(Sing today’s blog title to the tune of “let’s get physical!”)
Let’s get in a groove, in a groove!
Tag: education
Get over it!
There is a song with that same name by OK Go. Look it up. The music video is incredible. Anyways. Continue reading “Get over it!”
Ok, before this gets out of hand…
I would first like to thank Dorenka for bringing up my alleged narcissism. You really opened a can of worms with THAT.
Moving on, let’s delve into this. I started this website the second semester of my 8th grade year. It was the extension of my first website that was basically a page off of my dad’s website, which I called Bri’s Place. You know why I called it that? Because it was the very first place I could talk about whatever the heck I wanted, and I could be as strange or as serious or as funny as I wanted to. BrisPlace.com was already taken, so I named my website after a song I’d penned, entitled “My Own World”. Note: Middle School was the most depressing three years of my life. I hated it. It was terrible. My self esteem had hit rock bottom. You have no idea.
So I started the website as a regular blog, somewhere to post short stories, poems, little essays I wrote, and lyrics. It was my world, after all. Then I started feeling empowered by the internet’s anonymity. So I thought, why not enjoy myself a little? I then proceeded to create an alter ego, Vannah. She was outgoing, strong minded, and slightly narcissistic. For a while, I actually convinced people that she was her own, separate entity. But that’s not really important. What’s important was that I finally had an outlet for myself; for the first time, I didn’t have to worry about what other people thought, and I didn’t have to worry about everyone else’s problems. I figured, after all the crap I’d gone through in middle school, I deserved to be a little narcissistic.
After a while, Vannah morphed into Bri and I became much more confident. Obviously, most of the ‘narcissism’ is sarcasm, because it’s fun to act like a total self centered jerk sometimes and not mean it at all. If helped me gain confidence, and enabled me to begin making more and better friends. It was a stepping stone.
But like I said, it was all a joke. I still have self esteem issues. I still doubt myself and my abilities to function in real life. So I think that I’m entitled to be sarcastically self centered on my own website, thanks very much.
Oh, and for the record, Twitter was just a whim that I really enjoy. It’s like posting mini blogs instead of gunking up the actual website. And I can update from anywhere. I’m obsessed, and not because I want everyone to know what I’m doing EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY because I’m a narcissist. No, I just like it a lot.
And honestly, anyone who takes my narcissism on this website seriously and personally, grow the heck up and learn how to detect sarcasm. It’s a neat little device.
This is the story of a girl
Who didn’t eat for 30 hours.
Although my Twitter updates may seem contrary, the 30 hour fast wasn’t actually that bad. I mean, I ate a regular size dinner (that is to say, large), and my body was like “Meh. Thanks for feeding me.” And then we were good. I woke up this morning, packed my [vegetarian] lunch, ate breakfast, and left for school. Easy peasy.
Except for lunch. That was terrible. I avoided the cafeteria by staying in my debate coach’s room, where Bart and Tessa and Mia were. Mia was also on the fast, but Tessa and Bart were not. Bart’s soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwich never smelt better, and Tessa’s popcorn filled the room with a salty, buttery scent for an hour. It. Was. Torture.
But once I stopped thinking about food, I was good. If I ignored any mention of food, I was just fine. I could have gone another thirty hours.
Survivor, here I come!
Politics with Aardvarki: Our Flagging Education Standards
So, it’s the second blog and I’m already off on the wrong foot. In case anyone noticed, it’s a Tuesday, and this blog is supposed to be on Monday. I could make up a lame excuse about it being president’s day yesterday, but that would be a crock of s**t. I forgot, okay? Sorry. I’ll try to be more punctual, but it’s more like “Monday (give or take a day)–Politics with Aardvarki.” Anyhoo…
Today’s topic: Nationalizing Standards for Education
Today’s article: Randi Weingarten, The Case for National Standards.
This article is actually an editorial, so I’m not going to summarize it, because there is no use summarizing opinion when I’m going to be giving an opinion that is similar to the opinion given in the article. There are, however, one or two statistics I’ll pepper in.
