Ugh. I'm just gonna skip over all of the short posts that've happened since and focus on Billy's last flippin' huge one.
Schools vary from place to place, yes, but to a great extent, the public education system is the same wherever you go, so, yes, it can be generalized. As Mr. Richter, my stalkee puts it, "sit there quitely, and I will generalize for you."
It's a $150 bill per parking space here. We've been protesting it for years, petitioning, yadda yadda, but in the end, everyone ends up paying it and that just perpetuates it.
And yes, it is up to a school to supply its student body with the education it deserves - including the arts. You act like everyone can afford to just go out and fund themselves in whatever activity they like, but they choose not to. That may be the reality in most of Connecticut, where I like, MA, where you live, and a decent percentage of the population of the U.S. Have you
seen the prices of decent painting and crafting supplies? I know you're a musician, so you should know what instruments cost. My flute is a cheap generic brand, only gold & silver plated on nickel (if you know anything about flutes, you'll know that's a cheap makeup; decent flutes are solid silver or gold alloy) and even it cost over $400. Not everyone can afford to go out and pursue their interests for simple financial reasons. That's why FAPE exists and why I feel schools are failing us in the budget cuts.
And for the record, I am thoroughly opposed to any school system which admits otherwise capable students who are so estranged from the idea of art that they can't draw a straight line given a ruler, pencil, and paper. That's just plain wrong.
By not exploring deeper meaning, I refer to the simple fact that when prepping students for standardized testing, teachers have a tendency to cram information down the throats of students just to make sure they "know" as much as possible - remember, standardized tests don't require backup, for the most part, they're just multiple choice. And for the record, multiple choice shows nothing but the ability to regurgitate facts like a robot. In math, it's one thing, since you only need to be able to use formulas, but in English classes, with all of their nuances, you might as well try and quiz students in phys. ed. by their success in picking up a paper clip. It's meaningless.
You know, I actually have known a few teachers who prep students for timed writings by teaching them to write the driest piece of writing known to mankind: the jock essay. That's the sort of lack of exploration I mean.
Anyway, I didn't mean to imply that athleticism was materialistic. It's just pointless in the scheme of things. It's one thing to work out to stay healthy and improve the condition of your life, but I find the idea of kids bashing each other up in a football tackle, starving themselves to make weight on a wrestlign team, or similar things on the sole basis that a college might recruit them, where they might later be signed multi-million dollar contracts to play professionally and bash in even more people's skulls for the entertainment of the masses... well, to be plain old idiocy.
The idea of school, supposedly, (and we've been over this, but whatever) is to produce knowledgeable, well human beings with a good grasp of morals and the ability to function in society. If you've studied the basic aspects of overall wellness, you'll know that spirituality (not religion, religion is to spirituality is what a square is to a rectangle; it's just a specific type) is one of the most overlooked aspects of wellness. In order to keep yourself stable in all aspects of your health, a certain amount of sprituality, a creative interest, purpose, meaning, whatever, is required. Schools tend to ignore that. And before anyone jumps on me for being overly pro-religion, I'm an athiest. Just because I don't subscribe to a religion and I don't believe in God doesn't mean I can't understand and appreciate the importance of some form of spirituality.
I don't really look down on jocks and clique girls; I just don't believe in their methods of going through life. I'm entitled to think they're wrong, just as they're entitled to think I'm wrong, but the difference is that I don't get in their faces, humiliate them, taunt them, or talk about them behidn their backs. Frankly, it's been years since anyone's bothered to pick on me (it has happened in the past, but that's all done and gone); they've learned by now that I'm too confrontational to bother with, but I see it all around me, every day. And compared to other schools I've seen, Barlow is downright cute and cuddly.
You don't know me very well if you think I'm the type to run around and compliment
anything. I just don't. The only fashion I give a damn about is my own, and even then, I'm so lax about it you'd never notice. Outside of cosplaying, my standard attire is whatever I saw first in the closet when I woke up. Half my pants are too short and I don't care one shred. Redheaded Being keeps harassing me about it, but I honestly don't care. So no, before you get on my case over picking on people who are too obsessed with shoes and purses, I also don't liek it when people are overly worried about their latest punk ensemble, complete with pink fishnets. Cosplay is a different matter; it exists as the art of
costuming. If I need to point out the difference between fashion and cosplay, my point is lost, but there's a solid difference.
I'll ask you this: where do children learn the basic life skills they'll need through the rest of their lives? Where do they learn to share, to care about the feelings of others, to follow rules (when it is appropriate), and so on?
And now I will tell you: they learn it through play. When they start building things with the pretty primary-colored wooden blocks in their kindergarten class, they start learning life skills. Take that out of the kindergarten curriculum in favor, of, say, more reading instruction, and you will not only have a) bored kids, but b) kids who fail to develop crucial skills. I'm not referring to anything like the necessity of extracurriculars (you know by now that I'm opposed to athletics programs as they are today), I'm talking about cocurricular activities. Things that make kids learn.
*sigh* you do realize that drug abuse is not an acceptable criteria for being placed in special education classes, don't you? If anything, the larger percentage of druggies is due to the fact that the poor kids are so depressed that they make the horrible decision to drink or smoke or snort whatever because they don't know what the hell else to do.
You're partially correct: it is no longer the 18th century. It's the 21st. That said, human nature is still human nature. We still pick on people who are different than us. It's an automatic reflex, an impulse which most of us instinctively fail to control. It just happens. That's why hate crimes still exist, why we still have genocide and war and radical Arabic terrorists car bombing innocent people. It's why kids pick on other kids. It often happens without us even knowing we did anything. Point is, it happens.
You don't think charging students $150 for parking to replace bathroom soap dispensers that work fine with different soap dispensers is exploitation?
I would tend to say that whether or not you become more controlled as you grow up is really a matter of what you choose to do. It's obviously true up to the teenage years, beyond that it's all your choice. Obviously some people lose control of themselves the minute they get out of college. Others who may have been wild in their high school years mature a little and act responsibly. It's a matter of individuals. The only instance in which high school success creates adult success is if one manages to get a good grasp of themselves and build on that as they age. Otherwise, no, your assesment is wrong.
I do apologize for the "successful" inconsistency. The second should have been in quotes as well; I obviously can't define success for you since sucess is a very personal thing. Broadly, I would deem it a sense of self-satisfaction, but that's only my interpretation; it has no justification to anyone but me and perhaps people who think along the same lines as me.
Vegetarianism is unhealthy. Veegans are even worse off. Meat is
good for you. Eat it.
As for your HotTopic issues, I have only this to say: that's why we have lawyers and a legal system. Argued correctly and given time (nothing happens overnight
), that could produce a massive settlement or damages payment that'll pay for all the tours and merchandise production they could want, even after legal fees. They just need to go about it the right way. Having people steal CDs does little more than let a few people have free CDs and possibly get in trouble with the law. Big whoop that is. It's not their fans job to get arrested because HotTopic is screwing the band. If anything, they should have their fans work to help in a legal battle against HotTopic.