[Neraphym]

There are many aspects of schools that really need to change in order to make our system more efficient. First on my list is reading class. They do the worst thing they can possibly do for this class, make kids read crappy books. By forcing kids to read these poor, horrible books, they force the kids to develop a bad attitude towards reading. Reading can be really fun, but schools obviously don't want kids to have fun, so they assign hard-to-like-to-read books. Last year, my school had me read the Grapes of Wrath. This is a horrible book (some liked it, but the majority of my school absolutely hated it). What makes this book so bad, is this: Its long, there's no plot, nothing good happens, it has an unhappy ending (only Shakespear can pull that off, idiot Stienbeck), and theres way too much pointless symbolism in it. The book is roughly 700 pages about how a family gets screwed over by the great depression... yawn. I'm going to tell you the ending (if you ever have to read it, you'll thank me). They all fail to find work and are nearly starved to death when it ends. Boo-hoo, my brain was starved for inteligent literature when it ended. Pick a better classic that people will enjoy reading more, like To Kill a Mockingbird, or Cather in the Rye. Oh wait, those have 'bad' words in it. God forbid we get rid of all the good books we should be reading because it has the N-word in it. Instead, will hook kids to reading by having them read processed dog poop.

Next is gym class. In my state, it is required by state law that you take 4 years of gym to graduate. BS. Gym teaches you absolutly nothing worth knowing. NOT A SINGLE PERSON WILL EVER BENEFIT FROM THEIR EXPERIENCES AT THROWING A RED BALL AT A FAT KID! Gym is pointless, you learn nothing, you accomplish nothing, and you are forced to take it. It should be done away with immediately. In my school, its worth 1/4 of a credit (4 years makes it 1 full credit). There is no Honors or AP gym, so do you know what that means? If a really smart kid that is taking all AP courses and is forced to take gym, this can actually HURT his GPA, something infinitely more important than gym. The way gym is graded is also horrible. In my school, its graded purely on participation, which is subjective to your gym teachers discretion (I'll go more into this later). Gym should be made optional, as no one benefits from it and it more oftens hurts. In my case, if I didn't have to take gym, I would have been capable of graduating next year as a junior.

To end this session of my rant, I'll go back to a point I mentioned earlier: participation grading. Teachers abuse their ability to grade on participation, which should not only be done away with, it should be illegal. Instead of grading based on a students ability, teachers can award/take points from their grade. This means a teacher can effectively fail a student he or she dislikes (it has happened in my school). This is obviously wrong, as it endangers a student's future. I've lost a letter grade on several occasions because of this. My teacher made a huge mistake in grading my test. I didn't follow directions that were conspicuously absent on the test. They were given on a day I was absent, and there was no way to find out about their existance without already knowing of them. I checked our student handbook, and I was in the right. Because I was right and I decided to stand up for myself, the teacher took off 20 participation points (4 percentage points of my grade) because I justly defended myself.

To cap it all off, do away with gym, participations points, and let us read good books.

[Goku]

Hmmmmm..... I agree with you on everything except one thing. I do agree that there should be good books so kids acutally like reading (which I don't lolz) and participation points are only good in gym.

Which brings me to the gym part. Gym isn't required to be taken all 4 years in my school. Only physical fitness which is only 1 semester long. Now I actually think you should be required to take gym at least once a year. I do see how it can hurt a smart kid's GPA, but just like the other debate, obisity, kids need to get more active. If they take away gym, thats not good. I could see if you had all other AP classes and didn't want to take gym to take another AP class so it wouldn't hurt your GPA. Yet I don't think that everyone should be able to choose if they take gym or not. Even if you are fit and in great shape you should still have to take gym. And plus it's a blow off class and it's fun, why wouldn't you want gym?

This post has been edited by Goku: 25 May 2004 - 08:59 PM

[Neraphym]

1. I think you got this, but others might not have. I'm not doing away with gym, just making it an option rather than manditory.

2. Gym is not fun in my school. The teachers are awfull (one, who was a really jerk, got fired last year for posessing kiddy porn). Another is a stupid football coach and a sexist feminist (redundant ). With crappy teachers like these, it isn't your fault if you get a bad grade in gym, nor does it mater for most people.

3. Obese people shouldn't hurt skinny people. Why force skinny people to do this just because obese people need it (Killer's splenda arguement).

[Goku]

A. If you want to get the obese in shape and make gym manditory, do you really think a kid that is overwheight is gonna want to take gym electivley? I don't, I mean if I was fat, I wouldn't want to be running around and playing sports and stuff so thats why it should be manditory at least 1 semester a year.

2. I agree and thats just creepy

3. I do agree on how obese people shouldn't be making the skinny people take gym if they dont want to but I can't really relate since my gym teachers are awsome and I looove to play sports.

I got senior year planned out lol
Gonna be just about all gym classes


EDITNESS: Just noticed only you and me debating this lolz

This post has been edited by Goku: 26 May 2004 - 01:26 AM

[Killerconvic]

[ticktockclok]

Had to agree with Killer 99%. He was sort of sterotyping against jocks though......

The kid I think will go farthest in life gets straight A's, is really popular, makes every team, no kids hate him, teachers pet.

And he's a friend.

