Maybe would help..?

Too be honest, I don't know much about our economic status other than that we're in debt. I'm not sure where I would begin to reverse this tremendous debt, but decreasing our imports and outside expenses would seem like a reasonable place to start. Keeping our money circulating around our country would build up our economy. Also, although Americans hate taxes, raising the taxes in order to pay off our debt could be helpful. These are the two most reasonable ideas I can think of, however, I'm not the most aware of all economical solutions.

my issues with school

First off, the amount of kids allowed to attend one school needs to be lowered. It is nearly impossible to push your way through the hallways in between classes, and not to mention the lines for the bathrooms extend into the hallways. With all these students crammed together in the small hallways, it begins to small. Secondly, the food in the cafeteria is disgusting, and not all people are able to eat it. There is something called a gluten intolerance, which I have, and it for the most part narrows down my food choices to water. The pizza and chicken sandwiches served everyday give the students no variety and, more importantly, is a cause of obesity. No healthy kid can eat multiple pieces of pizza each day. The amount of carbs and sugar in each cafeteria item is way over the top.

Late school changes

I have been in both a large public school, as well as a small private school, and both had their advantages and downfalls. However at Henry Clay the more time I spend here the more I want to change it. One of the first things that always comes up in my mind is the biased budget allocations: whether that be in sports or the decisions made in the classroom. Plasmas are put in the cafeteria and smart boards are put in every room. I would say about 25% of the teachers that own a smart board actually know how to use it to its full potential. Thats about 5,000 dollars per smart board that goes to waste. Why not spend it on something that might be beneficial to students? For example an academy class was not able to have text books for the first half of the year and had to raise money just so we could have them for all of second semester. One smart board could have paid for that. Also IPads are a great idea. Textbooks are a thing of the past and soon everything will be electronic. So it makes sense for Henry Clay to try to use Ipad's, but for an Algebra 1 class? Wouldn't a rigorous AP class make more sense? Where the students are constantly having to look through previous assignments and need all the outside help they can get.

Finally the sports budgeting could use some rethinking. I may be biased sense I play on the soccer team but its no secret that football, baseball, and basketball, all receive more money then the soccer teams. Football especially is hard for me to understand. I think the sports funding should be based on success, not fans. I mean look at Kentucky. The majority of the money is spent for basketball players, their locker rooms and housing are some of the nicest in the nation. This is because they win. You don't see Kentucky giving the football program more money just because twice as many people come to see them lose. The football team has failed to make it past districts since I have been a student at Henry Clay, Meanwhile they have new uniforms every 3 years and a multi thousand foot locker room and weight room that is solely theirs. I don't care that they sell more tickets then soccer games (even though that has evened out in past years) funding should be based on results.The soccer team meanwhile, has won districts and regions 3 of the past 4 years, won the state championship last year, and made it to the final four again this year. Yet all they get is a tiny, 5o year old weight room with machines that don't work, and a doubles as a locker room. The whole team can barely fit in there and we are trying to sit around rusty machines at the same time. The teams that are most successful, should be the ones seeing the benefits.

Assignment 21: 100 years

From the inquisitive mind of Allan Tsai...

You accidentally froze yourself.

Whoops.

Fortunately, you are not frozen forever. Unfortunately, when you do become non-icicular, it's 2112.

What is the world like 100 years in the future?

Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, March 18 at 11:59 pm

How do solve a problem like schools?

Students are a menace to schools. They are disrespectful to teachers, disrespectful to their school, and they shamelessly cheat on or BS an assignment. But how can you have school without students?

The simple answer is you can't. It is "about kids", after all. But why do students act in a manner so contrary to what is accepted? We have no respect.

I say "we" because I fully realize that I am just as guilty as anyone who has ever talked during class, or furiously done their hmwk right before the teacher picks it up. These are things I've grown accustomed to. But I HATE it. I want more than anything to start anew, and for school to be perfect.

So yes, what we need is a revision of attitude, especially for the Academy. I have trouble being motivated to do my hmwk anymore...but, again, I HATE it. Deep down, I know that I will live my whole life wishing that I had been 100% on top of the game. Wishing that I had been successful enough in AP Chemistry to want to take the AP test. But sadly, you can't go back, no matter how hard you try.

