Well, nice English project I’ve got here…

Just a little background info. I have just finished what was possibly the two most challenging pieces of writing I’ve ever written for English class. A little kid story which was supposed to rhyme, be interesting, and be creative, and a tribute to someone which I’m now supposed to give that person (fat chance).

So now…my task is to “become a Shakespeare aficionado” in preparation for reading Romeo and Juliet. I’m basically supposed to spend all Christmas vacation reading up on Shakespeare’s life and the time period, because when I get back, GUESS WHAT! I get to play Jeopardy! Another dumb game. Anyway, we even have to make a bibliography and all that good stuff.
You kow, many people argue that to understand an author’s works, one must know all about the author’s life: namely, where he/she went to school, what his/her mother’s name was, what remote English manor house he/she was born at, and etc. I strongly disagree. Maybe that’s just because one could call me a victim of the system, but trust me. We’ve done this sort of thing every year, and it takes enough time such that we could have read a whole other novel in that time frame. But NO. It has never been useful, only painful, because I already have one history class a day and I don’t care for another one.

Of course, in this case (since it’s break), it could be much worse. We might have been forced to actually read Romeo and Juliet during these meager one and a half weeks that constitute our break this year. But heck–I’ve got two more projects to do. And then, after break, one week, and then…EXAM WEEK. So why not let off for a change?

School,English,Writing,Shakespeare,Projects,Research

Ugh…we have spent so much time on alcohol. Today my teacher was trying to explain some random useless piece of rote and said, “That’s what we’re trying to get you to understand.” Er…*news flash!!* I do understand! I’ve understood for years!

I’m still pretty stressed about those projects…luckily, biology’s over with, but now it turns out we’re doing an in-class project in World History, too. That’s every class! What the heck?!?

Math test tomorrow, history quiz tomorrow, poetry recitation early morning on Thursday (that i still haven’t memorized), big hard biology test on Thursday, french project due on Thursday…and the possibility of inclement weather tomorrow that may screw everything up and even cancel the one thing this week that I’m looking forward to: the Thursday band concert. Oh yeah, and if we’re only delayed or not affected at all, I’ll also be walking to and from the bus stop in that inclement weather.

Not to mention that I do, in fact, have a life outside of school and I have to buy Christmas gifts this weekend while simultaneously going to someone’s house for a movie, going to Sunday School, and finishing a crap load of schoolwork. Whoohoo.

Yech. This is crazy. I have way too many projects this December. Why do all teachers decide to put every major project and test during the weeks before Christmas? Why? Let’s see here:

• Math project which involves drawing and coloring three tesselations
• Two English essays-one due on a Friday and the other the following Monday (neither of which I have even started)
• French project due Dec. 15 which involves internet research a-plenty
• In-school health project about stupid alcohol again which involves taking 20 pages of printed research and writing (hand-writing!) three pages from it (and making a poster and all that nice crap)
• Poetry recitation next week for English (16 lines of poetry)
• Reading a novel for English (lucky me, I was smart enough to read it earlier)
• Make a model of a cell in biology in Friday (for this I have to convince my mom to help me bake a cake, as if she doesn’t have enough to do already)
• I have a band concert next week
• World History remains blissedly free from projects…for now

This is so stupid. The real test is how well I can do those projects, not how many I can do at a time. All of them, even the in-school ones, require some work at home. However, out of all these things, I’m most worried about English. I suck at essays. Well one is a tribute and the other is actually a stupid children’s story (a la the Gingerbread Man) and I have to make it have a rhyming refrain. It also has to be interesting and that horrible word, creative. Er…I’m not CREATIVE. I am SMART. Not everyone can be creative. All of our projects are based more on creativity (and time-management, of course) than intelligence and knowing the material. Well, that’s all nice and good for the dumb people, but not for me.

Grr. I thought school was supposed to be easier for people who know their stuff…

Sorry for taking such an arrogant attitude, but I don’t claim to be better than everyone else. I know that I am smart and many others are stupid. I also know that unlike many others I’m not very creative, I’m lazy, and I procrastinate. So, it evens out.

Ah…Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

By S.S. I mean social studies, of course…

This is about my social studies class last year…if I had to pick one word to summarize it, I would pick “painful”.

There are several incidents in particular that I remember…After you read about all of them, you will see exactly what I want to say about my teacher last year. (This is a truncated list.)

• We were doing research papers, and for our research we needed 3 different colored index cards and some white ones. Our teacher checked (for a grade) to see that everyone had them. One poor soul had yellow and three other colors. He said, “Can I just use the yellow ones instead of the white ones?” The teacher said no and took off points. What the hell?
• When we took notes, we had to copy them word for word. They were very wordy. One line about the civil war said, “In the south, farm land and fine old homes were destroyed.” Um…what’s this “fine old homes”?
• One line said “Shoes cost $200 a pair”. The next line said “I CAN’T AFFORD THAT PRICE NOW!!!”. The teacher actually said, “You have to write that down.” OK, then, thanks for letting me know.
• The fact that we had to draw and color pictures in itself was ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was that we weren’t allowed to leave any part of the paper white, even where there was no drawing and just words. Once I drew an American flag and got points taken off for having the appropriate parts of it white. The teacher said that I should take a white coloring pencil and color that in.
• A kid in another class reportedly saw the teacher using a coin to check if someone had colored something white.
• We had to organize our binders his way, which was having everything in chronological order with page numbers. Er…wouldn’t it be easier to just have tabs? And shouldn’t it be my personal choice?
• As I mentioned last Wednesday, the essays on the tests were communist. There were several like that constitution one.
• When we had to read something, such as the textbook, in class, the teacher always said “After you’re finished, don’t do anything else. Reread it as many times as you can.” What a waste of time.
• His idea of “outline notes” was copying whole paragraphs out of the book…Well, the whole point of “outlining” is just the opposite, actually.
• He didn’t let me go to the library at lunch unless it was to do a project. Ever heard of reading for pleasure?!?
• He made such a big deal of not revealing who he was going to vote for that it gradually became obvious.
• His most frequently used line was “EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS MY FAULT!”. He screamed this even when no one blamed him.
• He was obsessed with us only using pen. Now, I use pen anyway, but I was annoyed when he said, “You don’t need to be reminded to go to the bathroom! So why do I need to remind you to use pen?”
• He overemphasized facts. When we studied wars, he made us remember endless statistics about how many people fought and how many died and how much money was spent on various aspects and etc. According to him, each of the major wars had three causes and three results. Now, there were more than that. That was what should have been emphasized. That is what the lessons of history are-not to repeat mistakes your ancestors made.It will never matter exactly how many people died or how much money was spent. When our generation grows up and we become leaders, we will need to remember how to prevent wars from starting. That is why history is taught.