No school today, so no article.
A small storm going on outside right now, but don't worry, it isn't because the school board got considerate and canceled the day.
Still, I'm enjoying my very english cup of tea, and watching a very American Hollywood film.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
We are the Borg, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile (or is it?)
In a unpleasant turn of events CSL decided to leaf out of the books of the Borg, and of the English Canadians from back in the times of the British regime in Canada. CSL, being a french school, belonging to a french school board, has a natural opposition against english speakers, and the usage of english in the school. At the start of the school year, they decided to mix the two advanced English classes, with the other four classes composed mainly of French speakers in an attempt to assimilate us. (Trust us, there isn't another reason. And even if there was, this was one of the bigger ones.)
Something they don't understand about assimilation, and this any Dumbass of the Borg could tell you, is that you need to be more in numbers, and be something more perfect or offer something better than the group you are trying to assimilate. (Borg are many, and are near perfect. English Canadians were more in numbers, and had a judicial system the French Canadians liked)
Two ironic things about this new arrangement.
One:
All class averages dropped by around 5%. Entire school averages are now lower than what it used to be. This means CSL's reputation is pulverized like a Smart car that's been rolled over repetitively by a tank. Next year, we probably won't make the list of the top 20 best secondary schools. Oh well, I don't think CSL can last very long anymore. It's been downhill for a few years. We're the end of the line. It turns out that there's a certain honor in being the last of something. (Famous last words: More weight!)
Two: Ever since Sec 1, our history class has been teaching us about how the English Canadians came up with laws, regulations, etc. to assimilate the French Canadians. Depending on your point of view, it either worked or failed. And now, trying the process in reverse, the FCs are trying to eat up the ECs at CSL.
From my point of view, CSL's attempted assimilation of the English speaking students was a hilarious failure and probably was the final step in pitching CSL off the cliff. We aren't any closer from speaking french except when absolutely needed, and overall school performance decreased. A great big F is in order I think for the person(s) who came up with this brillant plan. Kudos! What are you planning next I wonder? Maybe the assimilation of the Chinese?
Something they don't understand about assimilation, and this any Dumbass of the Borg could tell you, is that you need to be more in numbers, and be something more perfect or offer something better than the group you are trying to assimilate. (Borg are many, and are near perfect. English Canadians were more in numbers, and had a judicial system the French Canadians liked)
Two ironic things about this new arrangement.
One:
All class averages dropped by around 5%. Entire school averages are now lower than what it used to be. This means CSL's reputation is pulverized like a Smart car that's been rolled over repetitively by a tank. Next year, we probably won't make the list of the top 20 best secondary schools. Oh well, I don't think CSL can last very long anymore. It's been downhill for a few years. We're the end of the line. It turns out that there's a certain honor in being the last of something. (Famous last words: More weight!)
Two: Ever since Sec 1, our history class has been teaching us about how the English Canadians came up with laws, regulations, etc. to assimilate the French Canadians. Depending on your point of view, it either worked or failed. And now, trying the process in reverse, the FCs are trying to eat up the ECs at CSL.
From my point of view, CSL's attempted assimilation of the English speaking students was a hilarious failure and probably was the final step in pitching CSL off the cliff. We aren't any closer from speaking french except when absolutely needed, and overall school performance decreased. A great big F is in order I think for the person(s) who came up with this brillant plan. Kudos! What are you planning next I wonder? Maybe the assimilation of the Chinese?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Ethical Trivialities
In our 9 day schedule plan, ethics only surfaces twice, meaning we have 40 periods of it each year. We have watched movies (Hollywood movies, mind you) that underline some of the world’s most pressing issues/conflicts.
Normally when you think watching movies in class, you think: ‘Oh cool, we get to watch a movie and do some small but relatively mellow project on it after.’ Not at our school, obviously. That’s right; the pedantic, *term deleted* of a teacher is making us write a boring text about general themes from the movies. When I say general, I cannot stress the meaning of the word much more. For example, we watched a movie about genocide taking place in a certain country in Africa (coughRwandacough). You’d expect we would be assigned to talk about a relatively precise theme, say military involvement in the conflict or the international actions taken by the countries that supported the afflicted nation. They are more interesting to expand on than what they gave us. Tolerance, seriously? You want us to write only half a page or one page on tolerance when you give us a subject that large? Illogical! Inconceivable!
The worst of it all is, this bumbling bumpkin of a stand-in is being replaced by next week but still wants us to hand the assignment in. The solution I found was to profit from the given time in the computer lab and his devotion to the rejection of vigilance against students who like to do Sudoku on the computer instead of working. People will probably give in a concise work that was done in a rush with practically no diligence implied and the substitute will tear them up and use them for crackers in his soup whilst claiming that ‘it counts for our report card’ or some other weak lie of the kind.
If my constant pessimism has caused you distress, I will be honest and say I couldn't care less and advise you to keep following this blog or else!