However, you can always change for the better, and I hope that we, especially me, will learn to change our attitudes and be better students. We as the Academy are supposed to be a beacon of light, and we've painted our bulb black.

public education: the impulse shopaholic of government programs

There's a lot to be said about how well the public education system handles its money. Our school buses are cheap, but effective, our chairs are economical but sturdy, and our classrooms are full of nice gadgets that don't break the bank. However, I'm not here to talk about any of that. I'm here to talk about useless flat-screens and unused smart boards, and the bizarre assortment of technology that could totally go to a better cause. I personally will have pay thousands of dollars next year if I want to continue calculus. My APUSH class didn't even have textbooks for half of the year (we almost had to buy them ourselves), and only now, after 6 years, am I able to get a reasonably up to date French textbook. Of course, the school should be paying for all of this, but the excuse I and at least eighty of my peers hear is "we don't have the funds."

My call on this response -- BS

Instead of giving money to the kids who are doing well and allowing them to advance at their own pace, they bought 30 ipads for algebra I, 4 flat screen televisions that are NEVER used, smart boards for teachers that don't even use them (or know how to), and loads of other useless junk. Granted, the ipads were partially paid for by a grant, but that's my entire point. Where's my grant? What about my needs? Why should I be forced to pay exorbitantly because I'm doing well in school when so much money is wasted?

Why?

I’m sure most of you have heard this spiel before, but I can’t mention this enough.

Why do we have the budget to buy 6 plasma screen TVs?
Why do the Algebra I students get iPads?
Why does every teacher get a SmartBoard and document camera, when only half of them use either?
Why don’t we have enough money to get new textbooks?
Why doesn’t the music department have enough rental instruments or soundproofed walls?

We need to alter the budget. A good deal of this stuff pertains to technology. Many of the “tools” that the school buy to better educate the public won’t have much of a difference unless several criteria are met.

Firstly, the teacher needs to use these things. I’ve seen many a teacher who just uses the SmartBoard as a glorified projector frame, and the document camera once in a blue moon. Sure, it’ll be useful occasionally, but the only teachers who I see use document cameras and SmartBoards every day are usually math and science teachers. If teachers who don’t need all of this fancy tech every day pass on getting one, there’ll be enough money to put into things that these teachers will use.

Also, the students have to be willing to learn. Most Algebra I students, to be honest, don’t have the incentive to learn. Even if you give them iPads and fancy graphing programs, most won’t use them for their intended purpose or at all. Higher-level math students can actually put these to use. For example, graphing f(x), f’(x), and f”(x) could be useful early on in Calculus to explain derivatives and the correlations between the functions. Calculus BC students could explore polar graphs, series, and other things like fractals (which are not native to Ti-84s) on an iPad, which would be better suited to handle these things. Hell, if we didn’t get iPads, maybe we could get enough textbooks before the school year starts, instead of getting them about four months in. Or maybe, we could get online textbooks on these iPads! Who would have thought of that?

The plasma-screen TVs in the foyer, library, and cafeteria just scream, “Unnecessary!” every time I see them. We just don’t need them. They sit there, with their volumes off, playing useless things. The one in the foyer plays a one-slide PowerPoint saying, “Good Morning, Henry Clay!” or something to that extent, and occasionally puts up some valuable information that’s posted right underneath on a piece of paper. The ones in the library play random videos promoting books – these videos last about ten minutes a pop and don’t give any relevant information on the books because there’s no sound coming out of the speakers. Don’t even get me started on the ones in the cafeteria. Sure, have played the announcements once or twice, but nobody can hear a thing because the lunch room is about 100dB constantly. Usually, it plays some random sports games, but recently, I’ve been seeing them show Days of our Lives, also known as A Sitcom with Sex Scenes that Probably Shouldn’t Be Allowed on Daytime Television on. Honestly, these TVs could be useful if they had sound or played relevant and useful information, but nope, that would be educational, and educational is boring.

