a blustry day

With the high of thirteen and a current windchill of ten, I'm perfectly content to sit in the main office and get a few extra hours in. (Although, I could go for having some chapstick.) But it's days like today I wish I could just sit around in bed all day and read something awesome and drink warm drinks (which is a totally different story). That or have my own place with big comfy couches for friends to sit and play games or talk.

The other night I was hanging out with a few friends, and who knows how it came up, but we got onto the subject of languages. I, of course, was super excited. Sometimes it seems like all we talk about (academically speaking of course) is computer systems and plant problems, so to get on a subject I enjoyed and am knowledgable in was very exciting. And then Jacob said, "Isn't it sad that you never hear of anything with German?" As in the language families. I felt like hitting him upside the head. I told him, "English is a Germanic language," and in a fit of immaturity followed it up with, "Duh!" He really didn't believe me, even after I explained the language history of England and how English was formed in all its complex and confusing glory. So I had to go online and wiki it for him. Yes. I used wiki for an intellectual arguement - which isn't to say I don't use wikipedia all the time - but I try to avoid using it in arguements (and papers, of course).

But I went home thinking, 'Language history is so cool.' Yeah, just like that too. The linguistical history has always attracted me, but I have no desire to study the phonetics attatched to it. Phonetics are probably the bane of my existance because I never learned grammar all that well in grade school. Which isn't to say they didn't teach me, I'm sure they did - I just never cared enough to learn it permenantly, and I've never had the drive to go back and learn again. Although I should. Oops. And yet again this led to another thought.

How much do we blame our previous education for things? And how much to blame are they for holes in our education? I know I hate math, I know why I hate math. I hate math because I don't get it. And I am convinced I don't get math because of my eleventh grade, second semester teacher, who seemed more interested in failing all of us than actually teaching us anything. Maybe I'm still too close to the system to be able to actually have a good perspecitive, but I think a lot of the problem with schools is the lack of teachers who care - who want to teach - who, most importantly, want their students to learn. Teachers who are thinking about the next year, when they retire and care more about putting down a grade than making sure the student understands the material, are not only not adding to our educational system, they're detracting from it. I know part of this is because people have to work longer to be able to have enough money to retire, and that teachers are overloaded with students because of the lack of work force, but still, as a system we should at least be aiming to come out at par. Shouldn't we?