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Showing results for tags 'opinion'.
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The education system is fundamentally flawed.
advocatus diaboli posted a blog entry in advocatus diaboli's Blog
The statement that is the title is an opinion. To determine if a system is flawed, the purpose of the system must first be established. Once it's established, and only then, can the determination be made if it's functioning correctly or not. So, this prompts the question: What is the purpose of the education system? To educate, of course! But the deeper and real question is, to teach what? Currently, the education system roughly works like this: Elementary school teaches you basic English and math skills. There's also basic religion thrown in there, physical education and... nothing else comes to mind from what I can remember. Science, I guess, but even then, nothing ground breaking. Secondary (high) school teaches you the foundation for advanced math, science (atoms, weather, etc then specializes in chemistry, biology and physics), more religion and English. These four subjects are the major aspects of these four years. The anchor subjects, if you will. Post-secondary teaches you (more or less - more on this later) the tools you need to be qualified for your chosen career. Elementary school, fundamentally, from a curriculum perspective, is more or less acceptable. The basics are there: reading, writing, addition/subtraction/multiplication/division - basic things you need to know to function in society. However, the problem with elementary school is that they coddle their students. I'll take my brother, for example. Let's call him John (not his real name, taken after John Doe). John is lazy, and doesn't do homework. John is in absolutely zero danger of failing his grade. The policy is not to fail students, because it 'hurts their feelings' and affects their self-esteem. Intention is good, I don't dispute that, but it's unrealistic. As a result of this policy, My brother's grown up in a bubble; he has no sense of failure, it's not something he's experienced before. If he doesn't hand in an assignment, the teacher will say something like this: "It was due last week, John. You really need to hurry up and get this project in to me." "John, you're late with your assignment. Once you get to high school, this will be unacceptable." There's no real incentive to do anything and there's no real understanding of the consequences of inaction. The words of the teacher fall deaf onto John and his peers. They nod, say okay and they understand, and they think they do, but they don't. They've never fallen before. They've never been told that they've failed something and need to deal with the consequences. They've always been caught before they hit the ground, whether they realize it or not, and are living in a false sense of reality. As I'm sure the readers of this are aware, the world does not catch you. This is setting up young children to have unrealistic expectations of life and is setting them up for catastrophic failure. Secondary school is a disaster, almost a complete waste of time. For anyone over the age of twenty, someone that may rent, have a job, possibly owns a car or even have considering owning a house, I ask you this: What have you learned from high school that helped you with these things? Personally, my four years prepared me for nothing. There was a half-semester of Careers (which, really, was a joke) and a half-semester of Civics. Both, in theory, are life-essential courses, but the curriculum foundation makes them a joke. Half a semester is several weeks, that's not a lot of time. Besides Careers & Civics, what is taught that's essential? Geography is arguable, you have a general sense of the world's politics and a rough idea where all the countries are. Math sets you up for higher-level courses (more on that later). Science gives you a general idea of how atoms work and elements, which is nice, but not something you need to know on a daily basis. World Religion is arguably relevant, but even then, it's falls in the category of Geography, which is "nice to know, but not essential". What is essential in secondary school? I struggle to answer that question. Besides the aforementioned Careers & Civics, I can only think of the Automotive class, which at least teaches you basic vehicle maintenance. That's something that everyone should know. What about English? That course doesn't teach you anything, besides trying to get you to think a certain way. English teachers are notorious for their "my way or the highway" way of thinking in regards to symbolism. If you don't interpret the piece in the way that they feel is correct, then you're wrong. This is so counter productive, it boggles my mind. One of the goals of high school is supposed to be to teach you to think for yourself, but this is accomplishing the exact opposite. On top of that, it's with the topic of symbolism. Symbolism is one of the most opinionated and subjective topics in the entire English subject. Symbolism is open to interpretation, that's the whole point of it. Secondly, in regards to English, the courses fail in the very name. In my post secondary education, there was a mandatory (required) English remedial class. The professor explained that there was so many complaints by other professors as to the state of the assignments being submitted, that this course had to be created and made mandatory. The second half was productive - showing us how to write various types of reports (it was a technical campus, associated with a university), but the first half was basic grammar. Literally, basic grammar and usage. We'd have a week dedicated for each topic and a quiz at the end of the week, to determine if we were proficient enough with the topic to not be required to go to extra seminars. Such topics included: