Most annoying things about school

[spartan231490]

Required general education classes in college. The university is certifying you in a certain skill, and this certification should not be predicated upon completing X number of unrelated courses. Nor should it be predicated upon a total number of credits completed. These are blatant instances of money-grabbing on the part of the university, and should not be tolerated.

In general, group projects suck. I have done 100% of the work for well over half, if not fully 3/4 of all my group projects. Not because my partners were lazy(usually), but because I was able to do a better job in less time alone than with the group. Almost every instance where I haven't done all the work, I've fully regretted it.

 

[Dalisclock]

I hate group projects. Every time I get paired up with people who do absolutely nothing and I get stuck with the full project. Glad they have become quite rare in college.

I had that happen to me several times. In one case, the guy showed up once and contributed one tiny little thing. I let the instructor know numerous times, so the other guy got no credit at all for the project(read: got an F) and I got all of it.

The other guy was pissed and strangely surprised that having contributed aprox. 1% of the effort, he got a failing score. He was seriously expecting a good grade.

I wonder what happened to him.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

A lot of it seemed like a huge fucking waste of time. I was ahead in math and finished the required math by sophomore year but god forbid I don't waste the precious hours of my life with either an advanced math class or a second elective. Can't have me going home early or getting a job or doing anything useful with that time, that would be preposterous. Guess I'll take a fucking pottery class.

Or Poetry. Why did that consume half the curriculum in English class from 2nd grade through high school?

That aside, just the sheer amount of time the teachers had to spend on crowd control was absurd. By high school I made it a policy to never do homework at home, save for reports and projects where it was unavoidable. I had so much time during class when the teacher was trying to shut kids up that I was able to read through the material they were supposed to be teaching in the textbook, do the homework, and start doing homework for another class if I needed. Subsequently, the classes moved at a snails pace. You could probably get at least a few weeks worth of high school history curriculum by typing "world war 2" into wikipedia and kicking around there for a half hour.

I guess the most annoying thing about school for me is just that I didn't want to be there as a whole.

Mind you, I'm talking mainly about k-12, college is definitely better about not wasting your time.

 

[Tenkage]

People keep hating group projects, I'm sensing a pattern LOL, no mentions to school lunches...then again I've liked them usually, loved Brunch for Lunch during Elementary school LOL

 

[FPLOON]

People keep hating group projects, I'm sensing a pattern LOL, no mentions to school lunches...then again I've liked them usually, loved Brunch for Lunch during Elementary school LOL

You see, I can't say I hated school lunches because I always brought my own lunch every single school day...

Sure, I was one of those students that didn't have to pay for school lunches and the only times I would get in those long ass lines at lunch was for either a pizza (that I would spread ketchup on) or a plain hamburger (because I never liked cheeseburgers), but even then I still brought my own lunch to school... Basically, throughout high school, I never went back into those lines ever again because I knew by the time I would have gotten a school pizza, lunch would be almost over and I would not have enough time to eat the food that I had on me before the next class period started. Even when I had two classes throughout my whole time in high school where the teacher allowed us to eat our food in class, it was still not worth those brief moments where pizza, at least, was being served at lunch and I was willing to stand in those long lines just to get a slice...

So, it was never the school lunches I hated... It was the process and the time you had to take advantage of those lunch times in general...

 

[Tenkage]

Outdoor gym activities.
During winter.
In Canada.
Seriously, it's like fucking Hoth here.

Seriously Canada has outdoor winter activities, not to be rude (US Citizen here) you'd think they know its too cold for that sort of thing. But like hoth....suddenly I'm thinking of Darth Vader...but with a Canadian Accent LOL

 

[porous_shield]

Back in high school a couple of my friends had learning difficulties and didn't read as fast as others so they had trouble keeping up in the regular class so they were put in a different one. This was done with the best intentions but they always ended up in classes with the biggest assholes in the school who had serious issues and made their days a living hell.

For me, the most annoying thing was that students were always lumped together regardless of ability in primary, elementary, and junior high so we learned at the lowest common dominator. High school things finally got better when we could choose advanced, academic, and basic streams (though that obviously wasn't better for my friends mentioned above).

