Grades in general

I hate tests, they prove hardly anything and they put unnecessary pressure on students. Specifically in my math class, we go through about six different things per week that are unrelated and we are supposed to remember them all semester, but there are 18 weeks in a semester and as we learn new stuff, the old stuff sort of fades away. I hate math classes because after a while they become irrelevant unless you really plan on using the stuff. Why does somebody who might not ever use this crap have to waste time on it? All of these classes fill the heads of the students and give this this false sense of accomplishment and intelligence, but I have no use for a lot of this stuff and unless you are going on a trivia show like Jeopardy, the classes are a waste. I also find it funny how so many people complain how the U.S. is behind in so many things. Maybe we wouldn't be if the things that we are going to encounter in the real world are taught to us rather than things we never use.

I know some people disagree and feel that some of these classes might help us in the future, but we don't see it yet. I agree to an extent because we know what we dislike more than what we actually like, if that makes any sense. I also know that some people say that this can make us more well rounded people, but how? I often learn more valuable things on my way to class rather than when I am actually in them.

I also realize that there are some oldheads who use the same stupid argument, "When I was in school, we had to do the same thing, if not more." What they fail to realize is that nobody gives a crap and just because they had to do it doesn't mean we should have to, especially if it is useless. People use to ride on horses to get around, does that mean everybody should stop using cars and start riding horses again? People use to typewriters, leave their front doors wide open, and open their windows as ventilation. Does that means that we should all throw away our computers, or leave an invitation to get our houses robbed, or get rid of all of our air conditioners? No, we should use A LOT MORE COMMON SENSE. One of the biggest problems with that is that the people making these dumb rules are focusing on the quantity of classes rather than the quality of them. I never understood why just because a certain class or even a certain "learning institution" has a particular name attached to it, people just accept it. Just because a class is called AP or something like that it doesn't mean it is or the fact that a school has a supposed distinguishment as better than other colleges doesn't mean they are. What is the proof of this so called correlation with a certain type of university and intelligence, the ability to get good jobs after graduating? I just call that knowing the right people or having connections.

Something else about school that just makes me mad is this attendance rule. I get that the universities don't want students to miss class because they feel that it makes the school look bad and it can have a negative effect on the grade in the class. I get that, but what if a student actually does better than everyone who attends regularly, which is possible and happens often even though professors like to lie about that, so they make a certain amount of times that a student can be absent. That really sucks. This year was one of the craziest years I have ever had there were so many things happening that caused me to miss classes, like today I didn't come because I had something private I had to take care of. That brings me to my other point: Some professors feel that they should fail a student if they have one unexcused absence, but not everybody is comfortable telling the whole world their business and who made them God? I'm pretty sure we, the students, would like to know what was so important when the professor misses, that the professor could not come to class like everybody else. To make missing one class or forgetting to staple a paper an automatic fail in a class should be an automatic ass whooping of the professor. I really don't care how bad this sounds because for someone who is supposedly so smart to do something to evil, dumb, and just plain inconsiderate to someone who might have ran out of staples at the last minute and could not afford to buy some (we are college students who scrape the money we have to pay for everything) is just wrong. I know the professors might use the argument of they don't want to have to staple everyone's paper, but I'm pretty sure the students don't want to have to sit through every class inhaling that nerve gas some professors call perfume or cologne nor do they appreciate having to listen to the boring and often times over-sharing of information involving their personal life. But I guess that what happens when you get a little authority, you abuse it and somehow forget that you were once one of those wide-eyed students who just wanted to get by and do something with themselves, but I guess that's just what happens.