School only kills creativity if you let it. Unfortunately, in general, to really succeed at school (and I say 'at school' to mean school as a system), you
cannot take risks. It's a simple transaction: You give us your
time (and that is really what you are giving up) and we give you a good grade. Points off for deviating from or questioning the standard model.
I just graduated high school. My English teacher, who's class I found interesting most of the time, said for a final grade: memorize 25 lines of Shakespeare and recite for an A.
Fuck that, I'll go learn C or something. (To his credit, he didn't count the grade when I flat out refused to do the assignment)
School, for the most part, is about memorizing and convincing teachers to give you a good grade. That's all it is. It's a game where the goal is to get the highest GPA regardless of what it's supposed to represent. Every one once in a while, I would get a teacher who understood that the purpose of school is education, that students are there to learn. Definitely those were my favorite classes.
And while we're talking about schools I'd like to rant about AP Computer Science:
I find it offensive that they actually have the balls to call it 'Computer Science'. I took the AP test, got a 5. It should be called "Can You Recall Some Peculiarities of Java Off Hand?". Thousands of kids have taken this class, they've memorized a few facts about Java, and now they think that's what Computer Science is all about.
I just graduated high school. My English teacher, who's class I found interesting most of the time, said for a final grade: memorize 25 lines of Shakespeare and recite for an A.
Fuck that, I'll go learn C or something. (To his credit, he didn't count the grade when I flat out refused to do the assignment)
School, for the most part, is about memorizing and convincing teachers to give you a good grade. That's all it is. It's a game where the goal is to get the highest GPA regardless of what it's supposed to represent. Every one once in a while, I would get a teacher who understood that the purpose of school is education, that students are there to learn. Definitely those were my favorite classes.
And while we're talking about schools I'd like to rant about AP Computer Science: I find it offensive that they actually have the balls to call it 'Computer Science'. I took the AP test, got a 5. It should be called "Can You Recall Some Peculiarities of Java Off Hand?". Thousands of kids have taken this class, they've memorized a few facts about Java, and now they think that's what Computer Science is all about.