This is a rant blog. It's not too often that I complain, but when I do it seems like I tend to express it through a blog in one way or another. Today I will, once again, be complaining about school. It happens that every year, in varying levels of magnitude, I become overwhelmed with end-of-the-year projects. Some I am aware of months, even trimesters, ahead of time and others I am given only a few weeks to prepare for. Regardless the amount of time I am given, they are always all done the night/nights before they are due. I don't really know how legitimate my argument is, odds are that it's not very, but I would like to throw a fit anyways because it's something to do.
As this school year winds down, I watch my senior friends finish their last days at Kennedy and try to enjoy the end of my time here as a junior. Unfortunately, all of these damn end of the year projects keep on getting in the way of my enjoyment. There's just no end to them!! With a final project and presentation and movie poster board due in AP Psychology, a final presentation over the Beatles in U.S. History, a portfolio and radio essay due in AP Language and Composition, and an oral final to present in Spanish III there are just too many damn things to do! I tell you, there is hardly any learning to be had with any of these projects. What they all really amount to is a "culmination" of our learning. Honestly, the teachers just want you to realize all that you've learned so that you look at this project and then look back on the year and say, "Hey, check out all the things I know!" Don't get me wrong, it's great and all to see what you've accomplished but when all of your teachers decide to assign projects at the same time, instead of coming up with one fabulous essay/project/presentation all of them get rushed and jumbled and come out either half assed or thrown together at the last minute. Fortunately, I believe mine to have survived the toil that can often ruin some final projects, although, coincidentally, since I am writing my AP Lang blog, my radio essay may be a little raunchy for a school project because Andrew and I got lazy and basically said, "Fuck it." We improved a lot of our radio essay, which isn't to say that it wasn't good because we did know what we were doing and the type of person we were trying to portray, it's just that we didn't care to sensor ourselves at all and I may have mentioned swinging my dick around at one point.
I may have gotten off track a little, but the point remains that if our teachers are to schedule final projects, they need to be conscientious of the fact that every other teacher is doing the same thing at the same time. Whether this means smaller projects or staggered due dates, I don't know, but something needs to be done because summer is coming up faster and faster and we are loosing the attention span of many at a rate exponential to that of the days remaining before summer is officially here.
As this school year winds down, I watch my senior friends finish their last days at Kennedy and try to enjoy the end of my time here as a junior. Unfortunately, all of these damn end of the year projects keep on getting in the way of my enjoyment. There's just no end to them!! With a final project and presentation and movie poster board due in AP Psychology, a final presentation over the Beatles in U.S. History, a portfolio and radio essay due in AP Language and Composition, and an oral final to present in Spanish III there are just too many damn things to do! I tell you, there is hardly any learning to be had with any of these projects. What they all really amount to is a "culmination" of our learning. Honestly, the teachers just want you to realize all that you've learned so that you look at this project and then look back on the year and say, "Hey, check out all the things I know!" Don't get me wrong, it's great and all to see what you've accomplished but when all of your teachers decide to assign projects at the same time, instead of coming up with one fabulous essay/project/presentation all of them get rushed and jumbled and come out either half assed or thrown together at the last minute. Fortunately, I believe mine to have survived the toil that can often ruin some final projects, although, coincidentally, since I am writing my AP Lang blog, my radio essay may be a little raunchy for a school project because Andrew and I got lazy and basically said, "Fuck it." We improved a lot of our radio essay, which isn't to say that it wasn't good because we did know what we were doing and the type of person we were trying to portray, it's just that we didn't care to sensor ourselves at all and I may have mentioned swinging my dick around at one point.
I may have gotten off track a little, but the point remains that if our teachers are to schedule final projects, they need to be conscientious of the fact that every other teacher is doing the same thing at the same time. Whether this means smaller projects or staggered due dates, I don't know, but something needs to be done because summer is coming up faster and faster and we are loosing the attention span of many at a rate exponential to that of the days remaining before summer is officially here.
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