Post something you wrote in high school

[drubken]

I just found this on my computer and I had to share:

Are you school-spirited? How/Why?

I don’t really know how to answer this question without sounding hateful, but I’ll give it a try. Asking someone if they have school spirit is like asking an Iraqi citizen under Saddam’s regime whether they love their country; you aren’t going to get very many honest answers. The Iraqi is afraid for his life, the student is afraid for his grades and therefore his livelihood, you know, when it eventually comes time to apply for proctology school or whatever. Anyway, what is this “school spirit”? I don’t think it really has anything to do with school, at least not the education part of school. It’s got more to do with being a sports fan; it’s yet another manifestation of the anti-intellectualism that’s endemic in this country. It’s got a lot to do with people living vicariously, basking in glow of an athlete’s glory. School spirit really is a sad notion. To me, it represents the kind of unthinking patriotism that has allowed Orwellian legislation like the Patriot Act to get passed through Congress in recent years. Actually, school spirit really is almost exactly like patriotism, except we are supporting athletes playing a football/basketball/baseball game (cause those are the only sports anyone REALLY watches, right?) instead of soldiers invading yet another country full of brown people.


Boy, was I ever popular.....

And apparently they still tell stories about me

 

[drubken]

Educational Socialism

(Holy shit, I have no idea how I got away with writing this)

What one person sees as relevant is irrelevant to someone else. Most people would probably agree with that statement. With that said, what sense does it make to have a fixed, lock-step curriculum forcing everyone to be on the same topic reading the same chapter in the same book on the same day? A computer hacker learning his seventh programming language would resent having to do repetitive exercises in a required keyboarding class, as would an aspiring physicist whose primary desire is to understand how the world works. In both of these hypothetical cases, the students are fulfilling a meaningless requirement that serves as a distraction from what they really want to learn. This seems to be the case rather than the exception in the American education system.

Here is another example. It would make no sense to teach poetry to someone who is only interested in learning physics, and vice versa. Some people like just poetry, some people like just physics, some people like both poetry and physics, and some people don’t like either poetry or physics. In fact, even if poetry and physics were being covered in school, a student interested in poetry would still be forced to drop what they were working on at the sound of a bell after only one hour. Then it might be time for physics class, which the student absolutely loathes. Wouldn’t it make more sense to encourage students to focus on and develop specific talents, like writing poetry? Perhaps when the aforementioned student is ready to move on, they would become interested in pursuing physics, or perhaps not. But rather than encouraging students to master a skill and then move on, school serves as an intellectual prison, where students are kept to busy memorizing useless facts to stop and have time to think about things for themselves.

What the public school system in this country really equates to is a form of socialism. In a socialist society, production quotas are set by the government and individual interests are largely ignored. In American public schools, rigid, age-segregated curricula are set by the state to meet exam score quotas and individual interests are largely ignored. History has shown us the economic results of both capitalism and socialism. Individuals are motivated to work hard when they are fulfilling their own self-interest, in both an economic and intellectual sense.

Why do schools insist that everybody needs to learn the same stuff? There isn’t a list of facts that everyone must know. People should be allowed to choose what to learn and when and how they want to go about learning it. We really need to get over the idea that some stuff is just worth knowing even if you never do anything with it, because it really isn’t. After the grade has been achieved, students no longer have any motivation to retain what they have memorized. The human memory all too happily erases that which it does not find immediately useful.

 

[timmaytoo]

i don't think so

you have some interesting ideas that i do not happen to agree with...for the most part....first off, you can't take out extra curricular activities....extra curricular activities are not only sports, it can can range from sports..to student council...to savingmoney for a adopted student to rainsing money to go on a school trip or anything else that a student would enjoy outside of the regular classroom. it gives students diversity...you can't expect a student to come to school everyday a happy child if all the kid has to look forward to is coming to school sitting at your desk and listening to a teacher. extra curricular activies for a lot of people is a form a personal expression and you can't critisize someone for doing what they like....dance class is considered a extra curricular activity....and are you going to say that is wrong....you keep condemning and taking away personal CONSTRUCTIVE activities ie..extra curricular you are going to have ( i know this is hippocritical due to the contents of this site..drugs)a lot of kids doing other things to pass their time....which in a lot of caSES IS drugs!
kids and everyone for that matter need to express themselves...no matter what it is and i say sports is a hell of a lot better than drugs....people who like sports are not neccesarilly people who believe all the propaganda shit that the american government dishes out! quite a bold statement to relate high school sports and the ignorance related to american propaganda.
as for your comment

