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Entry tags:
Stuff.
First of all: I have Skype. Have had for quite some time actually, but am finally trying to get used to it properly. If anyone wants to add me, I'm teadoom there.
Lately on Tumblr, I've been seeing a lot of posts like these two floating around. It's interesting to me because it's a very prevalent idea that I've never been able to completely relate to.
Maybe working as a substitute teacher and gaining an insight into what kind of conditions teachers actually work under has made me defensive, but as someone who's had crippling problems with perfectionism and depression, I can't from my current viewpoint blame this on the system. For me, the social aspects of education have always been more problematic; I remember going to the school nurse for the first time in third grade to talk feeling lonely, and that isolation only grew the years after.
In the context of the educational system itself, I feel like... while the school system is deeply flawed, a lot of these flaws are exacerbated by the lack of communication and cooperation from the students themselves? Which displeases me, because I don't like to think like that, that everything would be better if the students were better (which isn't true, or at least not that true). There are lots of shitty teachers, but there's also lots of shitty attitudes amongst students, but how many of those attitudes are due to social norms amongst teens and how many are due to the school's treatment of its students?
The biggest problem isn't that students have to learn too much, it's that the school system tries to cater to an Average Student that doesn't really exist, that absorbs all kinds of knowledge in one specific way and the teachers can only help filling that gap, not fix it.
So maybe I actually agree, I'm just older now and don't think of teachers as the ultimate responsibility in these things. The people who actually decide how the educational system should work? Are politicians.
Which just goes to prove that teenagers lack perspective in some things, I guess (surprise!). This is one of many reasons I don't like my job, tbh. I feel like I can't relate to most students because this has never been my experience of school.
Less whiny stuff: this is now my new favourite icon. Herodotus! Making and embelleshing history since the 5th century BC! In his honour, have an inscription from the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia:
(context: women were never allowed to participate in the Olympic games; the majority of them didn't even get to witness them. During the Hellenistic period however, chariot races were added to the games, and rich women could actually sponsor them and share in their victory, if not participate themselves. A Spartan woman called Kyniska did so, becoming the first woman in history to win the Olympic games, and erected two monuments in honour of Zeus afterwards).
Sparta's kings were fathers and brothers of mine,
But since with my chariot and horses I, Kyniska,
Have won the price, I place my effigy here
And proudly proclaim
That of all Grecian women I first bore the crown.
(Swaddling 1984:42)
I am awfully fond of this inscription. Women of antiquity seldom got to make their voices heard, but there is such (rightful) pride and attitude in this. <3
(Also, considering the London Olympics of 2012 was the first time in history every participating nation had at least one female representative, I'm surprised I didn't hear her mentioned once... then again I'm not very into sports).
And oh, did I mention she got a hero-shrine erected to her in Sparta, on a site previously reserved for Spartan kings? We're rapidly approaching Actual Favourite Woman of Antiquity territory here folks, as far as I'm concerned.
Lately on Tumblr, I've been seeing a lot of posts like these two floating around. It's interesting to me because it's a very prevalent idea that I've never been able to completely relate to.
Maybe working as a substitute teacher and gaining an insight into what kind of conditions teachers actually work under has made me defensive, but as someone who's had crippling problems with perfectionism and depression, I can't from my current viewpoint blame this on the system. For me, the social aspects of education have always been more problematic; I remember going to the school nurse for the first time in third grade to talk feeling lonely, and that isolation only grew the years after.
In the context of the educational system itself, I feel like... while the school system is deeply flawed, a lot of these flaws are exacerbated by the lack of communication and cooperation from the students themselves? Which displeases me, because I don't like to think like that, that everything would be better if the students were better (which isn't true, or at least not that true). There are lots of shitty teachers, but there's also lots of shitty attitudes amongst students, but how many of those attitudes are due to social norms amongst teens and how many are due to the school's treatment of its students?
The biggest problem isn't that students have to learn too much, it's that the school system tries to cater to an Average Student that doesn't really exist, that absorbs all kinds of knowledge in one specific way and the teachers can only help filling that gap, not fix it.
So maybe I actually agree, I'm just older now and don't think of teachers as the ultimate responsibility in these things. The people who actually decide how the educational system should work? Are politicians.
Which just goes to prove that teenagers lack perspective in some things, I guess (surprise!). This is one of many reasons I don't like my job, tbh. I feel like I can't relate to most students because this has never been my experience of school.
Less whiny stuff: this is now my new favourite icon. Herodotus! Making and embelleshing history since the 5th century BC! In his honour, have an inscription from the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia:
(context: women were never allowed to participate in the Olympic games; the majority of them didn't even get to witness them. During the Hellenistic period however, chariot races were added to the games, and rich women could actually sponsor them and share in their victory, if not participate themselves. A Spartan woman called Kyniska did so, becoming the first woman in history to win the Olympic games, and erected two monuments in honour of Zeus afterwards).
Sparta's kings were fathers and brothers of mine,
But since with my chariot and horses I, Kyniska,
Have won the price, I place my effigy here
And proudly proclaim
That of all Grecian women I first bore the crown.
(Swaddling 1984:42)
I am awfully fond of this inscription. Women of antiquity seldom got to make their voices heard, but there is such (rightful) pride and attitude in this. <3
(Also, considering the London Olympics of 2012 was the first time in history every participating nation had at least one female representative, I'm surprised I didn't hear her mentioned once... then again I'm not very into sports).
And oh, did I mention she got a hero-shrine erected to her in Sparta, on a site previously reserved for Spartan kings? We're rapidly approaching Actual Favourite Woman of Antiquity territory here folks, as far as I'm concerned.