I could go on with this rant, but you know where this is going. Sell or don’t buy new things, or at least repurpose them to be used by people who actually need them. Hey, if the school’s looking to get some money, I’m sure a bunch of students would love to buy a SmartBoard, or an iPad, or a flat-screen TV, for a reduced price, that is. The point is, spending less money on unused things would let us buy things that would be useful, like soundproofed walls for the orchestra and band.

Because really, who in their right minds would put them right next to each other?

“Hey guys, since they’re both music, let’s put the orchestra and band next to each other! They definitely will need that! It’s not like they’ll fight for space in the practice rooms or that the walls are useless since there are wooden doors connecting the two rooms.” – The architect who designed the school

High School Is Such A Serious Thing

What’s wrong with school? Well, let me go ahead and walk you through my day:

I show up at school every day running on about 5-6 hours of sleep per night. That’s not so bad. But starting off the day in Portable D in the school “trailer park” is where it starts going downhill. I don’t particularly enjoy mucking through the dirt, trudging through puddles and piles of kids and/or getting poured on as I make my way out to my first class.

I always slip on the steps leading up to the metal hut I call my math class, usually spilling my coffee in my purse. That’s ok, it gives me an excuse to stick my head in there and huff the smell during my entire first hour. I normally finish the work I’ve been given in the first 10 minutes of class, and no one is teaching. So I have nothing better to do. The kid next to me thinks I’m crazy.

At 9:24, I fight my way back into building using my backpack (purse, and lunchbox) as a weapon. No one else seems to have one, so I’m at an advantage. By the time I get to second hour, everyone else is already there. But I thoroughly enjoy that class, and I work very hard for the duration of the hour.

In third hour, I usually nap or help my friend with her AP Coloring class. I usually can’t hear the teacher anyway (although I sit in the first row) because the kids behind me are bullying the same kid or laughing at some girl stuffing 21 Tootsie Rolls in her mouth. The teacher doesn’t mind so much. He wishes he were teaching something else. Nonetheless, I respect him, and I usually speak with him about assignments outside of class. I would even call him a friend.

In fourth hour, I usually submerse myself in some other subject or read my textbook for the class because I can’t hear the teacher talking and someone is always hurling orange peels I constantly have to deflect. Normally I eat my lunch in that class because I know I can study quietly during my lunch hour. I know this is blatantly disrespectful. The entire class is disrespectful.

In my fifth hour I am usually:

1. Trying to remember if we had homework to do last night.
2. Observing the kid next to me perform seppuku multiple times throughout a class period.
3. Humming to myself in order to drown out offensive comments spewing from either end of the room.
4. Adamantly paying attention.
5. Dreading my next class.

During my last hour of the day, I usually slump down in my chair and try my best to hide from my teacher. I can never understand what she is asking me, so I always just say “yes” or smile. She started feeling so bad for me, she now makes sure to speak extra loud and puts big spaces in between each word. I go along with it. Now every time I get a question right, she makes sure I see her “thumbs-up” or “gold star”. But considering my verbal skills have only worsened, it now seems she just hates me. The language system I have been a part of since 6^th grade has taught me plenty of rudimentary vocabulary and conjugation forms. But starting this year, I have learned nothing but grammar. I hardly remember my old vocabulary, and the words we’ve learned this year have been just plain useless. I can tell you a fairy tale, but I honestly can’t describe what a stapler is.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

There are many things that I would change about school if I were given the choice; among these are taking away tenure for teachers and widening the hallways. Let’s be honest, we all have experienced huge problems with these issues so far. Let’s think back to our sophomore years-if you haven’t forgotten, one of our teachers was completely a waste of space. The only reason they still had their job was because they had tenure. In other words, they can’t be removed from their job unless they commit some sort of crime. This teacher did nothing for us and in no way prepared us for the AP test. They just sat there and made money for it, while our education suffered. Another issue that I have is the layout of the building. Our high school has one of the largest populations of all of the high schools in the county, yet we have one of the most cramped building systems around. It is hard to get anywhere between classes without being stuck at an intersection at a standstill. If I had the power to magically change this, I would widen the halls and round the corners to maximize area.

Bona Fide Curiosity

Do we go to school to learn or do we go to school to be tested?