"It would make no sense to teach poetry to someone who is only interested in learning physics, and vice versa. Some people like just poetry, some people like just physics, some people like both poetry and physics, and some people don’t like either poetry or physics "

how is a kid supposed to know what he likes or dislikes when he is never to be exposed to it in the first place......

in most high school people are introduced to individual subjects depending on what program you are in..but that is the choice of the student...little bits of independance at a time.....if it were up to kids there wouldn't even be such a thing as school!

on a personal note i never really had too too many friends in high school but i wasn't a loner either...i was an average kid in an average school. sports and extra curricular activities allowed us to escape from the classroom life of school and just gave us time to enjoy the time we were spending there...school spirit represents all the memories you'll have as a teenager....and if this is the way you feel you must of had quite a lonely high school experience(no offense).

interesting ideas but you are filled with contradiction....you say kids shouldn't really have extra curricular activities and should have more choice on classes...well if your idea of an ideal high school experience is to have sat in a classroom the entire time then go home and smoke a joint in the little corner of your room to relax from all the damn homework you have...you and i are definently no going to see eye to eye!
thanks,
timbo

 

[drubken]

Re: i don't think so

as for your comment

"It would make no sense to teach poetry to someone who is only interested in learning physics, and vice versa. Some people like just poetry, some people like just physics, some people like both poetry and physics, and some people don’t like either poetry or physics "

how is a kid supposed to know what he likes or dislikes when he is never to be exposed to it in the first place......

in most high school people are introduced to individual subjects depending on what program you are in..but that is the choice of the student...little bits of independance at a time.....if it were up to kids there wouldn't even be such a thing as school!

What we think of as school did not exist until the advent of the industrial revolution. Compulsory schooling was implemented in order to subvert the authority of the nuclear family in favor of state authority, and to homogenize people into a uniform, obiedient workforce. Hard to believe, I know.....
Do yourself (and any children you may have) a favor....read books by Grace Llewellyn (especially the Teenage Liberation Handbook) and John Taylor Gatto.

on a personal note i never really had too too many friends in high school but i wasn't a loner either...i was an average kid in an average school. sports and extra curricular activities allowed us to escape from the classroom life of school and just gave us time to enjoy the time we were spending there...school spirit represents all the memories you'll have as a teenager....and if this is the way you feel you must of had quite a lonely high school experience(no offense).

Oh I had plenty of friends, and in the latter half of high school was quite popular (once I really TRIED to be....). I *DID* feel like a loner though, because, as arrogant as it sounds, there was no one for me to connect with at my intellectual level.....
I didn't have my most important, profound ideas about society and life in general validated by someone else IRL until college. Think about how that must've felt....can you see why I had a drug problem for awhile?

you and i are definently no going to see eye to eye!
thanks,
timbo [/B]

Sadly......it is unlikely that we ever will

 

[drubken]

"if it were up to kids there wouldn't even be such a thing as school!"

If it were up to me, there wouldn't be places where we imprison kids for half their childhood and force them to do mindnumbing tasks which they have no real interest in. School is like glorified babysitting, a place for parents to send their children while they themselves are busy being exploited as capitalist wage-slaves from 9-5

Oh and btw:
Nobel Prize Winners Hate School

 

[skjalff]

neurotoxic what?? seriously though, i didnt read the entire link there, but how many nobel prize winners actually did not go to school? The system is there for a reason, if you dont agree with it so strongly, there's nothing holding you from doing it on your own, becoming someone great in like 50 years and then bitching at the school system on the legitimate grounds of being a nobel prize winner or something. good luck



skjalff

 

[drubken]

OK, this thread is officially hijacked :D

"how many nobel prize winners actually did not go to school?"