With all the hum-drum about the new president, the economy, the failing war, and all the other crap that’s floating around in the big ‘ole toilet bowl we dub “America,” the little soiled piece of toilet tissue settling at the bottom named “education” sometimes get lost in the quagmire. (I took that metaphor way too far, didn’t I? Anyhoo…) And because of this, it is depressing, but not really surprising to realize that we have some of the lowest nationalized test scores in the developed world, especially when compared to certain European countries and Japan. And this really is pathetic, when you think about it: the “land of opportunity” isn’t even giving the average child the opportunity of receiving a decent education. Now, there may be parts of the US that are doing OK. Take, for example, Massachusetts. Children in the state recently scored fifth in the world in an international mathematics assessment – but only after adopting rigorous standards in mathematics and science. And this shows that it’s not “kids these days” that are at fault, but state standards when it comes to learning. And when individual states fail to rise to the occasion, there is a call for a national standard: and NCLB doesn’t cut it. Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to propose a locked curriculum—or even standards for every subject (creating standards for electives, such as physical education and computers, or advanced classes that only a small percentage of a school takes, or classes not common in most schools, would be time-consuming, costly, and not significantly beneficial). Teachers would be still able to tailor lessons to their particular styles, but there still should be concepts that are taught across the board. And hopefully, if we have rigorous nationalized educational standards, we will be able to compete on a global scale, give our children the education they deserve, and keep states from slacking on standards.
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y that’s our ______ battle cry!!
So I think Pep Assemblies are the closest thing on earth to hell.
I was ok with them being banned. I really was. I see no good reason why we should all be forced into a large, crowded, hot old gym and be forced to make fools of ourselves.
This particular pep assembly featured a dance-off between juniors and seniors. First of all, this is asking for trouble. Teenagers are terrible dancers! I was prepared to plug my ears and shut my eyes and maybe think about Jason Mraz, since it helps Bri so much.
The six juniors who participated surprised me by actually choreographing something that didn’t feature anything you might see at a typical school dance. It was a little awkward but compared to the horror that followed, they should’ve been on So You Think You Can Dance (not that that says much).
The seniors made me ashamed to be alive. There were about six boys, and, true to form, the shirts came off about fifteen seconds in. I stared in appalled horror as they proceeded to put on the worse display of “What Senior Boys Think About 24/7” that I’ve ever seen.
Really? Do I have to go to school with these people? Why am I forced to go watch their basketball games? They are apes wearing clothing (up to the waist, anyway).
Oh, and i should mention that the principal was gone during this. Which is a shame, because if he’d seen the senior dance, he might’ve banned pep assemblies.
THEN, before I could recover, they made us do a CHEER CONTEST!!!! Have you ever experienced being in a place so noisy that all the noise blends into silence? First of all, they pick the fastest and wordiest cheer in our school’s arsenal, so that you couldn’t tell what the heck they were saying. I didn’t bother cheering. Why should I, when there are so many other people wanting to act like idiots? They make up for my absence. The seniors won. They have to redeem themselves somehow, and i guess they can only do this by proving they can make the most noise.
Then they did another stupid contest that involved a lot of cheating, but who cares?
After all of this, I’m not even sure what we were supposed to be pepped about.
I’ll admit. I’m a cynical low-life. I’ve never participated in the cheer contest. I’ve never volunteered to stick my face in a pie. I’ve never danced to soulja boy crank that in front of hundreds of people. I am not a peppy person.
This is how I show pride in my school. I try to get good grades. I don’t get in fights. I don’t clog up the hallway. I don’t make too much noise or create disturbance. I don’t spill my drinks on the floor. I don’t write vulgar things in the bathroom. I don’t make fun of teachers. I don’t randomly pound my fist into a locker.
Pep Assemblies do not work for me. I can find my own way of fitting in at my school. Everyone else is free to yell and haze and mosh and run around with their shirts off if that’s what works for them, but I sort of find more fulfillment at least striving for maturity.
Sorry. I try, but I really just can’t stand teenagers sometimes.
They’re trying to trick us…
Know what I think? I think we still have recess in high school, only we don’t call it that anymore. Now we act all serious and tell the kids that that bell means we’ll all go outside for about 15 minutes for a “firedrill”.
Or sometimes they tell us that we’re entering a “soft lockdown” and I fail to grasp how these lockdowns are different at all from nap-time. Sure, we make pretend theres some psycho out there with a gun, but in the end we’re still turning off the lights and getting on the ground while the teacher tells us to shut up.
I’m starting to realize that the almighty bri should just make my catagory “weird” because that pretty much covers it. Unfortunately for you, I think I’ll start blogging more often.
