Knowledge is Power

"Knowledge is power." -Francis Bacon

Coming from a household with two teachers as parents, education has always been an important part of my life. Unlike many kids that go through school, I enjoyed going to classes and I enjoyed learning. I give credit to the Washington Local School District for hiring teachers who made learning fun. I can honestly say that I don't believe I ever had one bad teacher until college. Maybe some weird ones, but they were still good educators.

College is a whole different ball park. Class participation in jr. high and high school was used to gage a student's interest. In college, class partcipation is just a section on a professor's syllabus, but has no real meaning to the class or your final grade. Very rarely does the class participate, and VERY rarely is there any student interest. Can you blame us? How are we supposed to stay interested in class when our professors stand at the front of the room and simply talk or read from the chapters. No visual aids, no group discussion, just, lecture. And it's not just like it's one class a day. Last semester I sat through three classes, from 8-12:30, listening to professors talk at me. Tell me that wouldn't put you to sleep.

What has our education system come to? Let me tell you...

We constantly hear about how education in the US ranks so low compared to that of other countries. In order to make sure kids are learning, we test them, and if they don't pass, we hold them back. While this seems like it would make sense, I personally believe it decreases the quality of education. Many teachers teach because it's what they love to do. While many of my professors are very boring, I can tell by the way they speak that they have a passion for the subject they teach. But by providing required tests in gradschool and high school, the teachers are not teaching students what they believe is important, but they are tailoring their cirriculum to match these tests. As long as the kids have the information to pass the test, their job is done. How does that help?

If I remember correctly, I took standardized tests every year from 3rd grade through 7th. Seriously? As 8 and 9 year olds we are expected to pass standardized tests that determine whether or not we can move to the 4th grade? Talk about pressure. And talk about heart break for those kids who don't pass.

As we move on to high school and college, as I said, we have the problem of boredom by lecture. Many college professors don't even have an education degree, but have a degree in their field of interest, which they then teach. Problem? I think so. These professors have not learned how to relay information and relate to their students. Being a business school, they constantly harp the importance of communication in any company. Well, I think they should take a look in the mirror. If professors learned to communicate with their students and find what motivates us and what makes us go, they might have an easier time keeping us awake in class. Not only would it keep us awake in class, but it would help us absorb and retain that information.

Oh wait, there's more. The rapid technological advances makes it almost impossible to keep current. When Microsoft comes out with new office programs every 3 years, well by the time 2010 comes out, some of the schools have just implemented 2007. It's stupid. How much more can you do in 2010 than you could in 2007. Is it really necessary to make all those changes?

These are just some of the flaws in the system. Hopefully someone will realize this and make a change. They say the children are our future...Well, if that's the case, we could be in a whole lot of trouble if we continue to teach them this way.

Look on the Bright Side

So, we've been back to school for one week now, and let me tell you, boy has it been one hell of a week.

Last Sunday I made my return journey to school. I sometimes give a friend from high school a ride to and from Midland over holidays because he doesn't have a car. As usual, I dropped him off at the units and turned off the car to help him get his things back into his unit. To my surprise, when we were finished, I went to start my car, only nothing happened. Fantastic! After letting it sit for some time I tried again, but it still wouldn't work.

Someone came to pick me up and we got all of my things to my apartment. I then called AAA to have them tow my car. Unfortunately, the driver was apparently incapable of towing my car to a shop. He managed to get my car started by pushing it with his truck (since I drive stick, it automatically starts once it reaches a certain speed). You're probably all thinking problem solved! Only it wasn't. Although he could start my car my nudging it, my car wouldn't start when I turned the key. When I asked him what I was supposed to do, he told me have someone follow me to the shop so they can pick me up. Wait, did I miss something? I did get a TOW TRUCK sent to my location. I didn't understand why he couldn't TOW my car to a shop? Hmph?!

Monday morning rolls around. Borrow my roommates car to get to work (I have an internship at a radio station by the way). Everything is going as usual. The equipments not working, I'm in panic mode, blah blah blah. At 7:30 the director of sales for the station calls me and wants to know why we're not on the air. I tell him I don't know, everything in the studio is fine, and when he tells me to fix it I'm baffled. I don't know why it's not working, so what should I do? After numerous phone calls to numerous people I find out that I had managed to turn the transmitter off. WOW! I had accidentally pressed the wrong sequence of buttons while taking meter readings at 6:30, so our station wasn't broadcasting for over an hour. Beautiful.

On Tuesday I was finally able to get my car towed to the shop. What I originally thought was a $350 starter fix turned out to be a $1400 steering column problem. Fortunately, Belle Tire was able to find a used steering column in a scrapyard nearby, and that brought my cost down to $500. Better, but still more than what I expected.

Eventful couple of days, right?

While my stress level and anger levels were higher than normal, I was proud of myself because throughout these situations, I was able to take a step back and look on the bright side. For example, when I got back to my apartment on Sunday I was grateful that I had gotten to Midland BEFORE I started having car problems. Fortunately I didn't have any issues driving to school that prevented me from arriving on time or getting into an accident.

After I shut off the transmitter, I was waiting to get chewed out by my boss. He came in though and seemed pretty nonchalant about it. He explained to me what I had done wrong, how to fix it, and how to look to avoid the same mistake in the future. It was ironic because up until that moment I felt lost in the studio. Which is unacceptable considering I've been working there for the past three and a half months. You're probably thinking, "well why didn't you ask?" It's hard to ask questions when it comes to the station. You don't know what can go wrong, so I don't know what questions to ask until the problem arises.

Finally, having a car in the shop for a week has been making it very hard to get to and from class and work. But I have had so many people text me or tell me if I need a ride anywhere to call them and they will come get me. Words can not explain how grateful I am to all of these people and how much I appreciate it.

"Ya find out who your friends are,
Somebody's gonna drop everything,
Run out and crank up their car,
Hit the gas get there fast,
Never stop to think what's in it for me,
Or that's way too far.
They just show on up,
with their big ole hearts <3"