Well, these aren't all nobel laurates, but here are a few notable high school drop-outs........
(So I guess if you wanna be a billionaire, going to school is generally a bad idea )

There are many notable people, who did not complete their formal education, but accomplished great things. Bill Gates, founder of the software giant Microsoft, and the wealthiest person in the world, dropped out of Harvard in his freshman year. His incredible rise to prominence in the computer industry is testimony to the fact that formal education is not synonymous with success. In fact, his phenomenal knowledge of computers was not acquired in the structured environment of the classroom. Instead, Gates pursued this interest after school by studying the BASIC language from a manual with his friend Paul Allen, helping a local company debug its computers, and designing computer programs.

Many will dismiss Gates as an exceptional individual, who may have dropped out of college, but excelled in high school before being accepted at Harvard. There are, however, many other people who have reached the highest echelons of their profession without even completing elementary school, let alone high school. The following list offers a small sample of the thousands of individuals who have achieved tremendous success in their lives without completing their formal education:

• Albert Einstein: Nobel Prize-winning physicist; "Time" magazine's "Man of the Century" (20th century) (after dropping out of high school, he studied on his own and passed the entrance exam on his second try to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

• John D. Rockefeller Sr.: Self-made billionaire American businessman-philanthropist; co-founder of "The Standard Oil Company;" history's first recorded billionaire (dropped out of high school two months before graduation; took business courses for ten weeks at Folsom Mercantile College [a chain business school])

• Henry Ford: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; assembly-line auto manufacturing pioneer; founder of the "Ford Motor Company"

• Walt Disney: Oscar-winning American film/TV producer; animation and theme park pioneer; self-made multimillionaire founder and spokesperson of "The Walt Disney Studios/Company; "Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient; French Legion of Honor admittee/Medal recipient (received honorary high-school diploma from hometown high school at age 58)

• Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of the United States; (little formal education - Lincoln himself estimated approximately one year; home schooling/life experience; later earned a law degree through self study of books that he borrowed from friends)

• Carl Sandburg: Pulitzer Prize-winning American author (little formal education; later passed entrance exam to Lombard College and graduated)

• Diana, Princess of Wales

• George Burns: Oscar-winning actor/comedian (elementary school dropout)

• Dave Thomas: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder-spokesperson of the "Wendy's" fast-food restaurant chain (equivalency diploma)

• Martin Van Buren: 8th President of the United States (little formal education; began studying law at age 14 while an apprentice at a law firm, later became a lawyer)

• Andrew Carnegie: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman and philanthropist (elementary school dropout)

• John Chancellor: American television journalist; evening news anchorman

• "Colonel" Harlan Sanders: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder-spokesperson of the "Kentucky Fried Chicken/KFC" fast-food restaurant chain (elementary school dropout; later earned a correspondence course law degree)

• Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain"): Best-selling American author and humorist (elementary school dropout)

• Christopher Columbus: Italian explorer (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)

• Davy Crockett: Early American frontiersman; U.S. Congressman (Tennessee Representative); died at the battle of the Alamo (little formal education - less than six months; home schooling/life experience)

• Charles Dickens: Best-selling British author (elementary school dropout)

• Joe DiMaggio: National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• Sir Francis Drake: British explorer; knighted in the United Kingdom (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)

• George Eastman: Self-made multimillionaire American inventor; founder of the "Kodak" roll film camera, corporation, and chemical company

• Thomas Edison: Self-made multimillionaire, most famous and productive inventor of all time; invented the filament electric light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture camera; electrical power usage pioneer; Congressional Gold Medal recipient; knighted (France: bestowed the rank of Chevalier, (had no formal education - home schooled)

• Benjamin Franklin: American politician - diplomat - author - printer - publisher-scientist - inventor; co-author and co-signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence; one of the founders of The United States of America; face is pictured on the U.S. one-hundred dollar bill (little formal education [less than two years]; home schooling/life experience)

• Clark Gable: Oscar-winning actor

• George Gershwin: Oscar-nominated and most celebrated American songwriter-and classical composer; Congressional Gold Medal recipient

• Amadeo Peter Giannini: American-born founder of "Bank of America"

• Cary Grant: Oscar-winning actor

• W.T.Grant: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of the "W.T. Grant Company" department store chain

• H.L. Hunt: Self-made billionaire American oil industrialist (elementary school dropout)

• John Huston: Oscar-winning American film director-actor (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Maltese Falcon, The African Queen, etc.)

