perhaps, more accurately, they assumed that he and his abusive classmates were decent human beings.

also, I guess I"m just assuming (for the GED thing) that you're a reasonably intelligent person that had a decent education up until high school. I know I had advanced algebra in 8th grade (when I still gave a shit) and subsequently aced the GED when they kicked me out of school for not showing up.

I guess it would be a bit harder for kids that struggle with certain subjects (especially math which really seems to hamper some people.) But I wouls suppose that they'd have difficulty graduating in any way if they couldn't graps basic mathematical concepts.

(Then again this is America we're talking about, I guess they'll pass just about anyone so long as they put their ass in the seat.)

/rant
 

1) Yeah, the problem is that literally something like 500:1 instances of people faffing about on their phones versus actually doing legitimate things. I would need Excel and a graphing calculator to figure out the rough number of times I've seen people fucking around with phones in my high school years. I can count the number of times I've seen people using phones for legit reasons during the school day on my fingers and toes.

2) I don't know if you've noticed, but kids lie. A lot. If you go, "Hey, I need to call my granny who is totally sick", they're going to call bullshit on you, and 99% of the time, they're right.

3) Schools will make exceptions, as long as you can prove (usually through your parents) that you're not lying out of your ass.

Er, no. Fascism would be caning you if you badmouthed the teacher, not taking away your cellphone for whipping it out in class.

I'm not saying these rules are good or right, but they're a long way from being some kind of Orwellian plot.

That's literally what no one has actually said.

And seriously, dude, I'll try to change it in two years, when I actually can vote and do stuff.

This is an incredibly inaccurate blanket statement. I've had teachers who cared a lot, but were completely unable to do their jobs due anything from funding to just having to take care of over 300 kids.

There are people who care quite a lot, and it's pretty damn insulting to say that no one gives a shit.

And you can't just "change shit".

I'm curious, who is this hypothetical person you are talking to who has said this?

Fucking bullshit.

I've yet to meet a school administrator who did not give a shit. They may have been constrained by budget, rules, whatever, but they all were good people trying to do some good.

There are undoubtedly some not-giving-a-shit people in the system, just as there are "evil brainwashing fascist pig-dogs". Making a blanket statement about the people there, however, is incredibly insulting to people who actually try.

Again, there are some kids who may want water bottles, and that's fine. Then there are the other kids who bring in other stuff, outnumbering the water bottle people by a goodly amount, until eventually it seems like a pretty good idea just to ban drinks altogether.

This is a pretty shitty rule, but I can understand why.

And this is a bad thing? Uniforms aren't good, but encouraging students to actually act like a group of people is not a bad thing.

Huh? Since when have teachers had a lot of say in what the rules are? Rules are almost always county-based, which means your average teacher has almost jack-squat to do with coming up with rules.

Also, you might not be aware, but teachers are incredibly busy. They don't faff about a lot. I once found my Science teacher online at one in the morning busy grading papers.

Again, you're giving pretty much everyone involved in the entire thing way to little credit. I used to be that sort of kid, and I got a lot of help and special treatment. It wasn't enough, but that was entirely the system's fault, not any lack of caring on the part of the people involved.


EDIT: Or pretty much anything Funka says, anyway.

It's funny...

In my experience, teachers who were dicks to students usually had noisy, disruptive classes where nobody gave a shit about the work.

Teachers who acted like human beings usually had quiet, engaged students.

If you are going to act as someone who's enlightening 30 students for a period of 45 minutes every day, you have to act like a mature, respectable, courteous person. A raging idiot does not present themselves as an intelligent person, and students will rightfully disregard whatever bullshit they spew.

Honestly, most teenagers are not demonic idiots. They're not all geniuses, to be sure, but they're not all stupid, either. They can think critically. They don't need to have their hand held and you don't need to assume that they're out there to shoplift or gun people down or whatever. Most of them just want to enjoy their life.

Your whole "never having actually gone to high school" bias is showing.

If you assume someone is a decent human being you treat them like one, and probably notice when they are being abused, when they are being ostracized, and when they need help if you spend time with them every single day.

If you just don't give a shit you don't notice any of this stuff and the kid ends up feeling trapped and full of hatred for the world around him. He grabs a gun, hurts the people that hurt him, and then--more often than not--ends his own life because it is a load of shit and this was the only way he could figure to deal with it because no one took time to care about him.

I mean, sure, there might have been a school shooting somewhere that was an honest to god sociopath just having a good time.

But more often than not, no. It's the fact that no one gives a shit about anyone, and stricter rules make that worse, not better.

dude I went to highschool.

like, a few times.

High school kids are dicks.

But your example is missing a key element, the parents. It's not the job of public education to turn kids into respectable human beings, that's the job of the parents.

No amount of bullshit rules are going to turn someone into a murder. That takes a lot more fucking up than a confiscated cell phone.

Mr. Bookworm, a lot of Krylo's "Quit telling kids to just deal with it" statements could, hypothetically, be directed loosely at me, given my stances in earlier threads. I mean, it's really a self-defeating attitude to say, "I dealt with shitty, bigoted, racist, room-temperature IQ instructors and administrators for my school career; so kids shouldn't complain." But, the alternative of trying to change things will, as far as I can tell, still end in defeat. The only difference is in the character of the one who tries and fails versus the one who just doesn't try, but no one gives a shit what I do, so I don't try.

Even if he didn't mean to direct his statements at me, they do apply to me, so his "hypothetical person" does exist. I'm not happy about being that person, but that's just how it is. Incidentally, I am happy with the level-headed way Krylo responded to my unnecessarily combative post.

I really just want to see some of these booklets you guys are talking about. Seriously that shit is blowing my mind!

Hey well you're going to be seeing your girlfriend in five weeks right? I think she still has one of those lying around.

I might have one in my closet at home. I'll scan it for you if I do~

(not really, I'm too lazy for that)

The parents ARE a big factor in things, but during the school day, they're not around to protect their kids. That's the school's job at that point, and they're supposed to deal with harassment and other things. You're missing Krylo's point in that if a kid gets stomped enough and doesn't get help, he's damn well going to help himself like I ended up doing when my grade school career climaxed. Obviously, I didn't get a gun, but I busted some heads with my fists, and then I got in trouble, which was when my mom finally put her foot down and told them that if they weren't going to defend me, she was going to damn well ENCOURAGE me to defend myself and began our long legal trek with the district.