Another thing that annoyed me was the jackasses that gave teachers hell. I think it's awful that someone should have to put up with that kind of abuse for their job because some asshat is a terrible person.

 

[Filiecs]

In high school at least, the complete and utter disregard for creativity or quality. It doesn't matter if you did something amazing: Did it offend someone? Suspended. Did it break one of the assignment's requirements by a tiny bit? Failing grade.


I am so glad that I was able to get out of high school a year early and into the college of my dreams. Now i'm doing real work and loving it. I, thankfully, never lost my love of learning and am thriving at my college which is actually teaching me skills and how they are relevant to my future.

I would also complain about team projects, but those can be saved with good leadership. I'm working on getting into the games industry so working effectively on a team is a critical skill.

 

[Zemaddog]

80 minute assembly in 40C heat (104F) outside for the students who did exceptionally well in their last year of high school. None of the current students wanted to be there, and 90% of the people receiving awards didn't want to be there either.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I hated school. And the thing I hated most about it was the tribal mentality that bestows most people. This doesn't just happen at school, it happens in general too.

I don't mind if it is a team or an assigned group, especially if it is for some sort of friendly competition. People being loyal to tutor groups, or shool years, or even school in interschool sports was fine, but it was the tribal/herd mentality that happened inter-/intra-year during social timings within the school. I never fitted in with a certain group, and instead was friends with a range of people in my year! In fact I was friendly with practically everyone. However there were stupid fucking politics with all the 'friendship groups' and sometimes I found it difficult to find anyone to actually socialise with because 'I wasn't in their group'. It was stupid and petty and and childish and it made me develop a huge bugbear for social barriers!

I am in the military now... and there are no set barriers (outside of rank) like that. You know where you stand, and nobody will instantly exclude you just because you don't regularily hang around with them. I can now walk into the mess bar on any night of the week and just strike a conversation with anyone, which is a refreshing change!

God... this thread just served as a massive reminder of how miserable school was!

 

[eatenbyagrue]

Outdoor gym activities.
During winter.
In Canada.
Seriously, it's like fucking Hoth here.

Seriously Canada has outdoor winter activities, not to be rude (US Citizen here) you'd think they know its too cold for that sort of thing. But like hoth....suddenly I'm thinking of Darth Vader...but with a Canadian Accent LOL

"No Luke, I am your father eh. Also, I'm really sorry about cutting your hand off there."

 

[Pifflestick]

Its been said, but I'll say it again. Group projects. I work best alone in most cases, I focus better and I'm able to work through problems on my own, throwing other people into the mix gums up the works and my brain loses focus. Also, they're just absolute bullshit. I was in law class one semester and we had to do a group project where we needed to come up with a defense for a woman who was being charged with murder and then actually state your defense in front of other people, the problem was that I have a good brain for law but I have severe social anxiety to the point where ordering at a restaurant is terrifying.

Since I have such a good brain for law I gave my team a compromise, I'd write the defense and they'd do the oration. I spent all night writing, had two panic attacks when my brain just wouldn't come up with a proper word to complete a sentence, and at the end I got a lower grade then the rest of my group because I "Didn't do enough work", all because I didn't talk. Even when I told the teacher I wrote the entire goddamn speech I still got a lower grade. If I remember correctly, they got 90%, and the teacher gave me 75% until I told him I did all the writing, and he bumped me up to 85%.

So yeah, fuck group projects, and fuck school in general for being a completely worthless relic which has been proven to not fucking work.

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

Don´t get the hate for group projects here. Newsflash, life is a group project. Everything from going to the pub to work to raising a kid will depend upon you working together with other people of varying skill and skillset. You said it without realizing it Pifflestick, without your group you would have been absolutely worthless no matter how good you are at law.

The whole smug introvert act in general is kind of grating after a while. Skill is like money is according to Keynes. Worthless unless it is getting spent. It doesn´t matter how smart, creative or otherwise able you are unless you can "project" that outward in order to affect the things and people around you.

So yeah, fuck group projects, and fuck school in general for being a completely worthless relic which has been proven to not fucking work.

