Hiatus

I have not yet abandoned my blog. I have been caught up in the whirlwind of AP testing, the philosophical residue paper and Guardian-related tasks. As such, I had no time to post anything insightful.

I hope to be back as soon as possible after next May 23.

From the April 18, 2008 edition of The Guardian

"'Top of the bottom: EGHS students' potential goes untapped'
Becca Craig, Managing Editor; Dan Stevens, Editor in Chief

Harvard, Yale, Princeton - many students dream of attending such top-tier universities, but only a select few are admitted.

For EGHS, "few" is roughly synonymous to "none."

As most admissions decisions have already poured in, several of EGHS's college-bound seniors find themselves on waiting lists for prestigious colleges, if they are not outright rejected, while their District 214 counterparts have gained entrance into upper-echelon schools, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke University.

Either something is in the water, or Elk Grove and Des Plaines natives are not measuring up. How come EGHS's best and brightest do not seem to be up to par with students from neighboring high schools?

College and career counselor Paul Genovese said that colleges are becoming more selective because of the increase in applicants.

"There are no bad schools; they are all about finding the right fit," Genovese said. "Still, it's so competitive. Colleges pay special attention to your senior year, to make sure you take a rigorous course load."

However, this may be a crucible of a larger epidemic roaming the halls.

Discussions have taken place among faculty members for all of English teacher Ryan Asmussen's five years at EGHS.

"There seems to be a noticeable lack of personal incentive," Asmussen said. "You can't teach a student who doesn't want to learn. Why don't they feel like getting an education is important to them?"

Asmussen does note that the EGHS community is an apathetic one, and that such lack of motivation may rub off on students immersed in this atmosphere.

"How they think about education, the environment in which they grow up...seeing that encourages it," Asmussen said. "In American society, it's OK to be OK."

Maybe it simply is not cool to be smart.

In most cases, high-achieving students spend most of their academic careers mixed in with students of varying ability, as the feeder schools lacked comprehensive honors tracks.

At any rate, students are taking note of the achivement gap between themselves and their local peers.

"Schools like BGHS have lots of people who go places," junior Jay Patel said. "Why don't we? We've got some smart kids."

The stereotypical struggle between jocks and nerds may have been enough to keep some otherwise-motivated students from flexing their muscle. As with any muscle that is not frequently used, students' brainpower [may have] deteriorated as they frequently put their pursuit of intellectual means on the back burner.

Students need to fight against the growing trend and keep their minds from turning into mush. Whatever stunted their desire to achieve, they need to get their acts together quickly.

High school is a critical segue into the next stage of life, which itself is an important segue into the next stage of life, and so forth. What students do now will directly impact their available options in the not-too-distant future. Not only in reference to college applications, but taking the shortcut now will set precedent to continue with this practice in the future.

In short, striving for mediocrity will almost ensure mediocrity in the future, and it seems as though this is the paty many - if not most - EGHS students elect to take."

Pardon the gaps and lack of coherence in some places - whoever had this on her page was clearly desperate to fill space, so breaking up every sentence into its own paragraph seemed to be the way to go. The point is there, and the controversy is stirring.

This article has prompted a speak-out in AP English Literature, and personal attacks on my character.

This article has been used as part of a lesson plan in AP English Language.

This article has been commended by members of the math/science department.

This article has drawn fire from other members of the student community. They do not wish to hear the truth, so they attack me instead. Ignorance is bliss, and probably the most fun we as a society can have while digging our own hole.

EDIT: I just had to delete a comment for the first time. This is a forum for intelligent debate and discussion, not a place to run one's mouth with personal attacks, libel, and the like. There is no place for immaturity in this corner of the blogosphere.

Back by popular vote...

From the same state legislature that brought you such classics as "The Moment of Silence" and "A Lack of Public-School Funding" comes "The Circumvention of the Electoral College."



Now, I refuse to say that I support this decision. It might not reflect the true wishes of the Illinois voters. If the popular vote turns out in favor of the Democratic Party, yet the majority of Illinoisans voted Republican, all of Illinois' electoral votes go to the Democrats.



Deck mentioned an alternate way of electing the President, which to me looks like the offspring of two very manipulable parents. It is a trait that is passed to the progeny, which is why I will need to scrutinize this method a little more before I support it.



Laymen should not be voting unless they can demonstrate competence in their knowledge of the candidates and their issues. I will emigrate to Canada if the next president is elected because he is black, or because he wears a nice tie, or something equally ridiculous. I am all for putting the power in the hands of a select few elite, but that opens the door for rampant abuse. Really, there is no solid way to guarantee that the voters' wishes are reflected and that the voters are making rational, educated decisions when they go to the polls.



I would opt for a straight-up democracy, where everyone votes on anything, but the question comes up again: By which method would they vote? Borda count? Condorcet? Sequential pairwise voting?

If all else fails, we could... (I was bored, alright?)

Any and all thoughts and opinions are welcome, of course.

