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Thank you to the little people who made this blog possible.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

The bare minimum is a bore.

WARNING!! It's not like I have to put a warning on my own blog, but I'll do it anyways out of courtesy. This past weekend, I was coming off of pain killerz and I had ample time to reflect on the upcoming events in my life that I'm not particularly happy about. The last two posts here, including this one, reflect that.


My little sister graduates high school on Thursday morning.

I can't go. I'm already taking Friday off as a vacation day for myself. My boss came up to me and actually said, "Well [DaMasta], I don't know what we're going to do without you on Friday." Honestly, I don't know what she's going to do either, but I'm going to be sleeping in.

After I phoned my mom and told her I was unable to make the morning graduation ceremony, she even responded, "Eh. I mean really.. who wants to take off a morning just to see a graduation ceremony?"

That's true. Why the hell are we still having graduation ceremonies for high schools? At this day in age, we should be driving flying cars and commuting to work telepatheically and we should each have a robot slave at home cooking and cleaning for us. You know, just like the future movies from just twenty years ago where everyone's wearing silver jumpsuits and buying things with their thumb prints instead of credit cards.

Ok, so maybe the advancement in human kind has hit a plateau of sorts. But, if we're still celebrating the graduation of high school, what does this say about the educational advancement of society? I know my last post was about my failures in college, but isn't that why my parents had a second child? To do better? To not make the same mistakes? Or to correct the ones they made with me?

And it's not like we're a dumb family. Sure, my mother only has a high school education and my dad quit school mere months before his own high school graduation, but I think that reflects more on that decade and their individual circumstances. My dad now works at one of the largest engineering firms in the country, and my mother has succeeded for several decades as an industrial salesperson.

So, I don't understand the celebration of high school graduates. What are we trying to convey to them? That's it's a big accomplishment for them to finish the state mandated number of years a child should be educated? It's required. By the state. To graduate high school or get an equivalent GED [but the only ones who really get GEDs nowadays are crack head drop outs or girls who get pregnant their senior year.] I think it's utterly rediculous to congratulate someone on a job-the-state-requires-to-get-done. I think these days, teenagers are living too much like they're in college. Experimenting with drugs, tattoos, piercings, boyfriends/girlfriends, parties, sports.. It's getting a bit out of hand. My sister was in sports. She's not a natural [don't worry, I'm not being mean, it just doesn't run in the family]. My point is, she isn't in it for a scholarship, so why bother with it? And don't tell me that team sports help teens with grades and social skills and blah blah blah. Nope. She doesn't play a 'team' sport. And her grades haven't gone up. And her social skills?.. well, she IS my mother's child, afterall. Since she's been in high school, I've had to read about [from her blog] her losing her virginity, how she likes my parents only when they buy her things, about her getting an ear piercing that my mother paid for, and about how she plans on talking my mom into buying her a new laptop [no doubt so she can continue to berate my mother in her blog using the very computer my mother would have purchased her].

Teenagers should be worried about grades, credentials, community service, and how they are going to use all those to get into a good college and being successful in life. They can socialize in college. I hear study groups are fun.

My mother confirmed that my sister is getting a brand new car and a brand new laptop for her high school graduation gifts.

Why must we always reward the bare minimum?

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm telling you, my plan will work!!! Mwuhahahhaaaa.....

Saturday, May 20, 2006 8:08:00 PM  
Blogger Breazy said...

I am soooo feeling you with the sister thing . I have a sister that is nine years younger than me and let's just say that her raising and mine were completely different.HUGS to you !

P.S. just to let you know , I don't hold anything against my sister . I love her very much but things were different with her than they were with me and my brother and she is therefore spoiled .

Saturday, May 20, 2006 8:12:00 PM  
Blogger Stephanie said...

OMG - my sibling situation is exactly what Breazy said!! 'cept mine is 8 1/2 yrs younger - tee hee.

Gggrrrr... little sisters - gotta love em.

Sunday, May 21, 2006 9:42:00 AM  
Blogger lime said...

i wanna know what dipshit schdules a high school graduation for a thursday morning????

Monday, May 22, 2006 6:22:00 AM  
Blogger lookingbusy said...

I have so much animosity towards the entire education system. I hate them all. Educators suck! (sorry sg.) To me, nothing is more offensive than a high school senior citing their plans for college.

Oh, except for the people that ask 'Where did you go to school?' Like it's some given fact that because I am successful in life, I must be a college graduate. To that, I say I am actually more successful that I didn't go to University. I learned to think for myself, instead of some do-gooder professor impregnating my mind with his beliefs.

At my weekly religous ceremony, we had 6 high school students go to the front of the sanctuary to tell us of their plans 'for the fall.'

Typical response was 'Hi. My name is Ignoramous. I'm graduating this year from Whatever High School. Next fall I am going to Some-Lame-Expensive-University and studying something-that-will-not-help-me-in-my-future-job-as-a-telemarketer.'

Then we had special prayers for the graduating students. OK... Then a really self-gratifying ballet/intrepretive dance thing with a mom sending her kid off to school for the first time, then the mom with a teenager, and finally the mom with the grown kid at graduation. That and songs sung about graduation and transistioning into adulthood. Blah! The whole thing made me sick.

This year I will be attending a graduation for my cousin. I can already hear the valedictorian now. Telling everyone about how they are tomorrows leaders, how important college education is and how important she (it's always a woman it seems like) feels she is. I can feel the vomit regurgitating already.

I could go on, but I better not. As you might have guessed, I didn't have the greatest history in our education system, which I will admit to.

Sorry I took up so much of your comment space E.

Monday, May 22, 2006 3:12:00 PM  
Blogger Crystal said...

Commuting to work telepathically? That is the best idea ever! I could be in the office and in the Bahamas at the SAME TIME!

Can my robot slave look like Jake Gyllenhaaaaaaaawt??? Are there optional parts/upgrades? You know...for the special robot parts?

Tell your sister I said congratulations on the minimal education and her new laptop optimized for the ultimate MySpace surfing!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 12:37:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think we still need to encourage kids to graduate hs, or they will all be crack head pregnant girls.

And so begins the decline of Western society.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 1:54:00 PM  

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