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]
Try not to give a hard time to the few EG kids who are actually motivated.
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Hmm. So if you "lacked sufficient alternatives", then that must make me insufficient... haha.
I agree though, EG doesn't have a very competitive "top tier". I think the greatest success comes to those who are self-motivated for whatever reason, though peer pressure can sometimes factor into that as well. And if you're not really motivated, nobody's really going to care or push you to do better, except for yourself.
I'd like to see more encouragement from teachers... it seems like the students are often left to motivate themselves. I had very little discussion with teachers about college, even with the extensive amounts of socialization I had with many of them.
I think this is just a subset of an even bigger problem we have in this country, and that is the educational system in general. See the documentary "Stupid in America" if you haven't already.
Well, we didn't have any crazies vying for valedictorian; it was a mutually-understood procrastination, and that ended up doing absolutely no good for anybody.
Mr. Asmussen is the only person to give realistic college talks. The teachers don't get involved with that too much, and our CCC personnel force-feed us Harper and state schools as if that's all any of us could hope for. Apparently the staff (the English teachers, at any rate) have held meetings to discuss our complacent atmosphere. Increasing our workload doesn't help, though; we need to be talked to and guided through the process. There's no inspiration or motivation.
You're products of a system focused on short term goals on standardized tests that reinforce mediocrity and limited ideas. Colleges watn intelligent students who understand the purpose of learning, and who can think in alternative, unorthodox manners so as to expand knowledge. You are taught to be trained animals, reciting correct answers to common questions, but really understanding or valuing none of them.
i.e. the mighty pledge of allegiance. When Tom said "recite" it reminded me of that. It's amazing how every schoolchild can swear to uphold the principles of liberty every morning for 12 years and then grow up and support big-government policy.
It's a fact-recall society, and success is measured by that. That's the only reason other schools beat us in academic competition; they're more proficient in fact-recall. We're not raised to think; we're raised to know, and we're failing even at that.
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