Calc 'n' standard classes
oh, light the sky and hold on tight
the world is burning down...
I forgot how much I like that song. I haven't heard it in forever.
Anyway
Calc today-- we're taking stuff we already knew and using it-- it's a lot to do but not hard.
What's more important is this:
"I can't add anymore." - me
"That's multiplication, Bailey." - Larry
and that was good.
What's more important is that I just spent about twenty minutes in a non-honors class because I got distracted whilst doing my RAP.
RAP stands for Reading Achieves Potential. It's practice for the FCAT, the statewide standardized test that everyone hates-- One ninth of students because it's insultingly easy, one ninth because it's insultingly easy AND a poor measure of anything worth knowing, one ninth because it's a struggle for them to pass, and two thirds (that's six ninths, guys) because they can't pass it. No really they can't.
Anyway, because two-thirds of my class and presumably the school is to all intents and purposes illiterate (they can read I guess, but they can't understand) we have implemented a program that requires us to do so much reading, reading with practice moronic FCAT questions, and math which is simple enough. Fourth period I have "VPS" which isn't Volunteer Public Service, it's online physics, but whatever, and so the Powers that Be shunt myself and the other (real) VPS kids to Dixon's class (he's awesome) to RAP.
So RAPping today, I was distracted by the idiotic conversations around me-- fault in driving accidents and how Palatka sucks because it doesn't have four skateparks and a drag strip (not because it doesn't have a decent mall or any form of actual culture but does have lots of rednecks and a SuperWal-Mart) and how one guy would bawl out a police officer for being at fault in a rearending accident because a guy pulled out in front of him on a deserted road, and when I said he'd then be also charged with verbally assaulting an officer he said he'd verbally assault the judge, and when I said he'd be arrested and jailed he said he'd verbally assault everyone every day, and I gave up because he was a moron.
This means I was in there for a significant period of time. I wanted to cry. I am so grateful I've been in honors classes my whole life (and there are rare idiots in there too). I know how horrendous that sounds but it's true, it really is. Those people are the ones who are too distracted by Life Now to worry about Life Later and therefore School which they were never very good at anyway, and the ones who just... cannot get it. They can't. And they don't try and get angry if you do.
It makes me very sad that there are people who can intentionally be so stupid and not care. INTENTIONALLY. It's just... I want them to care, to try and make something of themselves because they CAN, but they're missing something vital that makes them give a flying rat's hiderparts. I don't think that thing is intelligence. I don't know what it is. But it hurts me to see people without it.
And I know that's just academia and there are infinitely more important things but I can't help seeing a connection between that and the more important things and I know I shouldn't and I do believe that there are 'slow kids' who are better people than I'll ever be ever, but that doesn't stop me from feeling that the other ones are somehow also slightly behind in... things that are important. Charity and wisdom and compromise.
I AM SUCH A SNOB BUT AM I TOTALLY WRONG? SOMEONE UNERRINGLY KIND SET ME STRAIGHT PLEASE
the world is burning down...
I forgot how much I like that song. I haven't heard it in forever.
Anyway
Calc today-- we're taking stuff we already knew and using it-- it's a lot to do but not hard.
What's more important is this:
"I can't add anymore." - me
"That's multiplication, Bailey." - Larry
and that was good.
What's more important is that I just spent about twenty minutes in a non-honors class because I got distracted whilst doing my RAP.
RAP stands for Reading Achieves Potential. It's practice for the FCAT, the statewide standardized test that everyone hates-- One ninth of students because it's insultingly easy, one ninth because it's insultingly easy AND a poor measure of anything worth knowing, one ninth because it's a struggle for them to pass, and two thirds (that's six ninths, guys) because they can't pass it. No really they can't.
Anyway, because two-thirds of my class and presumably the school is to all intents and purposes illiterate (they can read I guess, but they can't understand) we have implemented a program that requires us to do so much reading, reading with practice moronic FCAT questions, and math which is simple enough. Fourth period I have "VPS" which isn't Volunteer Public Service, it's online physics, but whatever, and so the Powers that Be shunt myself and the other (real) VPS kids to Dixon's class (he's awesome) to RAP.
So RAPping today, I was distracted by the idiotic conversations around me-- fault in driving accidents and how Palatka sucks because it doesn't have four skateparks and a drag strip (not because it doesn't have a decent mall or any form of actual culture but does have lots of rednecks and a SuperWal-Mart) and how one guy would bawl out a police officer for being at fault in a rearending accident because a guy pulled out in front of him on a deserted road, and when I said he'd then be also charged with verbally assaulting an officer he said he'd verbally assault the judge, and when I said he'd be arrested and jailed he said he'd verbally assault everyone every day, and I gave up because he was a moron.
This means I was in there for a significant period of time. I wanted to cry. I am so grateful I've been in honors classes my whole life (and there are rare idiots in there too). I know how horrendous that sounds but it's true, it really is. Those people are the ones who are too distracted by Life Now to worry about Life Later and therefore School which they were never very good at anyway, and the ones who just... cannot get it. They can't. And they don't try and get angry if you do.
It makes me very sad that there are people who can intentionally be so stupid and not care. INTENTIONALLY. It's just... I want them to care, to try and make something of themselves because they CAN, but they're missing something vital that makes them give a flying rat's hiderparts. I don't think that thing is intelligence. I don't know what it is. But it hurts me to see people without it.
And I know that's just academia and there are infinitely more important things but I can't help seeing a connection between that and the more important things and I know I shouldn't and I do believe that there are 'slow kids' who are better people than I'll ever be ever, but that doesn't stop me from feeling that the other ones are somehow also slightly behind in... things that are important. Charity and wisdom and compromise.
I AM SUCH A SNOB BUT AM I TOTALLY WRONG? SOMEONE UNERRINGLY KIND SET ME STRAIGHT PLEASE