Let me explain the difference.

A typical school day places a student in an environment in which teachers constantly doubt him/her.

My Spanish teacher checks my worksheets for completion.

My physics and chemistry teachers check my worksheets for correctness, knowing good and well I could have cheated. So they're really checking that I put the effort in to discuss the answers with everyone else. Which I do, shamelessly.

My APUSH and English teachers assign activities and Socratic Seminars that they hope will provide valuable practice, but in reality come too often and on too long of a list of responsibilities for students to give them any thorough concentration. So instead of employing these assignments for educational value, Academy students develop the age-old practice of "B.S."-ing, in which we exert minimal effort into said assignments with the understanding that their teachers will exert just as little effort in grading them. And practice of B.S.-ing continues because the students are right.

And every so often, my teachers administer tests, because they trust me so little that they feel the need to make me regurgitate on the spot in the classroom in addition to my typical extrascholastic regurgitation (homework).

My only question is this: If teachers still trust us so little, what is the purpose of the Academy? Why are we designated as a more intelligent, more scholastically interested bunch if we are still subjected to the same distrust?

Now, up to this point I've been focusing on some pretty abstract ideas like trust and distrust. Here's what I can say to solidify my dilemma.

When I applied to the Academy, people told me I was in for a real "challenge." I figured when I took that intelligence test to qualify, they were making sure I could stand up to the rigor of the intellectual work that lie ahead. With the Explore knowledge test I figured they were making sure I already possessed a love for knowledge and learning and that my teachers could trust me to want to learn. That they could trust me read the History book without testing me on it, or to to investigate chemistry concepts without grading each and every one of my worksheets critically. Sure, they'd give me worksheets to facilitate and direct my learning, but they would know that I, as a naturally curious being, WANT to learn.

Imagine that. Bona fide curiosity.

But an attack on teachers is naive and shortsighted. I understand most teachers don't control a lot of their requirements. If I had one suggestion for those people up top, though, it would be to recognize curiosity when they see it, and don't punish it for God's sake.

For all those kids who "don't give" about school, sure, they don't deserve trust. But Academy kids--at least most of them from what I've seen--genuinely enjoy learning. So for us, structure a system based on facilitated exploration.

I know, that would require a total revamping of the education system. Maybe that's what I'll do.

I have more to say, and I want to keep using my brain for a little while to write this blog. But I and every Academy student knows that grades don't get themselves. And grades are what really matter. I couldn't care less about learning, because I want the best for myself and I understand that all I need to do that is convince my teachers I can be trusted to complete the worksheet, double-space my paper.

What grinds my gears

People. People really grind me gears a lot. Call me intolerant or a douche but when people dress in all ed hardy, or have let themselves get 500 pounds, or have gauges and black hair to their waist and dress like vampires, or annoy everyone all the time, I have to wonder why they get out of bed in the morning. People like that are why our society is declining. What happened to being a gentleman or dressing to look respectable or having any pride in yourself. All these "hipsters" and "cool guys" need to just go have their own country somewhere where they can die out in a few generations.

If I could change one thing...

I would have to, without hesitation or doubt, say that one of the worst things about Henry Clay is the lack of options at lunch. It's either sub-standard, barely edible food from the normal line or pizza. Pizza? Wait, isn't pizza the characteristic "oh boy, they're serving 'X' today in the lunch line" food that everyone likes? Of course. The first day, of Henry Clay, I loaded two pieces into my hand, paid the oh-so-modest price of 2 dollars a slice, and ate it ecstatically. Day 14? Oh boy, pizza again! Yet, here I am, my third year of pizza every day, and while it's still good enough to eat it's also greasy and much worse than when you buy Domino's outside of the cafeteria. Why? Well, it's kind of a "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you" scenario; the pizza doesn't have to be as well made as it usually is, just marginally better than the regular lunches. This means that the chumps at Domino's don't have to make brilliant, up-to-par pizzas for us, they just have to slap together in their kitchen anything that tastes better than lunches in the normal line, which needless to say gives some room for shirking in quality. Even if the pizza was better, it's still only one meal to eat, and while it's easy to argue that we're being "picky" by not eating food from the normal line, it's even easier to argue that schools are not providing kids with the lunches they should. I wouldn't mind paying as much as I do for pizza for a meal of similar quality but not pizza.

