The nature of school.

[Sirrus]

Recently our guidance office has been talking my class's ears off about the joys of a good GPA and an outstanding college resumé. After putting some thought into it, I've concluded the following:

The ultimate aim of public schooling in the United States is to breed a model citizen and a person prepared to be both a productive member of society and positive member of the work force.

My thought process is this: If I went to class, listened to every morsel of information the teacher had to offer and absorbed it completely and tested perfectly on it. 98-100+% on every single test, quiz, and exam I took but didn't do a single piece of homework or any project at all I would fail miserably. However, if I did the converse and did every project and piece of homework but bombed every test I can almost guarantee my GPA would be higher than the perfect-tests-no-homework approach.

Ergo, test<homework.

While homework is part of the learning process for some, I think the ultimate aim of projects and homework are to present the concept of deadlines, schedules, and needing to work on something because of your own drive. Where do these skills come into use directly? The workforce.

If tests prove that you've learned the material and homework is to teach you skills valuable in the workforce, and homework is more important than tests, this means that workforce skills outweigh learning in schools.

In addition to this, it would be wholly inefficient to breed a society of individuals. This country would fall apart if every educated child was actually effectively taught to think for themselves.

Tell me what you guys think.

[Ad Bot]

[Inv3rted]

PROTIP: American public school system is broken and revolves around the concept that students are to be controlled and forced to do things.

That being said, the public schools are required so we don't have people teaching whatever the forget they want as fact. Basically, we just need to change the general way school works.

[Starcraftman]

My thought process is this: If I went to class, listened to every morsel of information the teacher had to offer and absorbed it completely and tested perfectly on it. 98-100+% on every single test, quiz, and exam I took but didn't do a single piece of homework or any project at all I would fail miserably. However, if I did the converse and did every project and piece of homework but bombed every test I can almost guarantee my GPA would be higher than the perfect-tests-no-homework approach.

Ergo, test<homework.

I agree with everything else you said, except what is in bold because that really depends on how the grading system works for your school. For example, the school system where I lives requires that tests and projects make up 50% of your grade for the class, quizzes and classwork make up 40%, and homework makes up 10%. Because of this grading system, even if the teacher makes a homework assignment worth 10000000 points and you get 100% on that homework assignment, it will still only be 10% of your grade for that class, so if you completely fail everything else in the class that is worth, say a total of 500 points, you would still fail the class because you only got a 10%. . This means that you have to pay much more attention to doing well on tests (Because you also cant retake them if you fail). The big problem here is that there is a much smaller incentive to actually do your homework because if you get lets say, a total of 89% in the other two categories, you would really only have to complete one or two homework assignments to get an A in the class.

[Tom]

-snip-

Pretty much. In our school it depends on the teacher. I think my math teacher weighs test to like 80% of your grade.

[Rughugger]

I'm going to agree with Inv3rted on this. The school systems are broken because instead of teaching kids at the highest possible level they can, they instead teach to the level of the dumbest kid in class. This doesn't allow for any growth or progress for any individual and holds them back. All in the name of being fair.

[Casio]

PROTIP: American public school system is broken and revolves around the concept that students are to be controlled and forced to do things.

That being said, the public schools are required so we don't have people teaching whatever the forget they want as fact. Basically, we just need to change the general way school works.

/Agree

[Joker Card]

I just got screwed over in my grades. 2 C's, 2 F's and a D

[Kyzor]

I'm going to agree with Inv3rted on this. The school systems are broken because instead of teaching kids at the highest possible level they can, they instead teach to the level of the dumbest kid in class. This doesn't allow for any growth or progress for any individual and holds them back. All in the name of being fair.

Such as the World Literature class that I switched out of mid-semester for the following reasons:

-The majority of the kids absolutely loathe the teacher (although she's not my favorite either)
-The majority of the kids are jocks/preps/Mexican (not to be tribal, but they're the kind of "wearing pants below waist, hair slicked back, cheap cologne wearing" types)
-Probably 85% of them don't give a stuff about their grades, so they talk constantly, which makes the teacher stop and give us a lecture for 5 minutes about not talking when she's talking.
-etc.

Hence why I'm now in an Advanced World Lit. class; I firmly believe most kids in advanced classes take their grades more seriously and don't forget around nearly as much in class.

[Sirrus]

Bump.

[Block Builder]

I can't stand doing homework. It takes 3 problems for me to understand how to do something in math but I simply get bored when I have 17 more to do and it's the exact same stuff. I have an 82 average even though I almost always get 95 or higher on my tests. You know why my average is low? HOMEWORK. Seriously...

[Solid]

I'm going to agree with Inv3rted on this. The school systems are broken because instead of teaching kids at the highest possible level they can, they instead teach to the level of the dumbest kid in class. This doesn't allow for any growth or progress for any individual and holds them back. All in the name of being fair.

This is why I hate having idiots in my classes. :(

[DrMobius]

Learning curves seem to be adjusted for average kids.  This is only good for average kids.  The smart ones get bored and stop caring, the dumb ones can't keep up.

[Rughugger]

I can't stand doing homework. It takes 3 problems for me to understand how to do something in math but I simply get bored when I have 17 more to do and it's the exact same stuff. I have an 82 average even though I almost always get 95 or higher on my tests. You know why my average is low? HOMEWORK. Seriously...

Wait til college, my friend. My GIS homework itself takes an average of 4-6 hours to complete and that's usually for 3-4 questions out of the book.

[Dr.Block]

I can't stand doing homework. It takes 3 problems for me to understand how to do something in math but I simply get bored when I have 17 more to do and it's the exact same stuff. I have an 82 average even though I almost always get 95 or higher on my tests. You know why my average is low? HOMEWORK. Seriously...

This.

Currently, my reading grade would be at about 97 or so due to how well I pay attention to the literature we read and retain a wide vocabulary that so far has contained more than half of the daily vocab words that none of the kids in class are expected to have ever even seen before. But recently my grade plummeted because of a big reading project that I turned in a day late that was worth 200 points. My overall grade will remain a 17 until I do the now mandatory (for me anyway) extra credit project, because my teacher has decided to grade my late project without deducting any points but it is counted as a 0 until I turn in my bonus project which, by the way, he hasn't assigned or even made up yet. And on a side note, according to my teacher I will get a 193/200 on the late project once my bonus one is complete.

[FlyGuy45]

In my math class:
Tests:75%
Extension Sets (Quizzes): 20%
Homework: 5%


Flawed logic is flawed.