[Laiedheliel]

Not at all, Aosama, it warms my heart to hear another student that finds the educational system in such distaste. Do you live in the US?

akhtene, I desprately wish there were teachers like you at my school: maybe then I could talk to one of my teachers about something other than last night's homework without being sent back to my seat sulking from being yelled at or chastised. I am not in the majority of young people, but here is simply what I think: I know what I want, and where I want to go after school and what I am going to study. The school system where I live in America is sometimes so frustrating that I actually try to persuade my parents to move to another district. My parents have different and varied opinions on this same school system: for example, they think that I am overloaded with busy work (to which I am forced to agree), but it is not helping me learn anything new, or review anything to help me further my knowledge; instead it seems to be an excuse for my teacher to mark down another grade so she has enough points to work with at the end of the marking period. If it were homework helping me learn something new, or review something I had just learned, neither my parents or I would have a problem with it. I must say that school is looked upon as something obligatory, and that there are times that even I don't want to get out of bed in the morning, for I have a day full of the same material we covered yesterday to look forward to. No one works hard, no one appears to be interested, because, as you said, it is unfashionable. Most of the 'cool' people at my school have below a "B" average. Therefore, I am not the most popular person at my school and am left hungering for a compainion with some intelligence.

The only oral history I get around here is simply, "When I was twenty, we didn't have computers and it only cost 10 cents to go and see a reel at the movie theater." I don't exactly know how that is suppose to educate me, but I do learn one thing each time I hear it, and it is the same thing each time: The tendancy to forget history has been passed down through generations, and for a new generation to realize it's ignorant of past mistakes is almost seemingly against human nature. It tends to take something amazing to cause a person who was formally ignorant to look backwards: a love of fine literature, war, inspirational parents or teachers. Or, actual moral values, as akhtene said, that hold some weight in one's actions. Many of the ethics we have here in the States are taken for granted, like most other things, right alongside education. My values have been firmly reinforced by parents in love with literature and 'family quality time', and who are knowledgeable in many culture's histories. Without this, other children may grow up, as I said before, unknowingly ignorant; and left to fend off such 'fashionable' things as not caring and not looking more than two days into their futures. This particular revolution isn't an easy one to fight; and it must start with a personal choice by each and everyone of us.

Hurmph, I'm turning back to the educational system for a minute (*hears you all groan*). I feel I must disagree with Aosama on none but one point: the educational system needs major reform. The system needs to be based not only on what one needs to learn but what one wants to learn, and this in turn will drive students to be interested, to find amazing things out and work harder than they ever were driven to in the current system. Subjects should be spread out into different classes, and the quick learners should not be made to wait with the ones who are slower. Peer pressure is an undefeatable enemy, simply because it is human nature to care what others think. But, it seems, it is no longer in human nature to care about anything else, including the other people around us. We only care about their opinions.

I wonder, does anyone else have the same views? I am not going to sit here and say that I am remarkable in my own eyes; I am not. And I won't say that the others in my class are petty and silly, because on occasion I choose to join in on some of those petty doings and silly conversations. Again, human nature to desire companionship. Human nature is a fickle thing, and some have debated that it does not exist at all.

The point this third time (or is it fourth? O, I'm not going to count!) folks, is that do not simply blame our ignorance on the recorders of history, or the lore-masters who pass it along orally, but on human nature and unaware persons milling around on this Earth ignorant of their ignorance. We here on this topic, and some out of it who have not yet realized its existance, have only begun to realize the depth of our ignorance. The educators in my part of the system seem to be more ignorant than the rest of the world, because they believe that the current curriculum sends their students into the world prepared. I feel very poorly educated because there is so much history I do not know, and I feel especially pale next to all of you fair people. What I have is but a start to which I hope to add a great amount of knowledge.

*Again, sighs at the super freaking long post she wrote and looks at Aosama* Teehee, I babbled longer! *Addressing everyone* You guys can tell me to shut up anytime and I'll just go away...