Well, I've hit a RECORD on this blog:
on Thursday, October 4th, I hit....
TWELVE pageviews!
That's the most I've had in one day so far. There are 112 total, by the way. Which to me, seems like quite a lot. But then, I look at other blogs that are actually read... and they have 112 people who are actively following them.
But then, I've always had trouble with relative populace... To explain, I was home-schooled, first through eighth grades, so for all that time, it was myself, my 3 sisters (one older, two younger) and, for much of the time, one of my cousins with us. So my whole 'school' for the major formative years of my life had all of 5 kids, and my mother, in it. That's all. I didn't hang out with people, I didn't have a lot of friends- or any at all, really- and even when I went to High School, I wasn't around a lot of kids....
I went to a private school on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. There were about 150 kids in the school; we had a student-teacher ratio of 8:1. And that was a lot of kids to me. It wasn't crowded, but there were people... everywhere. It was really weird to me, to see people you didn't know. Now, by the time I was a Sophomore, I knew everyone in the school- by name, at least. As a Junior, I knew them even better. As a Senior, I didn't know the Freshmen very well beyond a few of them, and I still don't know a lot of them- and even then, I knew them all by sight, so I didn't see strangers around the school at all after... oh, about two months of being in school that year.
So yeah, 112 views is a good number to me. It's not famous, and I definitely understand that, but still, it feels.. good, I guess. Weird, mostly.
Anyways.
Yes, I was home-schooled. For a very long time. And I still maintain a strong disdain for most public schools- at least, definitely those in Maryland. Now, my best friend in college went to a slightly exclusive, incredibly difficult, intense public school in NYC- now, it had an entrance exam, but it was public school. Now, this school was, I'm pretty sure, more difficult and intense than my, *private*, school. However, it also has a population that's almost entirely Asian and Indian... not being racist. Just saying- stereotypes exist for a reason. (more on that later)
So yeah, not all public schools are shitholes. However, there are a LOT of them which ARE, very much so. I've heard stories of teachers who love their students, who teach in the public system because they want to help as many kids as they can, and who put in all of their own time and effort to teach the kids what they need to know. There are motivational stories about teachers, students, athletes, coaches- they're full of them.
Then again, the Army is full of crazy, bad-ass, intense, motivating stories in its history as well. But today, I'm sorry- the Army just isn't 'all that'. They aren't all bad-ass. Being a soldier is honorable, sure, but... I joined the Marines for a fucking reason.
Anyways. Because the organizations- the Army and public schools- are so HUGE, there are inevitably some success stories... but the majority of them is just.... sad (these days, anyway)
I hear stories about teachers who didn't pass their subject in college; men and women who just copy pages from the book onto a projector and teach them to the class; 'teachers' who are less enthusiastic about their subject than their students are; 'teachers' who teach something and then assign homework, and the students start the reading... and realize that the teacher was entirely wrong, entirely different from the text. I've heard stories that frighten me, sicken me, stories that just... disappoint and sadden me. Public schools are derelict, run-down, half-baked.
.... that's kind of a random post (not that all of these aren't, but this is especially so)
It's kind of late, and I'm on a 4-day weekend, and don't particularly care right now.... so 'bye.
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