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As long as you show up, you pass

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Contributed by: William Kus on 5/1/2007

As far as I can remember, the only thing that ever mattered at any school I went to, whether it was jr. high or college, was showing up everyday and doing your homework.

It didn't matter that you didn't learn one single thing. The only thing that mattered was that you were there and that you did some moronic homework assingment.

It didn't matter if you could ace the tests, you were required to be in class and do the homework.

The reasoning behind that? Well that's the only way to learn. By showing up in class.

But as we are starting to learn, real life experience matters a lot more than anything you might learn in school.

What everyone tells me is that school isn't about learning about book stuff, it's about learning how to be social and interact with other kids. Ok now it gets confusing, because that is completely secondary to learning.

It's not a good idea to let a bunch of kids teach themselves social rules. It turns into Animal Kingdom, with packs of wolves and lions squaring off against each other.

If we want to teach kids social lessons, we should have places specifically for that. School is not designed to teach social lessons, in fact it is the opposite. It seperates kids in an almost prison like system.

Besides the things we try to teach in school are practiced oppositely in the real world.

The students know that the more money you make, the less you do. Why should anyone try hard.

It's never been about what you know, but who you know. How many times have you heard that? Well you may not have heard it until you get out into the real world and try and get a job. Then you realize school was useless. You could be a complete idiot, but as long as you and the boss get along, you know you're the one being promoted.

They probably see the principles or other school staff taking long lunches and just walking around doing nothing. I mean great, but you get paid twice as much as the teachers who are constantly busting their butts.

I take the analogy of someone picking grapes. You have the most backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields, and those guys make 50 cents a box or something. Then you go to the executives at any company. They come in late, leave early and when they are at work, they don't really have any duties. Most of the time they screw up the people who actually do work.

So in the real world, the harder the job, the less you make, while the more you make the less you have to do.

I can easily show up late, reply to emails for 10 minutes. Forward emails for 10 minutes. Do random paperwork then have the rest of the day to browse the internet or flirt with the coworkers. But could one of these executives be able to pick grapes in a field for one day. Even for their six figure salaries? No way. I'm sure they might do it for one day. But not their whole life.

But in any company I have ever been to, the only thing that ever mattered was attendance. Most people would say "Well that is the most important thing, because nothing can be done if you're not there."

Well people hardly notice that nothing gets done with the people who ARE there every day. Maybe you'd be better off using the guy who DOES get things done but doesn't come in every single day. As opposed to the people who show up everyday but never do anything.

Do the math here. You want someone who does7 hours of work but only shows up 4 days a week, or you want someone who does 0 hours of work but is there 5 days a week.

Sure it isn't always that clear cut. But people think attendence is a sign of intelligence. I think it might be in the best interest of a company to look for people who actually enjoy the job, as opposed to someone who knows how to work the system to their benefit.

Now I am not knocking good attendence. That is the cornerstone of a good student. You can't learn what the teacher has to teach you if you aren't in class.

Well actually you could do all your work from home if the teachers modernized their teaching approach.

Imagine how much money we'd save by not having concrete schools. Those places could then be used as social centers.

Or couldn't they create huge virtual schools in poor countries just by setting up a television and a camera on a dirt patch somewhere. Then the teacher would have a live feed back and forth between her virtual classroom.

I'd prefer a robot for a teacher, but that's just me.

The fact is school and work are both geared to look basically at attendance first, then factor in the other things, like how much you actually learned, or if you could apply it in a real world situation.

It's more important that you answer "HERE" when the teacher calls your name, then go back to sleep. It's easy enough to copy your homework and test answers from someone when you wake up.

I forgot to mention why attendance is so important.

It's money. Schools are paid based on how many students show up. Plain and simple. If you're in class, the school gets more money.

But the kids see a hypocrisy in how their parents and teachers act. When you're young, you are forced to go to school until you are between 16 - 18 years of age. But if you want to succeed you might be required to go an extra four to twelve years minimum.

Unfortunately graduate students are becoming a dime a dozen. Especially when compared to their non-American counterparts in other countries who have a greater desire to succeed. Probably due to lack of opportunities in their own countries.

But once you get into the workplace, you get paid vacations and sick days. And while you're working you usually get to do what you want.

The less you get paid, the less freedom you get and the less you are treated like a person.

Although as I stopped to think about it,most peoplework all year as opposed to people who go to school for about 75% of the year. Well it all depends. Some people don't work all year. Especially the people who make a lot of money.

The world is a weird place full of contradictions. You just have to get out there and experience it for yourself. School just holds most people back.

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