• Elton John: Oscar-winning songwriter-singer; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; knighted by the United Kingdom

• Andrew Jackson: 7th President of the United States (no formal education; home schooling/life experience)

• John Paul Jones: Scottish-born American Revolutionary War U.S. navy commander; famous quote: "I have not yet begun to fight." (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)

• Henry J. Kaiser: Self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of "Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation," "Kaiser Steel," etc.

• Kirk Kerkorian: Self-made billionaire American businessman

• Ray Kroc: Self-made billionaire American businessman; founder of the "McDonald's" fast-food restaurant chain

• Jerry Lewis: Actor-comedian-singer-entertainer-humanitarian; knighted (France: Chevalier [or Chev.] Jerry Lewis)

• John Major: British Prime Minister 1990-1997

• William Shakespeare: British playwright; best-selling British author

• George Bernard Shaw: Nobel Prize-winning Irish-born British playwright; best-selling author

• Frank Sinatra: Oscar-winning actor-singer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient

• John Philip Sousa: American composer-conductor (elementary school dropout)

• Zachary Taylor: 12th President of the United States (little formal education; home schooling/life experience)
• George Washington: 1st President of the United States; former general; Chairman of the Constitutional Convention; U.S. nickname: "The Father of Our Country"; face is pictured on the U.S. one dollar bill and twenty-five cent coin (quarter) (no formal education; home schooling/life experience; went to sea in his youth)

• William Faulkner: Nobel Prize-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author; screenwriter (dropped out of high school in second year; later attended University of Mississippi but did not graduate)

• Herman Melville: Best-selling American author and writer of Moby Dick, arguably the greatest novel of all time.
• Liza Minnelli: Oscar-winning actress-singer

• Robert Mitchum: Oscar-nominated actor

• Claude Monet: French painter (elementary school dropout)

• David H. Murdock: Self-made billionaire American businessman

• Florence Nightingale: History's most notable nurse; best-selling Italian-born British nursing book author (no formal education; home schooling/life experience)

• Thomas Paine: American Revolutionary War era political theorist; best-selling British-born American author; famous quote: "These are the times that try men's souls." (little formal education; home schooling/life experience)

• Millard Fillmore: 13th President of the United States (little formal education - six months; home schooling/life experience; studied law while serving as a legal clerk with a judge and law firm; later became a lawyer)

• Will Rogers: American author-humorist-lecturer-actor-entertainer; famous quote: "I never met a man I didn't like."

• Frederick Henry Royce: Self-made multimillionaire British businessman; co-founder-designer of the "Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Company"; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Frederick Henry Royce) (elementary school dropout)

• Edmond Safra: Lebanese-born billionaire banker-philanthropist

• David Sarnoff: Russian-born American radio and television pioneer; given the title "Father of American Television" by the Television Broadcasters Association

• William Saroyan: Oscar-winning screenwriter; Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright

• Vidal Sassoon: Self-made multimillionaire British businessman; founder of "Vidal Sassoon" hairstyling salons, academies, and hair-care products

• Walt Whitman: Best-selling American poet (elementary school dropout)

• Orville & Wilbur Wright: Aviation pioneers; Congressional Gold Medal recipients

• Grover Cleveland: 22nd and 24th President of the United States; face is pictured on the one-thousand dollar bill, which is no longer printed; (dropped out of school to help family earn income; studied law while serving as a clerk at a law firm, later became a lawyer)

• Irving Berlin: Oscar-winning American songwriter-composer; film story writer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient

H.G. Wells.......best-selling British author (dropped out to help family earn income; later returned and went on to college)

• Jim Clark........self-made billionaire American businessman; founder of "Netscape"; first Internet billionaire (17, U.S. Navy)