commas, semicolons and when to type out or spell numbers. These are all things that should be taught in secondary or even elementary school. I won't even get into the tuition cause and issues associated with this. Another course that stands out in my mind that I took in post secondary was pre-calculus. The second time I took the course (don't ask), it all became so clear. The random and dis-jointed Math courses in secondary school were all coming together as the foundation to calculus. That made the struggles through those four years seem justified, almost. But, really, how useful is pre-calculus? I can't say that I use it on a daily basis. It's not something that a normal person uses in their day to day lives, besides really cheesy pick-up lines. This, to me, is a sign that the post secondary system is failing at their job: to make us the best possible person we can be in our chosen field. However, it's not really their fault, as they're picking up the slack from secondary schools. Secondary school is where the blame lies, squarely. Not solely, but significantly. The system needs to change, or it will become like the financial system in recent years, it'll crash in on itself. Much like the financial system dramatically affected society, so will this. A generation of young people is being unleashed upon the world that has no idea how to do basic things: buy a car, rent a house, get a job, buy a house. I was planning on including an example of a ridiculous mortgage offer from a bank, to prove that I wouldn't know if it was a ridiculous offer or not, due to the failure of my education system. The sad thing, though, is that it occurred to me that I don't even know enough about how mortgages work (and how to get one) to be able to come up with an example. That's pretty sad, isn't it? Note: My experiences are based primarily on the Ontario provincial education system. -
After a few rocky weeks, our lives are returning to normal. Well, normal for us. Two working adults, with one car, mornings starting at 4:45 AM. Two kids in high school, one with a job, the other with after school commitments until 9 PM. Weekends are full of their events, family time, household chores and on and on ad nauseum. People are often shocked at that. Well, yes, it seems a lot. But it’s normal for us. Normal, now there’s a word I’m not to sure about. What is “NORMAL?” We hear about “the new normal.” Kindergarten kids have lock down and active shooter drills. “Oh, well, that’s the new normal.” More and more people are utilizing food banks, and low income housing. “That’s the new normal in this economy.” But, they aren’t normal. They’re outside the norm, aren’t they? So, is normal a fluid concept? What was normal to our great grandparents during the Great Depression wasn’t normal to our parents in the 1960’s. And it sure as hell heck isn’t normal to this mom in the 21st century! And, the definition of normal is boring, and I mean like BOOORING!! Merriam-Webster says: conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle But who wants to conform to a norm, or a type? Why? Who wants this? Aren’t we all individuals? Why do I have to conform to some outdated definition of a word that changes its meaning. Okay, okay, I know there are societal norms that we all need to follow, you know, like wearing pants when you go out in public, and not talking with food in your mouth. But really? Who wants to be normal? I live near Austin. Their motto is “Keep Austin Weird.” There’s a statue going up of a homeless man known as Leslie, who roller skated all over town in a bikini, and ran for mayor 3 times.(He actually came in second once! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Cochran) I raised my kids constantly telling them that normal is overrated. And who wants lock down drills and not being able to buy your own home “normal?” Normal sounds like an insult, “Why can’t you like chocolate like a normal person?” “Why don’t you wear a dress like a normal girl?” “Normal boys don’t take dance class.” Normal sounds so blah. Normal sounds like average, like beige, the four door sedans of the automotive world. I don’t want to be average, or blend in. Now, I can understand the concept of NORMAL, as it relates to me and my family. But it’s really an illusion, isn’t it? Because MY normal isn’t YOUR normal and it’s not HIS normal. So why should this word be applied willy nilly to all things? Is there anything that is really NORMAL anymore? Was anything ever NORMAL? And is that good, or not? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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Recently i came across a story on a different site and liked it so i started reading more from the author. The site on which i was reading was a free site that operates on donations. When i reached a certain part in a story, it asked to go to the authors site for a special chapter. I did so. When i wanted to read the special chapter however i found out you had to be a member of the site. I went ok lets see if they offer free membership, turns out they dont. So i figured the special chapters probably has no bearing on the story. However as i started to read the next chapter it referenced a key event that happened in the special chapter. At this point, as a reader, i became a bit angry as if youre going to tease an special chapter you should tell us if it has any influence on the story. I felt cheated because it involved the engagement of two major characters and the next chapter its like oh yeah they got engaged. They also had a crossover between stories and would just say after so and so happened. They would make these allusions to events in the first chapter in each story involved after the special/cross -over happened. My question is as an author do you feel that it is right to do that to a reader just for the sake of money? And to readers how would you have reacted?
