These kids whacked, or not?
Maybe it's me that's wierd, but....
Yesterday, after dinner we returned home with some friends for some drinks and more conversation, Julie and Rob have got two teenage boys, one starting high school. They happily told me they'd both be attending summer school. My first response was "umm... but I thought they got good grades?" Rob tells me they go because they like school, including summer school, and want to be there, even in the summer when there are better things to do (including nothing!).
It's got me wondering: what kid likes school? It seems totally wrong to me.
I went to summer school once. A component of my grade was the amount of time I attended. I kept close track of my grade through the last assignment, and walked out at the time on the last day that I would get out as soon as possible and still get a passing grade. Yeah, that's the type of student I was. I remember doing everything in my power to avoid spending extra time in a classroom: stayed out of detention, and passed my classes (mostly) even though I didn't care about them.
For a long time, I thought I hadn't learned anything in school, but then I realized I learned two things in high school: How to look someone in the eye and say "f*** you" with feeling, and that authority figures are often total morons and should be questioned. Good lessons, yeah, but did I really need to spend 4 years learning it?!
So are his kids whacked, or am I?
Yesterday, after dinner we returned home with some friends for some drinks and more conversation, Julie and Rob have got two teenage boys, one starting high school. They happily told me they'd both be attending summer school. My first response was "umm... but I thought they got good grades?" Rob tells me they go because they like school, including summer school, and want to be there, even in the summer when there are better things to do (including nothing!).
It's got me wondering: what kid likes school? It seems totally wrong to me.
I went to summer school once. A component of my grade was the amount of time I attended. I kept close track of my grade through the last assignment, and walked out at the time on the last day that I would get out as soon as possible and still get a passing grade. Yeah, that's the type of student I was. I remember doing everything in my power to avoid spending extra time in a classroom: stayed out of detention, and passed my classes (mostly) even though I didn't care about them.
For a long time, I thought I hadn't learned anything in school, but then I realized I learned two things in high school: How to look someone in the eye and say "f*** you" with feeling, and that authority figures are often total morons and should be questioned. Good lessons, yeah, but did I really need to spend 4 years learning it?!
So are his kids whacked, or am I?
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If you whacked his kids, you should be put away.
D.0 -
i had to go to summer school once, and the school was about 2.5 maybe 3 miles from my house, family went on vacation, while i sat in summer school, but the bummer was, no bus fo summer school, biked there and back every day for about a month and a half maybe 2 months. his kids are whacked, summertime is for looking at pretty girls in bikini and thongs at Clearwater beach! 0 -
If they are getting college credit for it, I'd say smart decision.....I doubt they are though 0 -
My oldest daughter went to summer school during her junior and senior years in high school and earned college credit. This helped her to get the mandatory arts and humanities course work [xx(] out of the way so that she could concentrate on her engineering studies [:D]. I spent my summers helping my old man in his plumbing business...I'd have loved to have gone to summer school instead! 0 -
I never had to go, never went. But I did love school, enjoyed the classes, enjoyed the girls, summer school would've been great. I didn't even know it existed at the time, so I had to waste my time fishing and biking with friends all summer. Drat.. 0 -
Whacked, if not required, IMHO![8D] 0 -
It's California. Maybe they're just GOOD THINKERS. [:D] 0 -
those kids are strange that's for sure, but it takes all types to fill the highways remember. 0 -
There's no way I would be in summer school let alone out of choice. They're crazy. 0 -
Yeah, that's pretty wacky. I hated every day of school and certainly wouldn't go unless I had to. 0 -
I suspect Julie and Rob's last name is Flanders and Marge and Homer live next door to them. If these teenagers are studying english, math, and science because it's "fun", I see a large waste of time and money. If they are taking other classes at a community college that cannot be taken at the local high school, then I can understand extracurricular hobby learning. It would be more useful than band camp. 0 -
Easy there, Captplaid....
My daughter genuinely loves school, likely because she goes to school in one state, where she has friends and social contacts for 10 months out of the year, and lives in another.
She is beginning her sophmore year in the fall, and is being recommended for college courses.
She isn't brilliant, she knows she has to work for her grades, but she does the work.
She enjoys and accomplishes in the acedemic environment, I encourage it.0 -
No, they're not whacked...
They're going to be called "successful" when they grow up.0 -
those creepy bas****s, what the hell is there problem, i hate school, summer school would have to be just as bad, def. whacked 0 -
So kids are whacked because they are inteligent enough to be working toward their future????????? My son acquired sophmore status in his second semester of college and his cousins all entered college as sophmores because of advanced placement and college credit courses. None attended summer school but if you want to make room for college classes in your last two years of high school taking summer classes helps. Besides, around here they are done before noon anyway (sunmmer) leaving the rest of the day to work or goof around. 0 -
unless they are taking college classes for dual credit, whacked.
Funny thing is I hated high school. Too many stupid rules designed by fools behind closed doors. You can't leave the dang room even if all assignments are completed and you have nothing left to do but bang your head into your desk. etc.