• Jimmy Dean..........singer-songwriter-actor; self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of the "Jimmy Dean

Foods" brand sausage business (16, U.S. Merchant Marines; 18, U.S. Air Force)

• Andrew Jackson......7th U.S. President; face is pictured on the U.S. twenty dollar bill (13, U.S. Continental Army; orphaned at 14; little formal education; home schooling/life experience; studied law in his late teens and became a lawyer)

• Leon Uris..........best-selling American author (Exodus, etc.) (17, U.S. Marines)

• Walter L. Smith.....former president of Florida A&M University (equivalency diploma, at age 23)

• W. Clement Stone....self-made multimillionaire (some sources indicate billionaire) American businessman-author; founder of "Success" magazine (elementary school dropout; later attended high-school night courses and then some college)

• Jack London.......best-selling American author (dropped out at 14 to work; later gained admission to the University of California; left after one semester)

• Arthur Ernest Morgan....American flood-control engineer; college president-author; appointed by President Roosevelt to be director of the Tennessee Valley Authority public works project (left high school after three years; later attended the University of Colorado for six weeks)

• Ray Charles.........singer-pianist; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee

• Cher......Oscar-winning actress-singer

• Maurice Chevalier.... Oscar-winning actor-singer; French Legion of Honor inductee/Medal recipient (note: rank bestowed in 1938

• Pierce Brosnan......actor

• Ellen Burnstyn......Oscar-winning actress

• Raymond Burr.......actor

• Sammy Cahn.......... Oscar-winning American songwriter-composer

• Michael Caine.......Oscar-winning actor; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Michael Caine)

• Glen Campbell.......country music star

• Daniel Gilbert......Harvard University psychology professor (equivalency diploma)

• Dizzy Gillespie.....musician-composer (received honorary diploma from high school he attended)

• Patrick Henry.......American Revolutionary War era politician; Virginia's first governor; famous quote: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; later studied on his own and earned a law degree)

• Peter Jennings......Canadian-born American television journalist; evening news anchorman

• Ansel Adams.........American wilderness photographer; photography book author; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• Julie Andrews.......Oscar-winning actress-singer

• Louis Armstrong.....singer-musician

• Brooke Astor........wealthy American socialite-philanthropist-author; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• Pearl Bailey........singer-actress; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• Lucille Ball........actress-comedienne-producer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• Bill Bartman........self-made billionaire American businessman

• Count Basie.........bandleader-pianist

• Jack Benny.......... comedian-actor-violinist

• Humphrey Bogart.....Oscar-winning actor

• Peter Bogdanovich....Oscar-nominated American film director-screenwriter (The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, Mask, etc.)

• Whoopie Goldberg....Oscar-winning actress-comedienne

• Benny Goodman.....bandleader-clarinetist

• Lew Grade.........British film/TV producer (TV: The Avengers, The Saint, Secret Agent, The Prisoner, The Muppet Show, etc.); knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Lew Grade)

• Philip Emeagwali....supercomputer scientist; one of the pioneers of the Internet (high-IQ high-school dropout; left school in native Nigeria due to war conditions and lack of tuition money; continued to study on his own and earned an equivalency diploma; later won a scholarship to Oregon College of Education in the United States; transferred after one year to Oregon State University)

• Danny Thomas........actor-producer-humanitarian (actor: Make Room for Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show; co-producer: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, etc.); Congressional Gold Medal recipient

• Peter Ustinov.......Oscar-winning actor

• Hiram Stevens.......American-born engineering inventor; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Hiram Stevens)

• Patrick Stewart..... actor-writer-producer-director; former captain of the Enterprise on TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation and in films.

