Nice track suit, dude.
For anyone who has never seen any Wes Anderson movies, I highly recommend them. On Halloween my general plan is to dress like Richie Tenenbaum and make like the Baumer, a character of the movie The Royal Tenenbaums. A beard, a track suit, and a headband are already part of the uniform (no, I cannot remove the beard). I don't know where I will go.
For reference, the Wes Anderson movies I have seen, all of which I have loved, are these-
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Bottle Rocket
The Darjeeling Limited
Rushmore
... I don't know where I will go.
On the topic of education;
Humanity needs to develop a new way of educating and teaching its young (and its old for that matter). It is something I have been thinking about for years, ever since I got into High School, and possibly before that. What I have seen so far is a seriously terrible trend- teachers spout information useful to passing a test and only useful to passing a test, and allow students to think that the only important information is what will let them pass a test. Students are either not encouraged or are not pushed towards innovation and real solutions.
An example would be my recent "Psychology class" quiz, a 23 question multiple choice quiz based on just about nothing. The questions were either directly off of a handout we had received early in the class (and this is an open notes class), or were of a somewhat bizarre psycho-analytical nature which did require a bit of thought. I learned afterward that nearly everyone had either failed or scored extraordinarily low. I got a 91. Now, you must realize, this class is pretty much a joke, which is why the name is in quotations, and the teacher is an absolute failure at actually "teaching." She comes into class, spouts random things about her life in her very latin-american accent (which she either refuses to acknowledge or uses like a shield) and she never repeats herself if asked (of course, I have had perfectly understandable english speaking teachers do this for me if they spoke too fast or said something unintelligible), and she forces absolutely no disciplinary measures on the half or more of the class that is completely uninterested in forwarding their mental state.
So, in my belief, this quiz actually showed one level of education- that of seeking rational answers even when one is not already learned, which is SORELY under appreciated in today's system. That most of the class FAILED this very easy quiz is a sign that not only the teacher is a failure, but that all of the educational system before her has failed. That, or most of these kids just had no good parenting, and were never taught to teach themselves. I'm not saying everyone who failed that quiz is unintelligent, and I'm certainly not condemning anyone to idiocy, but there is certainly something missing in their past education if they couldn't even pass.
I am also a firm believer in capability. Some people are DEFINITELY more capable than others in specific areas, and some people are incapable in intellectual areas like some are incapable in physical areas. For example, have you ever heard of a skilled and famous football player who was 5'4" and weighed 120 pounds? That doesn't mean a 6'4" 250 pound man can't be a scientist, or must be a good football player, but the size helps with being a good football player, and being mentally capable helps with being a scientist.
SO, we need to do some changes. We need to facilitate teaching in such a way that kids will learn to solve their own problems, and we need to accommodate for skill and capability. I still don't know what the real answer is to this, but I'm thinking about it, every day.
More on that later.
