Let's talk about stuff. FIRST COMMENT IS THE TOPIC STARTER! Let us see how many topics we can bring in without damaging the logic. :D

Let's talk about the importance of school!

school is better than work. do not take it for granted

Agreed. I'm sick of seeing kids wasting their time in school when they need the education. I can stand seeing a very intelligent kid blowing off their book report, but for an illiterate little beast who doesn't know the difference between chatspeak and actual English, he/she should be smacked in the head until they start doing better with their schooling. =3=

On that note, I'm tired of people using their situations as an excuse. Storytime: I have a friend, a friend we'll name Sarah. Sarah was born into a broken home. Her mother, a drug addict, legally lost her. Luckily, Sarah's grandmother cared enough to step in and take her daughter's baby in. Sarah's grandmother tries her best to raise Sarah well, though she can be harsh in her methods. At middle school Sarah is failing school. She blames it on the teachers, that they won't help her, or she simply 'doesn't have the time' to study or do her homework. She blames it on other people, because she doesn't understand the homework, and no one has the time to 'help' her. By eighth grade she starts smoking pot. Even after seeing what it's done to her mother, her mother who comes home drunk or high, her mother who Sarah knows will prostitute herself for another hit. Her grades do not raise. She only passes school thanks to summer school programs. She loses her virginity with a boy she's known for three days. At her birthday party, a majority of the girls remove their bathing suits in plain view of a road, as well as the male party-goers. Come high school. She is often heard discussing not only smoking pot, but cigarettes, drinking alcohol. She's failing school. She claims she intends to drop out as soon as possible, and that perhaps she'll get held back just to be with friends from middle school. TL;DR - Should one receive pity for the circumstances of which they are born? ----- Perhaps a bit off topic, but 'Sarah's' story has always been one that has irked me. I agree with Mikhail, that very rarely is it the upper echelon of students that blow off their work. In modern day society, as members of generation y, a life without a high school diploma can be difficult. Within the next few decades the jobs that don't require a highschool diploma will lower considerably. But I also believe that in today's schools children are pushed too hard. Perhaps not with work itself, but with things such as homework. Math is a perfect example. If you understand a concept, why should you have to do it repeatedly, when it isn't benefiting you? I believe teachers should give student 5 problems. If you have 4, or perhaps all 5 right, you don't have to do the homework. This wouldn't be difficult, as the teacher could simply mark the page of the 5 correct problems, and the student could show that rather than the homework the next day. This comes back to the philosophy of course, that the worst of us ruin it for the best of us. Other notes on school. - Do you believe today's standards in school have been raised or lowered? Why so? - Do you believe students of the higher ability should get special privileges? Why so? ---- What about students in extracurricular activities? Should the be given privileges? Please keep in mind that a) extra curricular activities include more than just athletics (Debate team, marching band, dance team.), and b) any biases (Say toward athletic students at your school.) should not affect your response. - Do you have any electives you are required to take? Are the hurting you or harming you?* - Physical education classes. Do you believe athletically fit students, or students in sports shouldn't be required to take them? * Not just physically. For instance, in my county students are required to take Career research, and HOPE (A P.E course.). I take spanish, and orchestra. So for the first to years of highschool, I am unable to take any recreational courses, such as an art class, until my junior year. Ergo, these classes are hurting me rather than helping.

Loki, seriously now. I smoke weed, cigarettes, and drink alcohol, starting at age 13. I dropped out of highschool. I was failing. However, I am completely literate and I really don't think I'm a bad person at all. I strive for knowledge, got my GED within a month of leaving school, and I have plans to go to trade school in a couple years. I grew up in a relatively normal household. I'm trying to get across that failing classes and doing "drugs" doesn't make you an immediate screw-up. That's actually really offensive to me. Final note: Marijuana isn't addictive. It is safer than any drug existing, including legal medication: really, look it up. Nobody dies or has died from smoking it, ever. Nobody prostitutes themselves for weed, because they don't need it that bad. If you went to an NA meeting because of marijuana, people who do drugs with actual risk involved would probably laugh at you.

You misunderstand me Saucy. The difference between the two of you is that you did something with your life. She's planning on becoming a stripper, and is more than often begging for pity and attention because of her life, and uses it as an excuse for her actions. :/

And when I say her mother prostituted herself, it wasn't for weed. I'm not good with the terms that are used in street drugs.

You used the right terms Loki, I just think there was a slight misunderstanding. But yeah. I've known the ones who have a bad start, then divulge in it, and then use other's pity to dig down deeper. Really it's sad and they know they're doing the bad stuff, over and over, but as they say, it's easier said than done. And there should be no justification of weed. I've been to every class, ever anti-class, and anything in between. The fact is that weed these days isn't the same as it was, and there are serious bad affects, and it is addictive. Just ask my pothead cousin who gets the shakes whenever he doesn't get his daily hit off the bong. Of course there are always extremes, and there are tons of people who can live normal lives and smoke pot. But the fact is that it's bad, and we do it anyways. That's that.

To be perfectly honest, work is better than school. Here are the reasons why: A resume filled with work info shows your experience in those areas, whereas a diploma saying you looked up things in a book to get by doesn't. Employers like to know the people they're hiring aren't whiny kids that want to be paid more money. They also want people who they know aren't 'newbies'. They know how the system works. Employers also enjoy the fact that already working people are flexible. You can screw with their schedule as necessary. They also enjoy the fact that you won't get any "bad habits". They've been in a work place before. Work also gives more social experience over school. In school, there really is no boundries to what you can say or how you say it. In Work, they show you how to properly respond to a situation regardless of what it is, rather then saying "Youre gay" and walking off. Schools also focus on the wrong content. ALOT of cirriculums are outdated. To be perfectly honest, you -dont- need 3/4s of the classes you obtain from Elementary to High School. In fact, it's been proven. My very own school eroded the cirriculum of the 11th and 12th grade, so that it became a 9-10 school only. 11th and 12th grade was spent -in the work environment-, with college -after effects- (homework). As a result, kids made jobs quite literally before graduation, or up to 5 weeks after graduation when implementing a resume to an area. This resume only contained the work environment timeline, 11th-12th grade. And as a result: Were hired almost immediately. Everyone who didn't go to my school (it was only 11-12. You had to be qualified in 9th and 10th grade to attend the school), and graduated in a basic high school of 9-12, either had no jobs for up to 3 years, or failed to do -anything- about trying for one. May I remind you to look back on the stories of Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Robert Kiyosaki, all who dropped out of grades 6+, and look at them now.

Need I also state that work is actually a -life skill-, whereas schools are not. Where in the world do we, at a job or career, sit at a desk with our precious things and listen to some professor blabber on about a subject for two hours or more, have lunch with everyone, and get homework over the night? This doesn't count business meetings, which half the work force doesn't get -anyway-.

Wish I was paid to go to school, adults are paid for their hard work. xD

I'm not sure I comprehend your view, Rattle. Elaborate on what you mean by schooling (I.E, do you believe college is a waste of time, high school, or just schooling overall?) and in what workforce are you implying with your examples?

Majalo, is that not the wrong way round. Should we not pay to be schooled as schooling for for our benefit (whether it's appreciated or not). I guess one can wish ;) but then I wish I had more brains than I do, but that's not going to happen either :(

If that's the case, get me the hell out of school. XD