So… yeah… real life… etc… 😉
I know the feeling well.

OT: I received the e-mail notification on the comment. Real life is kicking my butt at the moment.

The education system in the West is only good at teaching people how to go to school. There’s a total disconnect between what you learn in school, and real life for no defensible reason. The classes people really need, like personal finance, are electives if they are offered at all. You are allowed to start voting at 18, but don’t have the skills to evaluate those who are running. The media have totally abrogated their educational function by offering two views on every issue with no analysis of the claims made, and fact checking.

The “experts” in every field that people see on the media are all compromised by conflicts of interest. There is no scoring system indicating how accurate their judgment has been in the past, and no review of why they are famous/noted/known-to-exist.

People come out of high schools with the primary goal of existence. They hope to continue their lifestyle with a minimum of effort and a maximum of wealth, who no idea what anyone actually does in the real world. Trying to deal with people in the computer science curriculum who think that writing code is real PITA, and not something they enjoy doing, but people say this is “the best field for future success” is totally frustrating. Trying to get through to them that if they don’t like writing code, or aren’t very good at it means that if they land a job they will hate it, but their chances of landing a job are minimal.

Education is wasted on students.

Oh… and yes, I did have a very healthy (generally healthy anyway) interest in ‘Girls’! Luckily for them, I had little time or any real inclination to really pursue that interest, to the disgust of a few. 😉 😆 Especially when most of the bobbleheads my age discovered I generally had more interest in their mothers (there were a couple of attractive single-mom’s) or women that age anyway! I discovered early that maturity and experience can make life a whole lot more interesting! 🙂 And… just for all you dirty-minded people with no lives, reading this… I do NOT mean the ‘sex’ part either. At least… not exclusively! 😉 😛

Miss Smith became the acknowledged expert on dealing with me. They tried it without the book. but I would get up to something that was usually, but not always, non-destructive, but was extremely annoying to people actually trying to take a test.

They had provisions for holding people back, but the rules precluded skipping grades. It was a huge waste of time, but I read a lot of decent books towards the end. The draw back was that my writing skills weren’t being developed at the same time. There was a lack of English grammar and composition books in my reading list.

I know what you mean, Hipparchia. There was a notation in my permanent record to give me a book to read when a test was being taken because I always finished early and would be a disruptive influence. I finished a lot of books during tests. My First Grade teacher, Miss Delores Smith, made the notation. I became aware of it about a decade ago when I ran into my Third Grade teacher.

The problem, CK, is that teachers are required to “teach the test” because the administrators have made the test the most important thing in school. It’s almost to the point that you can graduate if you pass the FCAT, even if you class grade is F because you never turn in any work. The kids who really want to go to college have to teach themselves, because schools only teach the test anymore. It is a totally brain dead situation, and the “conservatives” have a lot of damn gall complaining about it since it was their idea. Of course Obama is continuing the practice.

Any idea what might have been the issue with your site e-mail? I couldn’t see anything obvious at my end (all the logs relating to the system showed nada for your IP/domain). Ah, well… 😉 We continue onwars… 😀 (It’d be nice to find out what and where the problem lay though). 😉

Cheers, and thanks!