I've learned more from listening to KaTG than I ever did in school.

[william]

Well, not actually, but it did get your attention.

I was thinking the other day how so much of school was a waste of time. To this day I can't figure out why so many professors were obsessed with how you quoted references - how you formatted it, what had to be underlined, what had to be in caps, etc.. and points were taking off your final grade if anything was formatted incorrectly. I never saw the point in it. It wasn't as if any of my papers were ever going to be published - and if they were that's why editors and proof-readers exist! Figuring out how to quote your sources was one of the most painful parts of writing a paper. Hopefully now they have software for this.

And you could never use an encyclopedia as a reference! My mother spent two years getting me one of those supermarket encyclopedias. Each month a new volume would come out and she would save up to buy it for me. I remember being so upset the first time I used it in school and a teacher told me you couldn't use an encyclopedia as a reference. My mother fucking spent months saving and buying this for me and I can't use it for school!?! You $@#$!!

And then there were all the math classes one had to take. Here's what you need to get by in 99% of the jobs:

• Basic arithmetic
• Basic algebra - and probably for 97% of the jobs this is useless too
• How negative numbers work
• How to figure out percentages
• What's a ratio
• What are fractions
• How to turn a fraction into a percent.

...and you're done!

Geometry should be left to the smart kids who want to take it. Forget calculus - that's only for the super-smart.

As for history - the way it's taught is so boring that they might as well give up. I've learned more about Cesar watching "HBO's Rome" that I can recall from all my years at school.

Social Studies? Every time there's an election they have to explain what the electoral college is and most people can't tell you the difference between a senator and a representative nor what they do. I learned more about our government watching "Schoolhouse Rock" than I ever did in school (man! It seems like the only way I can learn things is by watching TV - then again - so? It's a different medium - if you can recall what you learn from watching TV but forget it when you learn it from a teacher then what's the better method?). Government and Social Studies shouldn't take more than six months of a student's life (and only in High School).

Anyone take a foreign language in school? Ask someone ten years later after they've taken 3 or 4 years in H.S. and they'll remember how to say "Hello" and "My name is." You want to teach a kid a foreign language? Have them use it all the time not just when the teacher calls on you. Teach the rules of grammar and spelling after they've mastered speaking it.

Shakespeare? Zzzzzz.... (and this from an English major.) "Look! Little Jimmy got the lead role as Hamlet!" Great - now for the next six months he's going to spend hours learning lines. I'd rather have use that time to learn how to build an engine.

I sucked at reading - always a low scorer until I was in the sixth grade and for some reason we were allowed to read whatever books we wanted. I remember taking months to read "A Dog on Barkingham Street" and when I finished it I was like - wow! That was actually fun! Within a year I was an avid reader and aced reading. I wound up amassed the largest library of books of anyone I know until a few years ago when I needed to make more space. (I kept a few volumes of my Mom's encyclopedia because I just couldn't part with the whole thing.)

You want kids to develop good reading habits? Give them stuff they'd like to read. Read Stephen King if you have to.

(On a side note I once took a drama class and I didn't get around to reading one of the plays. Instead I watched it. For some reason the professor asked he a question which lead me to reply that I didn't get to read the play but I did go see it the week before - to which he replied, "Excellent! Plays are meant to be seen, not read!")

Art? When I was in grammar school art consisted of having one of the parents come over once a month, handing out a bunch of construction paper and then asking us to draw something. When ten minutes were up she would ask us to hold up our stick figures crayon blobs. Once we were done humiliating ourselves she would hold up her superior drawing and listen to us all ohhh and ahhh. So much for art. Art should be fun but don't bore them with elaborate long histories of who painted what and when. They'll worry about that stuff later when they're trying to impress their date.

Gym? Gym was doing jumping jacks for 10 minutes, running around in a circle, and then getting whacked in the head playing dodge ball or being almost blinded from a field hockey stick. Why isn't cycling a sport in school? Even the geeks can ride a bike.

BTW - I have learned a lot about the Clown profession from KaTG! And I'm sure other things...