Idiocracy
Never heard of it? Well, you should have. This is one of the most accurate portrayals of modern society I have seen. Sure, in movie making quality, it isn’t THAT great. The comedy is great at first, but kind of dies down towards the end, but I really don’t think that matters. The movie goes like this. A government program is testing a life freezing idea that could keep soldiers alive but in a sleep mode until the next war, then they can come out and fight years later for their country as if it were yesterday. They test it on two average people, but then, before they’re taken out of the chamber, the program is shut down and they’re left for 500 years before a landfill slide wakes them up. It turns out, in 500 years, everyone is an idiot and these average people are now the smartest in the world.
Now, if you have gone to High School in the last few years, we all know its not all the dancing and gayness (as in happy, geez you people are immature) of High School Musical. But we also see a trend, the smart people are doing good in school and going on to higher education, as the idiots get pregnant or do drugs. This is a little stereotypical, but it is the basic flow of things. Now, while these idiots have more and more kids, the smart people only have one or two, making for more stupid people in the world. While Idiocracy is just a comedy at a short glance, its also a horrifying glance into a worst case scenario of where our world is headed. If you have any brains, watch this movie and see for yourself an extreme possibility of the future.
Background Info: Important or just a freakin’ waste of time?
I’m wondering something and I wonder what everyone else thinks.
Is it really important to know background information? Aren’t solid facts enough without reasoning, subtlety, and explanations? True, it’s nice to know, but is it really necessary? Do you really need to know every detail about combustion engines and the history of oil manufacture to drive a car? Obviously you do not, but there are less extreme cases. Consider Math. You can get by perfectly knowing that logarithm (log) can be used to determine y in 9^y=x with y =log5(x). You don’t need to know what log is, just how to use it to find y in the equation. Beyond finding it on your calculator, this is all you need, in your current situation, to know about logarithms, right?
So why are people so concerned with background info? Is it not enough to know that the Protestants fought the Catholics in the 30 years war without going into differences in dogma, which sprung from protestant reformation leaders, each with their own history that coalesced into their motives? Who cares? Who really needs to know about Zwingli or the Ursuline order of nuns or who attended Martin Luther’s trial? Correct me if I’m wrong, but NOBODY DOES!! NOBODY CARES!! True, some historians or socioligists might care, but 1) they aren’t us, who aspire to achieve something less boring, and 2) the past is past and doesn’t matter to us. Or maybe it really does matter.
Which brings another point. WHY do we have to study history at all? True, it tells us why things are the way they are, and sometimes we want to know that (but it’s more often with social interactions involving someone of the opposite sex) but we can get along perfectly without it. Do we need to know about particle physics and thermodynamics to build a hot air balloon? What’s wrong with knowing that hot air rises and leaving it at that?
Honestly, one could say ignorance is bliss as information builds shades of gray which are annoying. But it’s always nice to know things in case they come in handy. But that is for future necessity, not current need. And then one can say information breeds insight. But mostly it just causes confusion and hesitation, as one weighs the possibilities. So what do you think? I would love to know if I’m insightful or just totally conkers.
I even freaking reminded you
Grar. Webmistress is grumpy right now.
I’m taking a break from homework right now because I have a pounding headache and I noticed that our new admin, Shawn, has not posted a blog today. Me thinkies that he will be getting deleted… soon. I warned you.
It is eight o’clock at night, and I still have about two hours of homework left to do. Freaking speech and debate cases took two freaking hours, and freaking AP language persuasive letter took freaking one hour, and now freaking AP US History is taking freaking forever. 20 more vocab cards plus fifteen pages of notes on the most BORING ERA IN HISTORY.
The Industrial Revolution is the DEVIL. I do not CARE WHO INVENTED THE STEAMBOAT (Robert Fulton). I like all the political stuff and the presidential scandals and the religious stuff, but manufacturing makes me yawn. Plus, I had to learn about all this crap back in 8th grade. Granted, I like this class better, but STILL. AUGH.
We had a debate today in APUSH over whether or not Andrew was an accurate representative for the “common man”. I was on the negative side, because he so totally WASN’T.
Ack ack ack. Bad-ish day, I’m stressed beyond belief… ok, I’m going to go back to vocab cards.
Shawn, you’re getting deleted. I had hoped that you would be a little more committed to this and would actually put some effort into it. At least the FIRST FRICKING WEEK YOU HAD TO DO IT! Augh. I told you I wouldn’t miss you once astronomy ended. >:p