I didn't know LJ had a limit on comments Pt 2chrisssOctober 29 2003, 15:50:34 UTC
However, the school was located in Oak Ridges (King Sideroad + Yonge Street), and I lived down here at Bloor Street in the west end. Class started at 9am, and went 3pm. They then gave you a 45 minute period to do your homework, and then 45 minutes of time to indulge in extra curricular activities (such as debating, computers, chess, drama, etc). Then the school busses came at 4:30 and I'd be on my way home. With an average driving time of 90 minutes each way (we had to go to Kleinberg and Nobelton for students there otherwise it wasn't feasible), I was away from home for a good 11 Hours. I had no time to socialize with what friends I had left here, nor indulge in my own interests because there simply wasn't time by the time I finished homework. And what if I didn't understand more of the work I was reading. My grandparents, although smart, were just clueless about some of the concepts being taught. Because of this, I was unable to complete my work, and the school officials decided to DROP me back one grade, to the Grade 7/8 class after the Christmas break. It's hard to keep in contact with friends from the class I was dropped from, when I'm in a different class, different courses, and different hours. The teacher was also critical of me, I assume because I got dropped down a class, and I still couldn't perform the work (the busing hours increased as the bus company tried to make more money by hauling another private school). The good part in a way was, there was a student in my class who lived in Mississauga who was the stop before mine. They saw he was doing poorly in classes too, especially math (you can't help it when you're there for only 10 mins of the class), which proved my point that the transit and time was simply too much.
However, that being said, the years after those things started maturing. Granted, I was being pulled forward faster through the courses than I could take it, I learned alot of things that I still remember. I've managed to keep friends from those days, and in fact, last night I was reminiscing with one of them as we were looking through my yearbooks. Some of the things I do now, in fact most of it, I have attributed to this school, and their courses. Unfortunately, I visited there a year ago and found that they changed the curriculum again, eliminating some of the stuff I was taught (they did it so they could keep in line with new Ministry Guidelines).
Smaller class sizes are good up to a point. In the environment I was in, the small sizes (10 students per class roughly) attributed to the lack of females for the male students. At the time of graduation, very few males had no idea how to start or approach relationships and I still hear about it to this day. Also most of the females wanted to feel normal so they wouldn't be outcasted by their normal friends, so they would not have relationships with those in the school for that geek or nerd label. When I went to this school, I pretty much eliminated my social life outside of school due to the time and work, although it was severely damaged from the previous school anyways. The internet helped me recover to some degree, to the point where I was able to express myself vocally instead of just on paper/screen. Also, as my class got smaller, the fear of expressing myself in groups was eliminated, which helped me become more acceptable socially.
I believe the entire education system needs to be overhauled. There are so many things wrong with it, funding and such. The curriculum needs to be expanded for several groups perhaps based on how they learn. I believe the university system has to be looked at in depth. What we have are a group of people (management) that run the university and don't want to change how to gauge students to let them into programs. To me, a person that has gone through the application process, its all paper work, there's no way to fully express yourself to the heads of the department why you're passionate about their program. They almost always look at marks, and they can only admit a certain number of students per program, even though the need for university to get good work has increased dramatically. Since universities are businesses, in my eyes I honestly don't think we'll see a change in policy anytime soon.
Re: I didn't know LJ had a limit on comments Pt 2briaNovember 3 2003, 09:31:59 UTC
Good point - even smart kids need to learn ways of dealing with work load.
I wonder just how many people use the internet as a way of recovering from a horrible time in school? It was very useful to me, it's free information with nobody telling you you're "not allowed to learn this until you're older," and lots of non-intimidating practice communicating with people.
Also a good point about universities. I like this idea. I bet that's how they worked in the beginning (I have memories of studying the beginning of universities in history class, but the specifics are mostly what I thought about how it worked, and how it should work, rather than the details I was taught in school).
However, that being said, the years after those things started maturing. Granted, I was being pulled forward faster through the courses than I could take it, I learned alot of things that I still remember. I've managed to keep friends from those days, and in fact, last night I was reminiscing with one of them as we were looking through my yearbooks. Some of the things I do now, in fact most of it, I have attributed to this school, and their courses. Unfortunately, I visited there a year ago and found that they changed the curriculum again, eliminating some of the stuff I was taught (they did it so they could keep in line with new Ministry Guidelines).
Smaller class sizes are good up to a point. In the environment I was in, the small sizes (10 students per class roughly) attributed to the lack of females for the male students. At the time of graduation, very few males had no idea how to start or approach relationships and I still hear about it to this day. Also most of the females wanted to feel normal so they wouldn't be outcasted by their normal friends, so they would not have relationships with those in the school for that geek or nerd label. When I went to this school, I pretty much eliminated my social life outside of school due to the time and work, although it was severely damaged from the previous school anyways. The internet helped me recover to some degree, to the point where I was able to express myself vocally instead of just on paper/screen. Also, as my class got smaller, the fear of expressing myself in groups was eliminated, which helped me become more acceptable socially.
I believe the entire education system needs to be overhauled. There are so many things wrong with it, funding and such. The curriculum needs to be expanded for several groups perhaps based on how they learn. I believe the university system has to be looked at in depth. What we have are a group of people (management) that run the university and don't want to change how to gauge students to let them into programs. To me, a person that has gone through the application process, its all paper work, there's no way to fully express yourself to the heads of the department why you're passionate about their program. They almost always look at marks, and they can only admit a certain number of students per program, even though the need for university to get good work has increased dramatically. Since universities are businesses, in my eyes I honestly don't think we'll see a change in policy anytime soon.
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I wonder just how many people use the internet as a way of recovering from a horrible time in school? It was very useful to me, it's free information with nobody telling you you're "not allowed to learn this until you're older," and lots of non-intimidating practice communicating with people.
Also a good point about universities. I like this idea. I bet that's how they worked in the beginning (I have memories of studying the beginning of universities in history class, but the specifics are mostly what I thought about how it worked, and how it should work, rather than the details I was taught in school).
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