• Kemmons Wilson.......self-made multimillionaire American businessman; founder of the "Holiday Inn" hotel chain

• Kjell Inge Rokke.....self-made billionaire Norwegian businessman

• David Puttnam.......Oscar-winning British film producer (Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, etc.); knighted (United Kingdom: Sir David Puttnam)

• Anthony Quinn.......Oscar-winning actor

• Julie London....... singer-actress

• Sophia Loren.......Oscar-winning actress; best-selling Italian-born author; former model (elementary school dropout)

• Joe Louis..........boxer; Congressional Gold Medal recipient

• Roy Rogers..........actor-singer-guitarist

• Walter Nash.......New Zealand Prime Minister 1957-1960; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Walter Nash)

• Olivia Newton-John.... singer-actress; British-born Australian author

• Rosa Parks.........U.S. civil rights activist-pioneer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient

• Mary Pickford......Oscar-winning actress; early Hollywood pioneer; co-founder of "United Artists Corporation" (little formal education [six months]; home schooling/life experience)

• Sydney Poitier.....Oscar-winning actor (elementary school dropout)

• Frederick "Freddy" Laker.... self-made multimillionaire British businessman; airline entrepreneur; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Frederick [or Freddy] Laker)

• Tommy Lasorda...... baseball team manager; National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee

• David Lean.........Oscar-winning British film director (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr .Zhivago, etc.); knighted (United Kingdom: Sir David Lean)

• Anton van Leeuwenhoek....Dutch microscope maker; world's first microbiologist; discoverer of bacteria, blood cells, and sperm cells)

• Richard Branson.....self-made billionaire British businessman; founder of "Virgin Atlantic Airways," "Virgin Records," etc.; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Richard Branson)

• Isaac Merrit Singer....American sewing machine inventor; self-made multimillionaire founder of "Singer Industries," "I.M. Singer and Company," etc. (elementary school dropout)

• Alfred E. Smith.....New York Governor; 1928 Democratic U.S. Presidential candidate (elementary school dropout)

• Charles Chaplin.....Oscar-winning actor-writer-director-producer; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Charles [or Charlie] Chaplin) (elementary school dropout)

• Sean Connery........Oscar-winning actor; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Sean Connery)

• Jack Kent Cooke.....self-made billionaire Canadian-born American media businessman

• Noel Coward.........Oscar-winning actor-director-producer-playwright-composer; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Noel Coward) (elementary school dropout)

• Joan Crawford....... Oscar-winning actress; former dancer

• Charles E. Culpeper....self-made multimillionaire American businessman; early 1900s' owner and head of "The Coca Cola Bottling Company"

• Robert De Niro......Oscar-winning actor-producer; knighted (France: Chevalier [Knight] of the Legion of Honor; Chevalier [or Chev.] Robert De Niro)

• Gerard Depardieu....Oscar-nominated actor; knighted (France: Chevalier [or Chev.] Gerard Depardieu) (elementary school dropout)

• Richard Desmond.....self-made billionaire British publisher

• Thomas Dolby........ musician-composer; music producer

• Joe Lewis........self-made billionaire British businessman

• Carl Lindner.......self-made billionaire American businessman

• John Llewellyn.....U.S. Labor leader pioneer; for 40 years until his retirement, president of the United Mine Workers' Union

• Marcus Loew........self-made multimillionaire American businessman; early Hollywood pioneer; founder of the "Loews" movie-theater chain; co-founder of "MGM" studios (elementary school dropout)

• Mary Lyon.........American women's education pioneer; early American teacher; founder of Mount Holyoke College (America's first women's college)

• Sonny Bono...........singer-songwriter-actor; U.S. Congressman (California U.S. Representative)

• Duke Ellington......Oscar-nominated American composer-bandleader; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• Ella Fitzgerald.....singer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• Aretha Franklin....singer; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee

• Horace Greeley.... American newspaper publisher-editor; U.S. Congressman; 1872 U.S. Presidential candidate; co-founder of the Republican party in the United States

• Thomas Haffa......self-made double-digit billionaire German media businessman

• J.R. Simplot.......self-made billionaire American agricultural businessman

• Robert Maxwell.....self-made billionaire British publisher

• Rod McKuen.........best-selling American poet (elementary school dropout)

Source: http://angelfire.com/stars4/lists/dropouts.html

Ultimately, what distinguishes the aforementioned individuals from the rest of us is their passion for learning that transcends the structured environment of the classroom. Instead of limiting their education to formal schooling, they were curious about the world around them. With their fearless spirit of exploration and their desire to experiment, these individuals discovered their true passions and strengths, which they built upon to achieve success later in life.