I liked the more interesting classes, but hated the high school atmosphere.
That being said I loved college as soon as I got there. A lot more freedom and responsibility [:D]0 -
they're pulling your leg. the kids have to go, but marge and homer er, julie and rob told them to say that to their guest. 0 -
I cannot remember one time I wanted to go to school.
I probably could have been succesful if I would have liked school more. naAAAAH!0 -
I see a trend in the responses here. I can predict whether a person liked school, and therefore succeeded, or didn't like school and maybe succeeded, and maybe not.
All depends on your definition of success!0 -
I never could see how I would be harmed by having additional knowledge. It would seem to fit right in with the oft here repeated idea of having a gun and not needing it as opposed to needing a gun and not having it.
My dad took a class on fuel cell technology when he was 94. He couldn't see how he was hurt by having the knowledge either. Maybe the desire to learn is part of the reason why he's still sharp as a tack now at age 96. Thought processes are like muscles, if you don't use them, they atrophy.
Kudos to the kids for making an effort, as opposed to the ones we complain about so frequently as being part of a lost generation. There are still lots of good ones out there, if you give them a chance.
I'm not so sure that there isn't more hope for them than there was for my, the "Baby Boomer" (read, spoiled and selfish), generation.0 -
I am not saying I am against gaining knowledge.
I just hated the way school is taught.
I can say I loved metal and wood shop and I was always gaining knowledge in real life experiences.
The only difference between school taught people and self/life taught people is the school tells you when you are done.0 -
To a great degree, school is just a way to learn to avoid the mistakes other people have already made. It's not necessary to reinvent the wheel, let alone a bad wheel. Fire has already been discovered, so there's no need to fight that one either.
Life experiences have taught me plenty on the farm and in the financial markets, but I'm glad school shortcut a few of them for me. I don't always have to beat my head into a wall.[:)]0 -
My son needs to work on a few things in school - math, penmanship, etc. but I refuse to send him to summer school. In fact, according to my eldest brother, his wife was fantastic in school. Straight A's and everything - at a Catholic school to boot! Yet, there she is, married to him, living 1/4 mile from her parents on land once owned by her parents just outside a small, dying town. She's a secretary at the local college. Summer school and grades do not equal financial independence or some peoples' measure of success. I say let kids be kids. They'll carry the summer experiences much longer than those from summer school. 0 -
When I was in Jr. Hi, I was told by one of my Favorite teachers that I had terrible handwriting, and that I needed to learn how to type...so, between Jr Ji and High School, I went to summer school (with all the Secretarial type trainees) to learn Shorthand for note-taking for me, and Typing, to get better marks on my papers. This was in the late 60s...OOOOOh Baby! I got to sit next to Sweet-Smelling, Nubile, Girls who knew that they had to look (and smell) good to survive in the Business world, and I really enjoyed it!!!
As noted by others, there was a Lot of Summer Day left after school every day, and I used it by asking girls out - usually struck out, but, like the Counrty Song Says, "some girls (did)" !! These were exactly the girls who didn't think they would be going on to College, and some were thinking to drop out of High School, so they were the "fun girls". And they were. Sometimes, you find a good vein that no-one else has mined, and you just have to work it!
So, I got extra education while I was in Summer School, and some more after school!! It helped me in other ways, too, as I was already "Known" in the cliques and clubs, before I entered High School - gave me a "Leg Up" on all the other boys in my class - I dated some of the "older girls" during my High School years.
Oh Yeah, the typing skills have really helped me in all my later life, too.
I subsequently took many "enrichment Courses" while in High School, managing to get all the local Junior college offered in the way of Computing classes - led to being the "Campus Guru" about Computers when I got to Military Academy - I got my own key to the computer lab (I was the only student with that priveledge for three years!) and got to work one-on-one with two different professors on computer and engineering projects - more learning that I gathered, all from the head start I got in Jr and High school.
Those kids are going somewhere...they are not whacked. Anyways, when you are that young, and male, it is good to have more time taken up with learning, and a little less available for shenanigans - which is where boys' thoughts turn when they are bored. I still had plenty time to find out about the fairer sex, still had plenty time to work a job, and get into trouble, still had time to go drag racing in other peoples' cars, still had time to try getting drunk with my buds, still had time for life. It was a good time.0 -
I got a word for kids that get good grades yet go to summer school.
"Boss"0 -
Maybe they had to go there to get their fix, cause that's where the druggees are. 0 -
I wanted to go to summer school, but I didn't have any shoes.[:(] 0 -
My oldest daughter id going to summer school so she will be able to get college credit for classes when she starts her junior year. Personally i think its a great idea since i won't have to pay tuition for the college classes while she is in high school. she will graduate from high school with a 2 yr degree. 0 -
I wish I would have been smart enough to go to summer school when I was in high school. Get some of my college units out of the way, but it wasnt cool to go to summer school. Many of my frineds, including myself were to busy with party'n and chasing the ladies. Summer school would have been smart but I have had some of the best time of life just hangin out under the summer night sky with no worries or stresses that go with school. 0
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