Grades and Stress

I know everyone thinks grades are the end all be all, especially being in the academy, but there not. As a matter a fact I'm here to tell you that the emphasis put on grades is what is wrong with school. I think if kids parents didn't berate them so much on grades. They would have a stress free better life. At the end of the day the people who are going to make it are the people who want it the most. Don't get me wrong there are tons of kids who are brilliant and have straight A's and will be doing fine in fifteen years. But there are also kids who have C's who maybe they just don't like school but they have talent and just are not applying themselves. They will be fine. For all we know they could get a 32 on the ACT and now they are in college. There is this huge allusion created by schools that going to some Ivy league school is the best thing ever. Harvard offers the same classes as UK. Harvard has better connections but there is not a significant advantage in what you will learn. The bottom line is it's not only what you know but who you know. That's something that school doesn't stress and that's an issue. We need to know that. So my advice to my fellow class mates is learn don't grade grub. By all means don't read this and stop trying. Just know that a B or a C isn't the end no matter how much your parents or teachers or guidance counsellors will tell you it is. Relax you will turn out fine.

You Know What Grinds My Gears?

I really want to sit down and have a nice long talk with the people who designed Henry Clay. Did they think it was funny, to torment us daily? Was it their mission to make our journey from class to class as miserable as possible? Did high school students wrong them sometime ago, and now they're taking revenge? These are the questions that pop into my head as I wonder - why, why did they make the halls so d*** narrow?

Well, I'm sure they had their reasons, but nevertheless, it is a constant bother to have to navigate through that hazardous corridor six times a day to go to a place that I don't even want to go to. Have you ever been to Dunbar? Let me tell you, it is an absolutely satisfying experience. Their hallways, well, I'm pretty sure you could park a yacht in that space.

Why can't we have nice things? I'm sure everyone knows the dreadful experience of trying to squeeze through that ferocious crowd of students, who are, at the same time, trying to squeeze by you. What really ticks me off are those jerks that stand in the middle of an intersection for absolutely no reason, talking to their buddies, completely oblivious to the people who are trying their best to walk around them because they are hogging so much space in an already tiny hallway.

And what makes it really annoying is that when you're almost to the class, when you can see the light, and so you fasten your pace. Then suddenly, you feel an abrupt bump in your shoulder; you turn your head to see that you've collided with that one girl of a certain ethnicity which I'm not going to say in fear of getting called a racist. The next thing you know, she starts rolling her neck and snapping her fingers, and says in the most infuriating way possible - excuuuz youuu! That really grinds my gears.

school: what's wrong with it?

What is wrong with school you ask? Well, 150 words wouldn't even be the start of it. America is in the midst of an education crisis as I write this. We go to a big public high school in Kentucky so we can see experience some of these issues firsthand. At a smaller level, just take a look around Henry Clay. Sometimes it really is the absolute most depressing place to be. There are hardly any windows, everything's lined with a thin film of dirt or grime, and the hallways are completely overcrowded. That's not all though; how many of us have ever felt like we're the victim of poor instruction? I can think of at least one teacher I've had every year that just doesn't quite "make the cut," and I end up basically teaching myself the material. We have teachers because we're supposed to look up to them, learn from them, and respect what they have to say about their knowledge of the subject. They should really care about what they're teaching and really want to share what they know with our young minds. Core content isn't even strictly enforced either; teachers must follow this criteria and not just teach whatever they see fit.

Another issue I see a lot is this constant sort of cycle of pressure we, as students, face almost everyday--especially in the Academy. I have never been so busy in my entire life this year. Don't get me wrong, I love being busy but sometimes it's a little much. It's like our résumé and transcripts are the end all be all. If they aren't perfect, then somehow we, as actual people, are reduced to being less than perfect, and who we really are isn't fully expressed by those oh-so-significant numbers and words on those documents. I look around and see cheating, procrastination, and completely haphazard work ethics, and can't help but think, how can we ever fix all of this?