[©allum]

OK,

Gym sounds pretty horrible in the US, here it isnt bad. Sure, we need to run like 3km every week and the sports are often crap (This term we're playing volleyball with the "special" students, [at my school you are placed in bands. these range from 911 to 933 with several classes in each band eg. 914 and 926. I'm in 911 and we play against 932]and they are very good at volleyball.....) But I really dont mind it. Even though I doubt anyone will make a career of it...

Also- What's a jock?

[Goku]

A jock is a person who plays all sports and sterotypically they are dumb. A lot of my friends are but their not dumb..


And gym in US isn't bad, mine is actually fun. Just I think that Alpha's gym is horrible, well at least the side that hes telling us

[Ninten]

[Crescens]

Gym - In my school system, two semesters of Gym are required. This is understandable. I don't know why four years (eight semesters) would be required. However, I still think that Physical Education should be required. Believe it or not, balance between body and mind is important in life. It's not just about being fat or skinny, it's about understanding the need for exercise. People that exercise generally live longer. If your body dies, is your mind going to just stick around? No. People need to learn how to eat right (we also require one semester of Health Education) and how to exercise properly. This will help them to become more balanced people and live a longer, healthier life.

Books - I've read a fairly broad spectrum of the types of books mentioned. Of the opinions, I have to agree with Killerconvic. To Kill A Mockingbird was a horrible book. First of all, it was outright boring, and contained one-dimensional characters with almost no depth to them. It takes place during the Great Depression, and contains so many ideas of racial prejudice throughout it. Also, books like that are clearly a bad influence upon students. My school is much like the way Killerconvic described his, in which racism is frequent and effectively hurts all races. Books like To Kill A Mockingbird do NOTHING to discourage racism, and only encourage it further by constantly reminding people that race is a primary factor making characters in literature different from one another. Race is NOT A VERY BIG DIFFERENCE, contrary to what many believe. In a school where racism is already blatant, you really don't need to teach students to become racists. A book like Of Mice and Men, however, can teach students real lessons, such as that the retarded do not necessarily understand their own actions or the consequences of such actions. However, despite this, it is inevitable that they must eventually be held accountable for such actions. (See other topic for more information.)

Other stuff Killerconvic was talking about - Racism is still a very big problem. However, nothing is being done about a lot of this. People that talk about a "test score gap" are the absolute worst. By constantly reminding people of how they stack up to other people of their own race and of other races, you are effectively forcing racist opinions to develop. Affirmative action programs are half the effective cause of modern racism.

[Neraphym]

I'm gonna say very little more about racism. I couldn't tell you much because I live in a 99.8 percent white community (more asians then blacks). I just think that Affirmative action is pure racism. From what I see on TV and in the news, it's socially acceptable for blacks to be racist, yet the worst attrocity on earth for a white person to be racist. Humans are way too fickle. I say kill them all.

About exercide and dieting, we have another class called health. You do that stuff there, which I agree, is necessary to know. In gym we learn about the same 4 sports every year: pickleball, basketball, tennis, and volleyball. They also make you take swimming (poor ventilation + chlorine + hatred of getting wet 1st period + athsma = doctors excuses by the hundreds). Tons of us skip swimming. I can't breathe in the pool area either, so I just didn't take it. I suppose it'd be fun if I could stand it. Gym used to be fun, but they really ruined it in our school.

Killer, I haven't read any other Stienbeck book. I hear they are great, but GOW was a turn off. I'm not saying the others were bad, though. Maybe the reason I liked TKAM was because I saw the movie first. I really liked the movie because it starred this guy: http://maddox.xmissi....cgi?u=real_men

[Killerconvic]

It is socially acceptable for blacks to be racist, because blacks always have slavery to fall back upon. They were disciminated against for centuries in the US, so it's "their time" to take it out on "the white man". (Maybe too much Undercover Brother )

Jeez. You are so rich. Pool in your school? My school doesn't even have ceilings that don't leak..

[Ferret Overlord]

Ugh... Don't get me started on reading. We had to read Jacob Have I Loved. It's about an emotionally stressed girl that lives in her own little world, completely hating almost everyone. Now, this book wasn't exactly younger age reading, as for the fact that there was breast feeding in detail, and preaching about under and overworlds. Now, I'm reading a book at lunch, MAGIC: The Eternal Ice. It's about 7th grade reading level. I'm reading it at lunch, and the vice principal comes over and reads a few lines. I was at the point where limbs were being hacked off in a war against Cadavers. So the vice principal tells me, "I don't think that book is appropriate for school."

... .

This is showing they want to drive us away from enjoying reading to ripping our hair out. I found an extra copy of Jacob Have I Loved in my locker today during locker cleanout. Want to know what I did? I took a match to it and burned it. It was that horrible. It's sad.


As for gym, well, I enjoy it. Gym is an excuse for recess, because giving middle school kids recess is like saying "Go out and buy some drugs!"
In our gym, we are given a choice of what we want to do, which probably explains why I want to keep it. Our PE is rated #1 in our district. Cycling, softball, hockey, tennis, capture the flag, anything you can imagine (for PE). Then again, people in hockey are becoming total jerks. I'm about to quit if there aren't some changes. People are literally acting like it's the NHL. WTF?!

[Killerconvic]

[Ferret Overlord]

No no no... I mean, people are cursing at me when I tell them to follow the rules.
Trust me, hockey is competitive is enough. If that's "competitiveness", I'd rather be timid.