GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU BRATS!!!

We’ll talk in six months.

1. 5 minutes between classes is wasted time.
2. 30 minutes of classtime out of 45 was wasted on talking.
3. Many teachers don’t treat teaching as a calling.
4. Regardless of whether a teacher was just drawing a paycheck or was truly involved, some were good and some were bad.
5. A lot of subjects like Algebra 2 aren’t used in life.
6. Six months out of high school, the author remembers nothing that she learned.

The thinking behind point 1 is akin to saying, “I spend 10 minutes a day brushing my teeth. That’s almost 60 hours of teeth-brushing every year. Think of how much time I’d save if I didn’t brush my teeth!” Regardless of whether time between classes is spent moving between classrooms or in down-time in the same classroom, students need time to switch gears, and eliminating that time will be harmful.

Though I expect point 2 is exaggerated, it’s a valid complaint. There are teachers who spend a lot of time disciplining ineffectively.

To point 3: why should teaching be a calling when so many other jobs aren’t? I suspect we treat teaching as a calling so that teachers will accept poor treatment and low pay. Teachers or teachers, what I want is competence.

That leads to point 4, which is quite valid.

To point 5, school shouldn’t be reduced to vocational training. While “real-world skills” are useful, they’re not the big thing school has to offer or should offer. School should help students learn to think and should provide the information necessary for them to be informed citizens. You may not use the concept of the US government’s separation of powers in your day-to-day life, but I want voters and citizens who know and understand that concept.

Point 6 is, I think, what underlies all of this. The author feels she didn’t learn anything at school. Some of that is undoubtedly due to her teachers, but in the end the responsibility lies with her. Like all endeavors, what you get out of school is primarily determined by what you put in.

If I ignore point 6 as being a personal observation, by my score she gets 2 out of 5, for a grade of 40%. Even in her evidently benighted high school, I doubt that’s a passing grade.