Grades vs Class Difficulty

Obviously grades are a huge part of the school experience, and they basically have a strangle hold on most students lives and future college choice. This on its own is already a problem with the school system but I am going to focus on the point of difficulty of students classes and their grades to create a bases for their class rank and other merit based achievements. If you look at the NCAA Basketball Tournament Bracket teams are placed by not just their wins but by their "strength of schedule" which means that teams cannot just rig their schedule to be easy so that they don't lose a game. This should be incorporated into the school system because currently many students can achieve a 4.0 by taking all general classes, or if they took easy advanced classes could even achieve a 5.0 weighted GPA, all without taking a single AP class. This is not fair for the students who strive to take difficult classes and learn more in school, who also risk obtaining worse grades due to the increased difficulty of the class. Some colleges will look at the students schedule when they look at their GPA, but most of the time if a students class rank and GPA are not where the college would like them to be at then the student would not even get a chance, when a student taking easier classes would at least get a look at the college. Overall, schools should alter the way that students are ranked and gain merit based achievements to be based more on difficulty of their classes than purely on the grades that the students obtains.

Education Crisis

School is something a lot of us are familiar with. Not only are we familiar with its many successes, but also are thrown into its many failures. Whether you see them as time wasted, classes available, stress of grades, or even having to go to school in the first place we as students are surrounded by these negative aspects. In my personal opinion I belive the biggest issue facing education is how public everything is. Not only is the social and issues a large part of the high shcool experience, but so is the competion for the highest grade or sounding the smartest in class, or even becoming validvictorian. To some this competion is meaningless and they don't pay any attention to it, but to others it is at the core of their entire high school lives. I belive that what needs to be fixed in this day and age, is allowing students to have a little more independece. Teachers still need to be very involved, but at the same time it is important that students have the privacy they do or do not want. Maybe thawt means introducing more technology into the classrooms, which would allow students to recieve grades and such much more privately then passing back work. Maybe that means not sitting in rows and columns but instead a large circle (such as socratic seminars work) in order to allow everyone to feel involved, but yet not forced to say anyting if they do not want to talk. Another option is to lessen the importance on grades and make it more about improvment and activites that relate back to the real world such as community service or internships or something. I just have a hard time beieveing that at this point education is the best it can be. It is not the teachers fault at all. Its just the mindset of society. I don't know exactly how to change it but I do not that somethins gotta give.

Shame, shame the economy

Honestly, I don't know much about the economy. I understand that we are in recession and the economy is not doing so hot, but why and how to fix it are concepts I do not understand. The fix to our economic problems are completely foreign to me. But I have always thought that there must exist an easy and simple way to fix everything. Well here it goes....
Long ago, before stimulous packages, bailouts, and numerous American companies going out of business, I heard an interesting solution to our economic problems. WIth all the money used to bailout companies (that don't really need it) we could give every working couple (or single if not married) a million dollars. WIth that money they must 1) quit their job which would give many job opportunities to those who are unemployed thus fixing the unemployment issues 2) trade/sell their old car and buy a new AMERICAN car helping the auto industry 3) sell their house and buy a new one opening the housing market and jump starting that. With these three simple steps the economy could have gotten the jump start it needed to head back in the right direction.
Again honestyl, I don't know if this would work, and to me someone who doesn't know much about these kinds of things it seems sensible. It seems reliable and practical, but at this point who knows what they coulda, woulda, shoulds.

Homework

Homework is the worst. Five day weeks contain no joy. Why? Well everyday when you get home from school you realize that school is not yet over. You still two or three hours of school. Homework takes away free time and other such luxuries. I do not doubt that home work is beneficial and sometimes necessary. But when it cuts in the time that allows us to relax and enjoy ourselves, it does more harm than good. A limit should be placed on homework. This way homework can still be assigned, but not in stressful binges. Homework wreaks havoc on your moral stability. I cannot tell how many times I have been doing something I enjoy, only to realize that I have to go upstairs and do homework for two hours now. It is the worst feeling, in my opinion, that high school can produce. If it could be regulated it would save the students much necessary stress.