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DerangedUnit -> RE: College education. (4/16/2015 8:28:59 PM)
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I've always been very disconcerted by the education system(as with most "systems"). But the "why" is a rather long story...
I was home schooled my early years. Which mostly involved me learning what I wanted to, at the pace I wanted to. When I was 7(I think), my mother was running for city council and I asked if I could go to a "real school" mostly out of curiosity.... and this was before internet(well way before I knew of it anyway) and I'd read everything our small local library had to offer. She said if I could find a Christian school I could pay for to go for it.... and I did. I found a private school did the required testing to get a full scholarship(my mother running for office helped their decision I'm sure).
So the only decision left was what grade I should be put in, having come out of homeschooling it was supposed to be based of of the test results but I tested at college level which since it was a elementary school wasn't possible the excuse was made that "it would be better for me to be able to socialize with kids who hadn't gone through puberty yet" I was put in 4th grade in the second semester.
School wasn't what I expected at all, it was too slow and it seemed more about 'getting along' and 'togetherness' than learning. For middle school I found a school that was supposed to be harder but it was far and I had to begrudgingly keep a friendship that allowed me to carpool. I did like many aspects of that school though, they had a wonderful hands on approach. Our summer homework was gathering 120 species of insects to pin and label. Every week we had to memorize an entire chapter of the bible to recite in front of the class, and for midterm recite the entire book(I don't remember which... job maybe), we had a survivalist class, higher math courses(geometry, algebra,calculus) available for 7th 8th graders, and my favorite an extensive anatomy course that had multiple dissection projects.
The next year halfway through I was moved across country and into a public school for the first time. They refused to count any of my more advanced math and science courses because they aren't offered to middleschoolers there. I was put into classes that were the equivalent of what I had learned in 4th grade.... I slept through every course other than wood shop which I enjoyed greatly. I was the top student at the school.... they gave me a plaque for sleeping though months of my life.
I started high school and could finally take a courses I had already taken in 7th grade again, then I was moved across country again and my new school didn't have those ap courses so my credits were once again nullified and I was placed in the equivalentry remedial courses.
At this point I'd been taking the same math class I took in 7th grade for 4 years and hated the entire system, I showed up to take tests in my classes and that was it. I started working and was homeless at this time and my sister mainly depended on me for support some of my teachers were understanding and didn't make an issue of it.others gave me in house suspensions for every day I missed. A few months in and I had so many suspensions even if I went every weekend I still wouldn't be able to graduate.
So I switched to anot independent study school, you show up once a week to turn in work at your own pace.... I finished all the credits I had to make up from them constantly nullifying them, a year of not showing up to half my classes,and my 2 final years in 3 weeks.
After all that the idea of going back through the system seemed the worst possible choice in the world. I tested out of all the remedial courses and got offered a partial scholarship to one of the state universities but there was no way I'd be able to afford it, I was still too young to drive and I would have had to have a parent sign for it which wouldn't have been possible. But i wasn't interested anyways so it hardly seemed worth pushing the issue.
Neither of my parents finished high school and both made 6 figured so I never considered that college was necessary. It wasn't until a lot later when the economy crashed that I started feeling the repercussions of that choice. My business was organizing, and rich women weren't paying someone to make their shoe closets look pretty anymore. I started trying to find traditional work... you know for companies...
For a year or so it was really easy I kept doing me, moving around, switching jobs every time I got a better offer... then all of a sudden it all stopped. Everywhere I went told me they don't hire people who aren't in school or don't have a college degree. In the course of a few months I was completely shut out from places that would have been an easy in a short time before.
The biggest eye opener was when I applied for something I figured would be a shoe in. A seasonal busboy position specifically for the time around finals when other people were in school.... they needed someone who wasn't inn school yet the man doing the hiring told me they wouldn't hire anyone not in school.... I was completely baffled, and at that point I realized my choice not to go to school had completely screwed me.
I take free courses and watch lectures on subjects I enjoy.... those sites generally let you take the course for free,but if you pay for it it counts as college credit.the very idea that people can know the same thing, can be better students than others taking the same course, and their knowledge be considered worthless by the general public only because they didn't spend money to learn it.... disgusts me.
Eventually I'll have to figure something out and quit coasting but I'd prefer it be in the form of an apprenticeship actually learning something than paying someone to sign a paper telling me what I know. Who knows, I just passed the age where your parents income no longer factors in to assistance options so I might go against everything I believe in, swallow my pride, and just give in... but I don't want to think about that yet.
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