievable amounts of pressure onto every student to do everything they possibly can in order to get into the best college they can. Unfortunately that's the way my school feels.... that you HAVE to go to college, that you HAVE to have some piece of paper to be successful. It was so unbearable sitting in those classrooms listening to them drone on about how not getting a 4 year degree in some bullshit field will make you unsuccessful. They would give us these ridiculous charts, and graphs about how much more money a college grad can make that a regular high school grad. They would force us to go visit colleges and they would force us to send out applications for college... except for me, I was the ONLY student to refuse to give into there bullshit. I knew in the back of my head that they don't care about whether you make it through college, or are even ready for it. The only reason they want you to go is because each year they do a survey of Alumni to see what percentage went to college. BAM there it is... a number, and that's the only thing they care about. A number that states "this % of kids went to college after going to our school."
Fast forward for a second to the present day. About 2 days ago, I received a phone call from the head of guidance at the high school, asking about what I had been doing since I graduated. Now, I work at a local private golf course maintaining the course, I love every moment of, I'm outside working as hard as I can doing something I enjoy. So I told them that, straight up told them I was doing something way more meaningful to me than sitting in a classroom for hours at a time, possibly learning nothing (yeah yeah, flame on). There response was a measly, "Oh, I see." and then hung up the phone on me. I let this go, knowing that I never have to step foot in that school ever again.
During my high school career, I was called down to guidance many times, because they kept trying to pressure me to apply for some expensive "know it all" college, because they felt it was in my best interest (yeah... right). I told them I was happy doing what I was doing for the time being, and that college was just to much for me to do, not to mention there is no way I can afford it. You know what they told me? They told me that if I didn't get a 4 year college degree and make $xxx,xxx per year that I wasn't going to be successful. I lost it at this point, I walked out on my guidance counselor, and have purposely ignored them ever since.
It made me so furious to think that society has reached a point where the more money you make = how successful you are. I still
refuse to believe that we have stooped this low. It angered me so much to see any morals, or inner laws we had as human beings are lost, still there floating around, but lost nonetheless.
I'm sickened at the very thought that it's assumed that a person with a big fancy college degree from some expensive college, who wears a special business suit, carry's a briefcase and makes a 6 figure salary, thinks that just because they have that piece of paper, and just because they make tons of money, that it makes them more successful than a person like me. They think because I go home covered in dirt, and grass, and sweat, while they cruise around in there brand new luxury SUV that they can look down on me and scoff. They look at me as if I'm scum of society, as if I'm just dirtying up there perfect world, they look at me as a waste of there space.
This brings me to my point of success. I feel happiness combined with respect brings success. Money doesn't bring success, it is just a tool created by society, where happiness and respect must be earned in a much different way, and can be held by a person forever. One cannot be respected just for how much cash is in there bank account, or by the car they drive, or by how many houses they have on the beach.
Respect must be earned in a manner some don't understand, a fancy object such as a brand new mustang does not get people to respect you, it may bring attention but attention is not respect. In order to get both happiness and respect, you cannot put yourself above others, you must put everybody on an equal playing field. While impossible for anybody to accomplish, I feel like it's something that's worth giving a shot, even if it is only me who tries.
Who do you think deserved more respect, some business dude who is telling a construction company how he wants his new house built, or the people who bust there ass to build that house? The CEO of GM, or the factory workers who assemble all the cars? you see what I'm getting at..... I went to McDonald's the other day with a couple of friends, and some stuck up dude was bitching out the cashier about how he wanted a certain type of onion on his burger. I looked at the cashier, and when he caught my glance, I said "Don't worry about, this guy is just to picky to just enjoy his food, but note that down to earth people like me still have loads respect for you even though I don't know you. Because I know that you stand behind that counter for countless hours so that people like him can order a burger and then complain about it."
We had a career day at the high school about 2 years ago, and my dad decided he wanted to attend. My dad works for a Naval Shipyard, he was a pipe-fitter for many years, and now he is a training specialist for the Navy yard, he has been there for 30 something years, he never went to college, never went to any sort of school after high school. How much he makes is not really important, my point is that he loves his job, and he has worked hard to help build submarines that help protect this country for the past 30 something years. Anyways.... They had some slide show setup with the guidance department and it was all about sending your kid to college and, making sure they get a degree... blah blah blah. All the parents of the kids in the high school had attended. At the end of the presentation they asked if anybody had any questions. At this point my dad stood up and said "Yeah I have a question. If every single kid was to go onto college and get a degree in fuckin' rocket science, who the hell is going to be the one to build the house you live in, who is going to be the one to build the ditches
on the sides of the roads, who is going to pave those roads, who is going to fix your toilet when it breaks and you have no clue how to fix it, and who is going to do the oil change on your car when your to damn lazy to get dirty for once? Us baby boomer's are getting older, we can't be around forever, and if every kid in America is trying to be a rocket scientist, who is going to take our places? No wonder all our jobs are being shipped overseas, because nobody has the motivation to do skilled labor anymore."
Well anyway, I think I covered my point. Success cannot be measure by wealth or numbers, but by happiness and respect. So... thoughts anybody, well that is if you were willing to read this entire thing =P
p.s. I can't write these thing when I am awake, so I wrote it when I was super tired, it just seems to make the words come out better on the screen, so yeah... sorry for any typo's or non capitalization. Oh and I'm not very good at writing stuff down, it was actually better in my head =/