Imagine what a loss for the world it would have been had Thomas Edison decided to conform to the system, and invest his time in doing homework, rather than pursuing his love for invention. What if Walt Disney had confined his learning to the requirements of his school's curriculum, and followed only the guidance of his teachers, rather than his own internal motivation. His extraordinary animated features may have never been created.

Ultimately, formal education - by placing the control of learning in the hands of teachers and administrators, and imposing rules and requirements on students - stifles the natural love for learning. We must learn from these exceptional individuals who had the courage to defy the coercive force of formal education and carve their niche in our history.

 

[skjalff]

re-read this list, they are all like businessmen, actors 'philantropists', models-slush-actors, I mean: "Benny Goodman.....bandleader-clarinetist" wtf?? who is that? And of course we got Papa Albert, Ok, #1. Man's a genius, whats the point?

 

[timmaytoo]

no offense man, but you are obviously one of those dudes that hates the system but never does anything about it. WHich is very similar to how i feel to an extent, but school is also a place of growth and maturity. the school system works, or we would have a world filled with ignorant fools because we don't know any better. without school we are nothing, because without learning we are fools. yes we can learn outside the classroom, but the diversity of programs that school offers is unmatchable.
seems like you have some issues buddy!
i think you are looking way too much in one direction on this topic....
school is more than a system to control children, which it is to an extent, but in this world no matter how sad it sounds is necessary! look at all the good things school brings!! friendship...realisation of intellect....growth!
school is good.....
i think that it would be a great idea though if we didn't feel that we needed to put our kids in school so much , but i also feel that the average joe shouldn't work 5 days ouot of 7 for a good portion of their lives!
that's all

 

[timmaytoo]

and p.s.......actors don't count on the no school list...come on!!
and the rest are super exceptions....be realistic and stop being so damn rediculous!
8)

 

[Temporal Incident]

no offense man, but you are obviously one of those dudes that hates the system but never does anything about it.

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This very post is DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT

Open your fucking eyes, fool! We can only influence the people we come in contact with....

 

[Temporal Incident]

school is also a place of growth and maturity. the school system works, or we would have a world filled with ignorant fools because we don't know any better. without school we are nothing, because without learning we are fools.

.......a world of ignorant fools, you say? 8)

Originally posted by timmaytoo
yes we can learn outside the classroom, but the diversity of programs that school offers is unmatchable.

How bout the diversity of the ENITRE FUCKING WORLD?!?!

How bout learning through hands-on real life experience?! That's the only way anybody really learns anything, anyway!

Originally posted by timmaytoo
i also feel that the average joe shouldn't work 5 days ouot of 7 for a good portion of their lives!
that's all

Amen to that. You realize that in general, people in the roman empire had more free time than we moderns do? THAT SHIT'S FUCKED UP
(I read it at whywork.org so it has to be true!!! )

 

[rewiiired]

Here's something I wrote in high school. Not for high school, of course, this was stuff I wrote just to write because I couldn't get to sleep. And it sucks, but the really scary part is that its better than the fiction I've been writing lately.

---------------------------------------

I Should Really Stop Writing Cooky Stories and Go to Bed.
by Rewired

"Katie, will you take that damn cat out of here?"

I had been trying to concentrate in my study when that cat had strolled into the room and started pissing in my loafers again. My feet smell bad enough, like I need raunchy cat piss now. Anyway, my five-year-old daughter casually picked up the kitty and took him out of the room and down the hallway. I got up, with a heavy sigh, and shut the door. I couldn't believe all that had happened. I couldn't believe my wife had cheated on me, or that my brother was gone, dead.

Or that she had been cheating on me with my brother. Or that I had killed my brother with the aid of a sledgehammer last night and buried him in a shallow grave in the backyard.

All that stuff.