Lime
==============================================
I would like to add that despite all the hard work we've been putting in, Ethics remain unevaluated in this term's report card, which by the way, is FUBAR. (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) Half the teachers just randomly picked a number between 50 and 100. Some people who regularly piss teachers off, never hand in homework, and barely pass got 92 or 100 while others got a "fuck you, now scram". In part, this is because of CSMB only giving the teachers the eval grids they need now— half way into the year, in other words. The teachers didn't know what to eval before, and the students didn't know what was evaluated. How are we supposed to succeed? We should get top marks just for guessing what they wanted. Oh, and also a medal for not dropping out. Handing creatively crafted shit over on a silver platter to the bosses, that's us.
Normally when you think watching movies in class, you think: ‘Oh cool, we get to watch a movie and do some small but relatively mellow project on it after.’ Not at our school, obviously. That’s right; the pedantic, *term deleted* of a teacher is making us write a boring text about general themes from the movies. When I say general, I cannot stress the meaning of the word much more. For example, we watched a movie about genocide taking place in a certain country in Africa (coughRwandacough). You’d expect we would be assigned to talk about a relatively precise theme, say military involvement in the conflict or the international actions taken by the countries that supported the afflicted nation. They are more interesting to expand on than what they gave us. Tolerance, seriously? You want us to write only half a page or one page on tolerance when you give us a subject that large? Illogical! Inconceivable!
The worst of it all is, this bumbling bumpkin of a stand-in is being replaced by next week but still wants us to hand the assignment in. The solution I found was to profit from the given time in the computer lab and his devotion to the rejection of vigilance against students who like to do Sudoku on the computer instead of working. People will probably give in a concise work that was done in a rush with practically no diligence implied and the substitute will tear them up and use them for crackers in his soup whilst claiming that ‘it counts for our report card’ or some other weak lie of the kind.
If my constant pessimism has caused you distress, I will be honest and say I couldn't care less and advise you to keep following this blog or else!
Lime
==============================================
I would like to add that despite all the hard work we've been putting in, Ethics remain unevaluated in this term's report card, which by the way, is FUBAR. (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) Half the teachers just randomly picked a number between 50 and 100. Some people who regularly piss teachers off, never hand in homework, and barely pass got 92 or 100 while others got a "fuck you, now scram". In part, this is because of CSMB only giving the teachers the eval grids they need now— half way into the year, in other words. The teachers didn't know what to eval before, and the students didn't know what was evaluated. How are we supposed to succeed? We should get top marks just for guessing what they wanted. Oh, and also a medal for not dropping out. Handing creatively crafted shit over on a silver platter to the bosses, that's us.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Very Special Extra Too Good to Pass Up
Here is an article from cracked.com
It is EXACTLY the conclusion I've come to a few years ago.
I hope they don't remove it anytime soon from their website. It should be printed and framed and carefully conserved for future generations.
It is EXACTLY the conclusion I've come to a few years ago.
I hope they don't remove it anytime soon from their website. It should be printed and framed and carefully conserved for future generations.
The Great Depression
Continuing right on with the topic with depression, quite a few students are experiencing The Great Depression.
Nearly every CSL student gets hit with this, at least once a year, likely during the winter months, due to:
the depressing weather
all the things mentioned earlier
all the things still to be mentioned.
When it happens, we're as unproductive as politicians. Ironically, it's very fitting since most of our curriculum is about the creative manipulation of bullshit. (Depending on subject, different origins and types of shit are manipulated to achieve the perfectly tailor-made end product required)
Another obvious problem is motivation.
Contrary to the real Great Depression (see, we did learn something from history class), where the people WANTED to work, we aren't in the mood to do anything when we get hit with this tsunami of this intense and persistent feeling of dread and boredom. Many a times, especially the first lesson of the day, you often ask yourself "What the *expletive deleted* am I doing here? It's a beautiful day outside. Why am I here to learn about 'the creative manipulation of bullshit' while I could be doing so much more? (So many things come to mind... ;))
How are students supposed to work if they feel like crap? How are we supposed to be inspired to learn? How can we creatively manipulate BS when we're constantly in a state where half our emotional, mental and physical capabilities are shutdown? We've ticked off step one on the checklist to How to Become a Zombie in Three Easy Steps.
Clearly, CSL and CSMB haven't got THEIR shit figured out. Maybe they should learn a little from the very curriculum they've prepared for us.
Nearly every CSL student gets hit with this, at least once a year, likely during the winter months, due to:
the depressing weather
all the things mentioned earlier
all the things still to be mentioned.
When it happens, we're as unproductive as politicians. Ironically, it's very fitting since most of our curriculum is about the creative manipulation of bullshit. (Depending on subject, different origins and types of shit are manipulated to achieve the perfectly tailor-made end product required)
Another obvious problem is motivation.