I´ll give you that there is not a school system in the world that is flawless but worthless and does not work? What do you propose we do instead?

 

[Saulkar]

Outdoor gym activities.
During winter.
In Canada.
Seriously, it's like fucking Hoth here.

Then you would have hated me. Whenever we were given the choice of what to do for gym I would always be the first to shout cross country skiing. To make it worse I would always do it in a tank top up to -25C, barring windchill. Frostbite yo!

OT: The two things I hated the most about school were lazy, physically abusive teachers and ideological fascism.

The first being that I had (and still do today to varying degrees) just barely high functioning autism/aspergers and despite the steps needed to talk me down when stressed were plainly laid out before the teachers they would always deliberately and aggressively provoke me in order to claim that they felt I was a threat in order to physically restrain me and lock me up in a small 2.5x2.5 meter room for up to six hours. Said restraining bruising both muscle and fucking bones as well by crossing my arms under my diaphragm, digging their knee between my shoulder blades, and pulling until I started wheezing. Falling on me numerous times or just straight up sitting on me.


They did this every single fucking time for 9 fucking years of elementary school! It was no better in highschool where my coping mechanism of becoming temporarily catatonic for a few minutes in order to collected myself was universally ignored on all levels by every damn teacher (to whom were all explained said coping mechanism) who would start to yell at me when I did not acknowledge them.

I am now more sensory defensive than ever before it it has not gotten better in the 2 years since graduating high school and the 8 since elementary.

Lastly there is always that suffocating atmosphere where the teacher has a habit of passive aggressively attacking and suppressing conflicting or varied ideologies that differed from the school or individual teacher. Worst part was that I started to develop a stutter which made arguing in person impossible.

 

[eatenbyagrue]

Don´t get the hate for group projects here. Newsflash, life is a group project. Everything from going to the pub to work to raising a kid will depend upon you working together with other people of varying skill and skillset. You said it without realizing it Pifflestick, without your group you would have been absolutely worthless no matter how good you are at law.

The whole smug introvert act in general is kind of grating after a while. Skill is like money is according to Keynes. Worthless unless it is getting spent. It doesn´t matter how smart, creative or otherwise able you are unless you can "project" that outward in order to affect the things and people around you.

So yeah, fuck group projects, and fuck school in general for being a completely worthless relic which has been proven to not fucking work.

I´ll give you that there is not a school system in the world that is flawless but worthless and does not work? What do you propose we do instead?

This is pretty much what we're taught when taking Education. School is supposed to be society in miniature, and the lesson people are supposed to take from group projects is that they learn how to work with people.

Also, maybe he was suggesting we return to the Ancient Greek style of teaching where we'd have to have these big forums for philosophers to speak, and anyone who wanted to (or needed to) would go and discuss ideas.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Classes which have absolutely nothing to do with your chosen program.
Like bookkeeping when you're studying to be a programmer.

 

[Tenkage]

Outdoor gym activities.
During winter.
In Canada.
Seriously, it's like fucking Hoth here.

Seriously Canada has outdoor winter activities, not to be rude (US Citizen here) you'd think they know its too cold for that sort of thing. But like hoth....suddenly I'm thinking of Darth Vader...but with a Canadian Accent LOL

"No Luke, I am your father eh. Also, I'm really sorry about cutting your hand off there."

That is so awesome, seriously someone make a fan dub of that scene with sterotypical Canadian accents

 

[Tenkage]

You know something I want to know, why do they put the Special ed rooms in the back of the school, growing up with Aspergers and ADHD and Depression, my middle school life was hell, and one of those aspects was the walk of shame to the back of the school. Seriously What the hell schools

 

[eatenbyagrue]

You know something I want to know, why do they put the Special ed rooms in the back of the school, growing up with Aspergers and ADHD and Depression, my middle school life was hell, and one of those aspects was the walk of shame to the back of the school. Seriously What the hell schools

Speculation on my part, but a lot of schools aren't built with children with special needs in mind, especially if your school is a lot older, when a lot of what we know about most of these special needs weren't even around. Best guess is that when the school board (or the PTA, or whoever makes these demands) started asking the school for facilities for children with special needs, the school put them up in the only area where they had space.