All of it was confusing and headaching, and it had all happened so fast. Today, in the study, time was going slow. I guess time always goes slower when you watch the clock. I was awaiting the call, I was eyeing the phone, I was ready to hear that soothing, sexy voice that had ripped my heart out of my chest and nail-gunned it to a pile of shit. She would say hi, and speak my name in that delicate tone. I would imagine her lips and teeth as she formed the words, I would see it in slow motion in my mind, and the words she spoke would slip passed me, would mean nothing. I wanted her, god dammit, I NEEDED her. And I would get her. And no divorce, threatening phone call or restraining order would stop me from reaching my goal. A mallot to the face might, though.

The phone rang, and I knw who it was -- you know, her -- but I didn't pick it up. I couldn't make it seem as ifd I was awaiting her call, that would be ludacris. Suspicious. I waited for the third ring, and picked up and casually greeted: "Hello?"

"Dwayne," she said, and I fell into a trance, "Do you know where your brother is?"

I shrugged before I realized she couldn't see me over the phone. "You mean he's not down your pants?"

"Charming, my ex-dear," she said. Their was a silence, a pause, that shouldn't ahve been there. She was thinking. That wasn't right. She never thought. But I could hear the gears in her mind clicking. I could could smell the burning rubber of her brain, although it might've been something else. "Dwayne, you didn't... you didn't KILL your brother, did you?"

I shook my head (again, failing to realize she couldn't see me do so): "No. Nuh-uh."

"You sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure. Damn sure. Why'd I want to kill my bro? He only fucked my wife, it's not like he... lik he, uh.... yeah, I buried him in the backyard. Why?"

She burst into tears. I tried to caress her, and from over the phone I'm sure you can imagine it looked migty perverted. "C'mon, honey, it ain't all that bad. Look, if it'll make you feel any better we can bring him back. I mean, the government just cloned a sheep AND a monkey."

"(*sniff*-*snifff) What's that? (*sniff*) The government can clone his monkey?"

"No! Well, yeah. Actually, he can have a couple winky-dinks if you tip the genetic eingineer in a subtle wink-wink kinda way. You know?"

"Honey, I can engineer your brother so he's better than when I first met him! This si great! Science has brought us so far!"

"Wait a minute, why should that blind arrogant fuck get a better body? He deserves being in a shallow grave! If anyone deserves a better body its me!" So I shot myself, but before I realized it would be mighty hard to clone myself after havig been dead.

Dammit, I always think of things too late.

Oh well. Better luck next time.

 

[timmaytoo]

i really think you are trying to preach to the wrong person. i am, a firm believer that the world itself is the biggest learning experience. I think 1 year out on your own is equivalent to 4 years of university! but what i am trying ot say is that school is an amazing thing...and you are trying to shit on it......how are you going to say learning in a school is a bad thing!?!??!?!
my biggest problem with this thread is really just the fact that you feel that school is a useless tool! yes the world has a "world" to offer, but so does school and you cannot deny that....i do feel that the modern man dedicates too much of their time in a classroom or an office. i feel that we have no freedom anymore, that our lives are previously structured before we even start it. But i also feel that we need school as a human race, that it teaches us or rather, shows us what we can achieve in the real world...i think there needs to be a balance and right now in this world there isn't balance all our focus is on tangible things and that is so sad...school to me should be a place of intellectual growth and should be balanced with real world situations...which it isn't because everyone else works! the world is too damn corporate and it is soo sad to see what it has become. but on the other hand it isn;'t all that bad either....it could be a lot lot worse.....i guess we can never really have our cake and eat it too......no such thing as a utopia....thus far anyway! maybe one day we'll figure it all out once we overcome our desire for materials and class and start focusing on what really is the quality of life.
thanks

 

[Temporal Incident]

^ok.....so we were pretty much in agreement already. lol

you just need to read up a lil bit on the origins of compulsory public schooling is all. that shit is VERY eye opening.....
you will get so goddamn angry that you will shit yourself

 

[Temporal Incident]

rewiiired: hah, that made me grin :D

 

[Psychedelics_r_best]

no offense man, but you are obviously one of those dudes that hates the system but never does anything about it.

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This very post is DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT

Open your fucking eyes, fool! We can only influence the people we come in contact with....

hmmmmmmmmmm. Your arguments are evidence against your arguments.