Contrary to the real Great Depression (see, we did learn something from history class), where the people WANTED to work, we aren't in the mood to do anything when we get hit with this tsunami of this intense and persistent feeling of dread and boredom. Many a times, especially the first lesson of the day, you often ask yourself "What the *expletive deleted* am I doing here? It's a beautiful day outside. Why am I here to learn about 'the creative manipulation of bullshit' while I could be doing so much more? (So many things come to mind... ;))
How are students supposed to work if they feel like crap? How are we supposed to be inspired to learn? How can we creatively manipulate BS when we're constantly in a state where half our emotional, mental and physical capabilities are shutdown? We've ticked off step one on the checklist to How to Become a Zombie in Three Easy Steps.
Clearly, CSL and CSMB haven't got THEIR shit figured out. Maybe they should learn a little from the very curriculum they've prepared for us.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Yay, our school's first vending machine!
Recently, a vending machine has been shipped to the sardine can. (cafeteria) You have to wonder how the school got the money. Our desks are decades old, the computers are crap, and in the interest of staying on topic, etc etc etc.
Probably, it was the separate cafeteria-food-making-company who paid the fees and masterminded this brilliant plan. But still, you wonder, 4 years you've been at this institution, the prices have always gone up by 5, or 10 or even 15 cents for every product every year. (Hey smartass, don't get started on inflation. I checked, 10 cents is way too much of a compensation for it)
What the hell is a vending machine doing in the corner?
Are the horrendously overpriced items meant to pay for another way to take our money?
Probably, but it won't work.
Why? Because the "business geniuses" filled the vending machine is filled with healthy food. Beurk. A vending machine isn't a vending machine without chips, chocolate bars, candy etc. (Not to mention crack) There isn't even the paper flavored "cooked, not fried potato chips".
A few people don't even know what that rectangular box in the corner is.
"Duuuuuudddee, you see the new student over there? In the corner? I wonder if he has some crack. I really could use some about now. Just got totally blasted in history class dude, I feel like I'm related to the Amérindiens: they smoke pot, I smoke pot. We're so like, brotha from anotha motha dude..."
And others squash their faces to the glass, drooling. Finally, they find their money, they enter one-two-five instead of D-3. (Then they scream, spit flying: WHY GOD, WHY? WHY DOESN'T IT WORK FOR ME?!)
The high point of all this, knowing CSL, the vending machine will probably break down soon and a fortune will be needed to repair it. Oh joy, anticipate an extra big price rise next year. Thank god only one more year to go.
One of these days, I'll post a list of all things wrong about CSL. Just to depress* us some more.
================================
*Before anyone gullible enough comes along and actually believes we're depressed and start writing letters to CSL and CSMB about our case, well.....
You're right. We're always right on the edge of depression canyon. Thankfully, we have crack, and other moral boosting things to keep us from tumbling in all the time. (Maybe I should lay off the crack connection?---it's getting old isn't it?Besides, none of us actually does crack. Right? )
Probably, it was the separate cafeteria-food-making-company who paid the fees and masterminded this brilliant plan. But still, you wonder, 4 years you've been at this institution, the prices have always gone up by 5, or 10 or even 15 cents for every product every year. (Hey smartass, don't get started on inflation. I checked, 10 cents is way too much of a compensation for it)
What the hell is a vending machine doing in the corner?
Are the horrendously overpriced items meant to pay for another way to take our money?
Probably, but it won't work.
Why? Because the "business geniuses" filled the vending machine is filled with healthy food. Beurk. A vending machine isn't a vending machine without chips, chocolate bars, candy etc. (Not to mention crack) There isn't even the paper flavored "cooked, not fried potato chips".
A few people don't even know what that rectangular box in the corner is.
"Duuuuuudddee, you see the new student over there? In the corner? I wonder if he has some crack. I really could use some about now. Just got totally blasted in history class dude, I feel like I'm related to the Amérindiens: they smoke pot, I smoke pot. We're so like, brotha from anotha motha dude..."
And others squash their faces to the glass, drooling. Finally, they find their money, they enter one-two-five instead of D-3. (Then they scream, spit flying: WHY GOD, WHY? WHY DOESN'T IT WORK FOR ME?!)
The high point of all this, knowing CSL, the vending machine will probably break down soon and a fortune will be needed to repair it. Oh joy, anticipate an extra big price rise next year. Thank god only one more year to go.
One of these days, I'll post a list of all things wrong about CSL. Just to depress* us some more.
================================
*Before anyone gullible enough comes along and actually believes we're depressed and start writing letters to CSL and CSMB about our case, well.....
You're right. We're always right on the edge of depression canyon. Thankfully, we have crack, and other moral boosting things to keep us from tumbling in all the time. (Maybe I should lay off the crack connection?---it's getting old isn't it?Besides, none of us actually does crack. Right? )
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