Why Do We Have to Take these Dumb Classes Anyway??

So I think I was the only person who actually read the assignment, which actually before the class I was told I was a week ahead. That made me happy until I was told in class that next week we are discussing this week and next week's reading assignments. Thanks guys, now I have to actually do some homework! Just kidding! I love you all, you know I do. :)

So, since none of us did what was on the syllabus, we went ahead and discussed the Onion's article talking about are we really paying a whole bunch of money for a piece of paper, or is the applicable for our future career(s)?

I think the general consensus, just said in multiple different ways, is that, no, we should go to college. At least, that was my consensus... Some of the reasons for this are:

1) Who knows if the degree you're getting now will prepare for the career you are planning to have? How many times have we been told that you will probably not use your degree or that our parents are doing something completely different than there major? Life happens, and we have to be prepared for it. And sometimes that means taking useless classes.

2) Sometimes it is beneficial to have a plethera of knowledge. Just because you may be going into Education (hmm..hmm..) does not mean that you shouldn't take a biology course. Who knows... you may need to know how to take care of someone or be able to teach it. Who knows?

I think that's the point is nobody knows what the future holds. We can only plan, guess, and plunge forward.

There are some drawbacks though with taking a variety of classes.

1) Colleges have to accomodate for a broad range of students with different learning styles and ambitions. Sometimes when you get broad, the depth is not great.

2) Taking various classes that "don't have to do with your major" distract for the course of a degree.

3) Dumb kids hold the smart kids down. It's frustrating to wait on kids who have no ambition for learning and make it harder on the teacher to teach. Also, so many people are coming to college, it's not just for the rich smart kids anymore, as Andrew put it. So coming to school to most is like a party for kids trying to be adults doing to high school work. Frustrating, huh?

Okay, so these are my thoughts. Oh, one more, we need a system of bringing points forth. Maybe raising your hand or taking turns or something, because several times I noticed that it was the one who the loudest or the first to speak who got to share. This is a little annoying for the quieter folks, who I'm sure have plenty of ideas floating in their brains.

Hostage Simulation....We started World War III

I'm a little behind in my bloggings due to some technical difficulties, mainly, I am a Mac user, not a PC user, so things come slower to me in regards to all this computer stuff. But I would like to address my thoughts toward our first Honors group activity our second day here.

So here it goes...

When I first found out that I was going to be doing this, I was totally confused on what it was supposed to look like. And then I found out I was supposed to be a terrorist, and that's when I was really confused. First of all, I can't be mean. I am a homeschooler for goodness sake! We are supposed to be the shy, quiet, delicate type. The ones that haven't been toughened by the real world. And second, I'm a girl, a blond girl to be exact. I don't think I'm very intimidating. I found out later from experience that I was right, I'm not.

I get my pamphlet that explains all I need to know about Keibar and Needok, and why I'm supposed to be mad at the US, and I read it that night. I was, oh I don't even remember my name, an unemployed lawyer, my fiance died in the war, I have family in Detroit, and I'm 25. I am also an expert on weapons and torture and all that mean stuff. In fact I trained other terrorists. This is sounding more and more...not like me. Great... :)

The scenario plays out and we all do our jobs. I think the breakdown occurred somewhere during the second part. Negotiations were not going very well. Our offers were not considered and what they offered was not what we wanted. I think we used the media very well, though. When I was a terrorist, I didn't see any of the US government officials the whole time. I had no idea that there was so much discussion and confusion on their part until I found out at the end. To us, it seemed like the US was being very stubborn and non-negotiable, and that they didn't take us seriously or cared for their citizens.

The hardest job, I think, were the middle-men, the Business man and the other guy...don't remember his job title. They had to make sure they could relate everything to either side. That would be so tricky.

In the end we killed a couple hostages and started a war because neither side had a agreed to a compromise. I think that if the US government had tried to speak to us in person, there had been accurate information for the US, and more communication on the Government's side, the outcome would have been very different. Communication was key to this exercise.

My First Post...

This is my first post to test if this will work.