An Excursion into Rickrolling

ChaosAcolyte16 (7:04:21 PM): http://www.paradoxsociety.com/2008/04/66-hillary-clinton-drops-out.html
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:04:48 PM): you HAVE to see the speech. holy eff.
sheppleapple (7:04:56 PM): lol
sheppleapple (7:05:04 PM): SWEET
sheppleapple (7:05:06 PM): she did it finally
sheppleapple (7:05:28 PM): never gonna give you up?
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:05:35 PM): what?
sheppleapple (7:05:41 PM): is that the link?
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:05:52 PM): ? the speech link?
sheppleapple (7:05:52 PM): im watching a youtube video "never gonna give you up"
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:05:52 PM): no
sheppleapple (7:05:54 PM): wtf
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:05:55 PM): it should be her speech...
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:05:58 PM): o.O
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:06:00 PM): try it again.
sheppleapple (7:06:06 PM): nope same link
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:06:17 PM): that's weird
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:06:22 PM): let me see if i can find another
sheppleapple (7:06:33 PM): what do i have to search
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:06:39 PM): here
sheppleapple (7:07:11 PM): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc
sheppleapple (7:07:13 PM): check that one out
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:07:15 PM): http://VOTE.cnn.com/election/2008presidential/?recent/Hillary_quits_race.php
sheppleapple (7:07:54 PM): lol you keep giving me the same link
sheppleapple (7:08:04 PM): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOU8GIRUd_g
sheppleapple (7:08:07 PM): thats what im linked to
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:08:17 PM): hah
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:08:21 PM): well
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:08:24 PM): you've been RICKROLL'D
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:08:28 PM): TWO for the price of ONE, even
sheppleapple (7:08:30 PM): lol
sheppleapple (7:08:33 PM): how do i see it?
sheppleapple (7:08:36 PM): what did you search
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:09:29 PM): http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rickroll
sheppleapple (7:09:52 PM): LMAO
sheppleapple (7:10:01 PM): so wait
sheppleapple (7:10:08 PM): you did that on purpose?
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:10:15 PM): as a victim, i felt obligated to pass it along
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:10:17 PM): brb
sheppleapple (7:10:20 PM): you bastard
sheppleapple (7:10:25 PM): so did she really resign herself?
sheppleapple went away at 7:11:27 PM.
ChaosAcolyte16 (7:15:12 PM): ...
Auto Response from sheppleapple (7:15:12 PM): F U dan...and F april fool's day...bastard...
I am victorious.

Vice on Display

Just when I think that my school's social elite could not possibly become any more reckless/disappointing, they go at it again.

I don't know the full details, but at the least, some of ourseniors were reprimanded by the administration for posting pictures on their MySpace and Facebook pages which displayed underage drinking and use of illegal substances. Supposedly, their parents were notified.

So this school can bust underage drinking via cyberspace, but they remain oblivious to drug deals being made in the parking lot? That is really all I have to say about that. I guess some is better than none.

As for the students, well, this should not be a surprise to anyone. They were breaking the law and bragging about it. Like nobody is going to care when a robber pulls off a heist and then posts a video of himself rolling around in the money on YouTube? Surely at some point common sense has to kick in.

Drinking is for the most part a victimless crime (so long as the inebriated stay off the road and are not violent, neither of which can be guaranteed), but there is still a law against underage drinking and a law forbidding the use of certain substances. Whether one agrees with them or not, they have to be obeyed. Call up your congressional buddies down in Springfield if you want something done about it, or demonstrate, or something. But please, stop doing everything in your power to reinforce every negative stereotype about teenagers.

Clarification

Those of my readers who frequent Mike Deck's blog will notice that my layout/color scheme is strikingly similar to his. This is in no way an attempt to copy him and emulate his success, as many of you believe I have been doing for the past four or so years. I even went out of my way to change some of the colors and things to avoid such accusations despite my preference for the default scheme.

I have put up with the dilemma all throughout high school. It is not that I wanted to be like him; I wanted academic competition. To a degree, it has kept me motivated as well. As someone pointed out yesterday, EG's "top tier" is rather lax, so I lacked sufficient alternatives. Now I do what I do for the sake of doing it (and it's infinitely more rewarding).

That's just what happens when people build up someone's image. Nobody can doubt that at least a couple of the juniors are looking at the top ACT/SAT scores from the senior class and will try to compete with those come April and May. It is a side-effect of being in the spotlight. Are any of them trying to be the new [insert name here]? Not in the least.

Try not to give a hard time to the few EG kids who are actually motivated.

The tanks roll into the blagosphere

I've been surveying the land for about a month now, and I finally decided to roll some troops out into the blogosphere. It was a decision catalyzed by my most recent LJ post in which a few of us heatedly debated EGHS and the college admissions process, and why we fail.
http://illusion206.livejournal.com/201347.html

Discussions like that will now be moved o'er yonder, assuming the perimeter defense doesn't get sacked.

As you can see, it's still under construction, so some kinks need to be worked out. Generally, be kind to other people, and comment as much as you want. If you contribute singificantly or have insightful things you wish to say, request to be added as an author on this blog.

Also, the poll uses approval voting. My experience as the oralist has led me to believe that it is far superior to any other voting method; sometimes, you just don't have a unidimensional opinion on something.