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So, I'm about to start a new series. For myself, I can tell what calls me the most when I read something... it happens when I identify myself with the characters, or at least with the character who's narrating the story... and also when it catches my attention. And you, what makes you like a story the most? I'd like to know... thanks =D
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So back when I was in high school, a writing teacher once told me to "Murder your darling." And she explained it as taking your absolute favorite part of a story or chapter, whether it be a phrase or a scene, or even your favorite character and axing it. She told me it was a surefire way to normally get a better story out of it. The way I see it, it's like Stone Soup. You start with the stone, but then after adding all the other ingredients, you really don't want to leave the stone in. No matter how appetizing it looks, or how the stone was what started the soup in the first place. I've stuck through this device quite faithfully over the years, and so far, it really has never steered me wrong. I've found that my 'darling' is typically the start of my inspiration, a word a sentence, something that starts it all. But that one sentence or phrase, by the time I'm done with the story, just doesn't fit anymore. It's the raw, unharnessed version of all the words that follow. Like, a neanderthal in 3155. But at the same time, it's incredibly difficult to look at that brilliant piece of raw inspiration and decide that it has to go. So I guess I'm wondering if other people do this, or if they think this is a necessary convention. Certainly no one would want to bite into a rock when eating soup, but it feels like such a piece of my soul, you know? Just something to get the creative juices flowing! MYIEGE
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Just some questions to throw out there. I know most of the seasoned authors here utilize the services of an editor. I haven't writeen with an editor in a long time before I started Her Name Was Umbrella and now I have found myself with both a beta and an editor. It's kind of exciting and I've missed having someone seriously scrutinize my work and give me serious feedback. Don't get me wrong, I love blatant praise as much as the next person in the reviews, but it's also really nice to know that someone cares about your work enough to say "No, this sentence does not make ANY sense and you need to change it so that it has the desired effect." Maybe not in so harsh of words. But now I'm working with an editor and I'm finding that I have a lot of questions about etiquette and such. It's so much different from working with an editor in person (where my experience with an editor lies). How many runs are typically appropriate? What's the typical expected turnover? Is it better to just have technical editing done or more intense hack and slash? Currently, I'm on two runs with about 24 hours of turnover. My editor and I are in different timezones so it ends up working out at about 24 hours. But for two runs of rather intense scrutiny (I wouldn't call it hack and slash, but it seems like it's pretty intense, I'll have to ask him about the workload), is 24 hours too short? It IS about a week between updates, but there are so many things that I'm just not sure about. Any tips or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!
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Hey guys. I'm not entirely sure I put this on the right part of the forum but I hope this is. Well, I'm still new around here and I started to think about lots of stuff I could write about. I love Twilight and Harry Potter, so the first thing I thought was "I'll make fanfics for those two". I really have lots and lots of ideas for both stories. New characters, new dramas, new stories. It happens that I think I still have to develop things better for the Harry Potter fanfic. So, I think I will start by writing the Twilight saga fanfic while I develop the Harry Potter fanfic ideas. But, I'd like to know your opinions. I'd like you to tell me if you'd read a Twilight saga fanfic. Also, is there any ideas you'd like me to develop and write on the fanfic? I'd appreciate you all for giving me a few hints. Thank you