Monday, November 13, 2006

High as a Kite...

Aw yeah, I finally decided to update.

Well, to start things off, I started a group wiki for my friends over at PBWiki.  By the way, it works as advertised: I really didn't hit a snag until i had to fandangle with their services which were still in beta (which is okay, since it's - durr- beta).  Seriously, the guys over at PBWiki are awesome.  Their explanations and FAQs and just about everything, even the CSS architecture has been put into language even the least 1337 can understand, so kudos.  They also actually read the email people send them, which rocks hard for an admin.  Anyways, the wiki is at http://lcwiki.pbwiki.com.  Lovely piece of work, if I say so myself.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Schools.

Today, I'm going to be utterly serious.

I think that the entirety of the American public school system, while noble in its attempts at creating a system whereby everyone is guaranteed an education, has fallen short of being a school system.

Yes, I honestly do believe in such a statement. It is saddening when most of the student body just really doesn't give a damn about life. Seriously, think about it. As many students can attest, the system is often poorly managed, and is quite frankly, is largely mismanaged. It barely has any redeeming value.

Firstly, the public school system is a paradox in and of itself, in that while embracing diversity, it demands bland conformity. While many would deny this, let's examine some facts. The average high school essay is a delineated mess that is nothing more than a set of sterilized restrictions on creativity. No wonder nobody likes to write the things: they are by design a way of forced data regurgitation. There's no real thought to it; just filling out a quota of words and sentences, sterilized grammar and spelling, nothing worth reading but to assess whether you have the memory of a robot. Also, there's nothing more unpleasant than noting that those hours of work which you spent studying and practicing are reduced to one minute's worth of actual reading, supplemented by a decision on an arbitrary 1 through 6 scale.

That's not to say that schools in America today happen to be totally useless; on the contrary, they still provide an adequate education. What I'm arguing is the idea that while a satisfactory high school education with a nice little deploma is amazing, if there is no social and moral development, it's worth jack.

End transmission.