Break the Silence with a Song

forevercryingbecausemerlin:

“mum I’m moving to finland” “okay”

(via rosebadwolf-tyler)

thedyketheywarnyouabout:

hellfirehotchkiss:

embersalamander:

ivyblossom:

captaincodyfalcon:

witchyroses:

dreamingofastronauts:

a-lonely-stoner:

We’re not learning, we’re being trained.

For real though, we are. All school is is teaching you how to behave in a socially acceptable manner. I learned all about it in a teaching class.

That last comment is such a mind-numbing paradox that i have no idea what to do.

Fuck school.

I work with someone whose dissertation revolves around the fact that classrooms are set up like non-con BDSM situations.

• there are different rules in a classroom than there are in real life;
• you have to ask to go to the bathroom;
• You need permission to speak;
• instructor gets upset if your mind happens to wander;
• you may only use your own property in ways they want you to (no facebook, email, etc.);
• instructors set difficult tests and then get a kick out of watching students struggle as they take them.

She’s really interesting to talk to, let me tell you.

I wish there were safe words in school u.u

I feel like schools are only set up this way because education is not optional so people have to be coerced into the learning environment

If you could choose what you wanted to learn or if going to school at all was optional then none of these rules would be necessary  That’s how college used to be before society gradually put more and more pressure on going to college, and it became just as structured as public schools.

Our society puts so much emphasis on the standardized set of information, when it should really be encouraging people to spend time working on things they enjoy. Grade school should be a time for socializing and gaining basic information everyone needs like writing and simple math. Late grade school to high school should be about exploring different subjects so that you can decide what things you’re interested in. And then college OR trade school OR internships/apprenticeships should be your next stop.

How it works now is that you learn basic things in grade school, and then high school is a tedious repetition in more detail that gives the illusion of studying different fields but it actually puts more emphasis on certain things and forces you to gain an in-depth understanding of shit you don’t like or care about. Then you got to college and spend two years doing THE SAME FUCKING THING. And at some point halfway through your required classes you’re expected to know what you want to major in, and then, finally, you learn shit that means something to you for two years before being DUMPED into the real world.

And the WORST part is that most classes in highschool teach information, NOT SKILL SETS! I took only ONE class in high school that helped me at all in that regard, and it was a resume-building class where I actually learned a decent amount of information. But where was my public speaking class in high school? Where was my work environment and networking class? Class on how to do basic household things, class on how to defend myself against dangerous strangers, class on how to do all the things I’m so clueless about because while they were ramming Catcher In The Rye and World War Two into our heads 4 separate times? Maybe they were there, but they got buried under the “important” subjects.

They’re all important and they all deserve and equal amount of time. History is important, but we don’t need four separate years of history if we only get one year or one half-year classes on important life skills.

Basic knowledge of history, literature, math, and science should be enriched by ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO READ MORE. Work time in school should be devoted to having people do what they’re good at and what they like.

ok idk why im making big rants at like 8:30 am bye

just a little thing: the “set time for eating” in my daycare is why I was dangerously underweight as an infant

Going back to the original comparison of school and prison, beyond the structure of time spent there being very similar, the buildings themselves are usually designed in very similar manners. In fact, some prison architects have designed schools based on their prison blueprints.

So not only do you feel like you’re in jail, it looks like it too.

(via theboondocksisters)

anescapedfish:

fattiesinlove:

sinusoidalsoup:

luipaardjack:

The False Promise of Back-to-School Commercials

From the comments:

If you asked scientists to design the worst possible system to educate masses of young people, they would come up with the system that much of the US has arrived at.

Drag them out of bed at 6am and send them home at 2:30, completely conflicting with their parents’ schedules and flying in the face of research that shows how much sleep kids need. Bonus points if some kids have their “lunch” at 10am.

Plop them in desks and force them to listen to adults of highly varying skill level who might have no idea how to hold the attention of 8 or 10 or 15 year olds. (In this case, blame it on the kids for being layabouts.) Even better, make these adults live in constant fear of unwanted reassignments, give-backs, or layoffs, especially the newest ones who may already be least equipped for success.

Convince the populace that teaching is a profession for losers who don’t deserve the middling salaries they already get. Extra points if you can build resentment toward teachers for having health benefits.

Resist efforts to identify the best performing and worst performing teachers. When such efforts are undertaken, use the most simplistic criteria possible, such as student performance on a small handful of arbitrary tests.

Focus all student effort on the material contained on those tests. At least 50% of this material should be a poorly-constructed, relentlessly sequential math curriculum with little to no articulated connection to the real world, and which ought to doom large swaths of kids to failure from the beginning.

Strip away physical activity, including gym class and recess, despite the fact that we know physically active kids do better. (Oh, plus that whole obesity epidemic, which might be effectively countered with a concerted effort to get schoolkids to be more active and learn basic fitness techniques).

Also, eliminate anything creative, such as art and music, despite the fact that we know these things are highly effective at keeping kids engaged with the whole school experience and getting them to do better in other subjects.

Cut budgets at every stage, from building construction to basic supplies, to the point that many schools are decrepit prisons with little natural light and not enough markers for the whiteboards. Very inspiring, very conducive to learning.

Divert a little bit of money to inflated salaries for underqualified administrators, just enough to get citizens to convince themselves that schools are awash in money and budgets need to be cut more. Make school budgets dependent on what citizens think of their local government’s performance on unrelated issues.

Then, when all of this has been accomplished, let the kids all go home for three months with virtually no attempt to encourage off-site learning or retention of previous material.

If your school is in a particularly low-income or high-minority area, this entire process should ideally be infused with an atmosphere of hopelessness so complete that people who haven’t witnessed it can not imagine the degree of despair that rules every day.

Bonus:

But if kids go outside, who will protect them against  the gaypedomuslimterrorist drug dealing bears?

I am speechless. Never have I seen this articulated so perfectly.

Reasons why I’ve seriously considered home educating and/or private schooling. 

Reasons why I nearly didn’t make it out of high school.

Reasons I didn’t make it out of high school (dropped out instead).