polishdude20:
So here's the deal:
I go to a big highschool in my area with around 2000 or more kids. We have a tech department including electronics.
I've taken electronics in grade 9 and 11 before so I decided to take it for grade 12 too which I am currently in.
The class is tought by an overall tech teacher who is qualified to teach woodwork and electronics. Now one of the things that bothers me is that I might as well be teaching the class because I have basically sucked out all the info he knows about electronics and there is none left to take out. All I can think that he knows is about basic transistors, how to troubleshoot a basic circuit, how to read a schematic, and make an enclosure, oh and how to make a PCB and solder it and whatnot. Now I pretty much learned this in grade 11.
Good for you; keep it up (like you are), and even if it doesn't lead to a career, you'll have a great hobby to spend your time and money on (lots of money!) in the future.
polishdude20:
So this year our class consists of about 10 people MAX. and only on good days. Today there where about maybe 6 people? Not to mention out regular teacher broke his foot and we have a substitute. Thankfully he is also a tech teacher but a sub tech teacher. He's a nice guy but he's asked me a few times the most basic things. Now you must understand I don't mean any disrespect to the teachers, they are probably busy with other things and such but still, can't the school hire some more enthusiastic teachers?
You're 17, and you sound like you may be way ahead of the game; keep at it. Learn all you can and then some. Maybe you can try to get your teacher motivated, and -teach him- some things, maybe not. Unfortunately, its difficult to hire teachers given what they face every day, and the fact that they aren't well paid; here in the United States (I may be making an assumption about your location here), our society has a split personality about education which you may or may not have noticed (its certainly not articulated anywhere). One one hand, adults/parents/teachers/etc push for students to have good educations, push for college, push for laws like NCLB (which I really think leaves all children behind, but that's another topic), but on the other hand, do you see educated people being given the celebrity and enthusiasm that should be a result of that? I certainly don't. All I hear lately is derogatory remarks about "the intelligencia", etc - there's this undercurrent and drive to make it seem like if you are intelligent, if you ask questions, if you really know your stuff, you are to be scorned and mocked, if not outright attacked. Using reason, rationality, the scientific method? Have doubts, ask questions, apply experiment? That's considered wrong! It might lead to questioning about "gawd and country" or some such bull (indeed, it should lead to questions about religion - I wonder if I'll be attacked for this here?).
So, on the one hand, you must go to college, but you must not be intelligent! Or something like that. I am sorry to have to inform you, but as you get older in short order, you're going to be finding and facing a society that seems absolutely intent upon turning this country, if not the world, into something that looks like a crazy cross between George Orwell's "1984", Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", and Mike Judge's "Idiocracy" (and if you haven't read one or more the books mentioned, you owe it to yourself to do so soon). It's sickening what I have witnessed over the past 20 years since I left high school myself.
Also - one more note: Nearly everything you have likely learned about our society is likely a lie.
polishdude20:
The students. Almost everyone in my class is taking electronics an "easy A" class. No one has any motivation or respect for other peoples projects. The people in that class are ones who will not go far in life judging by their effort in this class. Now it's not fair to judge by that but bear with me.
I took "easy A" classes myself, but I still learned things in them; they were easy in the fact that I knew what I was doing, and the teacher knew I was well advanced of him (computer programming); what was nice at the time though is that he would give us students who were actually interested in the material stuff that was fairly advanced; problems that he has asked other's how to solve, and they couldn't - so we would tackled them. Between us (there were 3-4 of us at any given time), we were able to churn out some interesting solutions. At one point, I ended up coding 6502 assembly using hex codes in the Apple IIe ROM monitor for one solution I was working on.
You sound like that kind of student - hopefully your teacher sees this, and grades accordingly.
Unfortunately, you're going to find people like the others in your class (both now and later in life) who just "skate by" and people who let them or facilitate them. Do what you can, learn what you must and then some, don't let it get you down. You don't have much longer to go in high school; you'll be far ahead, and those others will likely be far behind (unless they get lucky or have some other "one up" on you that you don't have - unfortunately, that's life, too).
polishdude20:
What pisses me off the most is these 2 guys in my class. One guy ive known him since grade 8 and he's okay I guess, but is very anooying and dangerous (Ill get to why in a sec). The second guys ISNT EVEN REGISTERED IN THE CLASS. He just as a spare period and he decides to hang out with idiot number 1. Now this second guy is worse than dude number 1. Anyways, the class has these syringes from a previous hydraulic water robot picker upper arm and these idiots discover a new way to use them. Every day for the past week or so they have been spraying me with water in the face and everywhere while the teacher isn't looking. My ignoring and telling them to stop hasn't helped. the dangerous part is that they spray me while I solder, and while I'm using an outlet. Now what pisses me off is that A) the teacher doesn't notice or doesn't do much, B) they are persistent and don't stop, C) they got water all over my motor shield project I am working on today and all the parts I was using have gotten wet. D) Their pure disinterest in electronics makes me pissed off because if we had even a few guys who knew what they where doing or had a passion for this then the class would be 100x better. So this second idiot goes to my desk and asks me if my soldering iron is hot, I say not yet, he picks it up and starts to poke a hole through the plastic syringe with it multiple times until he puts the iron down and drops the syringe on the ground like it's someone else s mess now. I had to clean the iron and the area smelt horrible.
Have you talked with your parents and/or other school faculty? I don't know if it would help, but if they're causing damage, impairing your ability to learn, creating dangerous situations for you, etc - then you may need press for help in some manner.
Also - remember this: you're 17 - there's a lot of things you can get away with that you can't when you're 18; use that to your advantage if you dare...
polishdude20:
We are 17!!! I mean in a year or less these people around me are going to be adults in the big wide world! I can't believe these dumbf*cks are even permitted to turn 18!
A proud C-average student became president of the United States for two terms; with his adminstration and leadership, this country went from have a surplus budget to insane debt, "wars" on two fronts, many of our constitutional freedoms stripped with nary a whimper from the populace (using a bill that magically appeared written and ready, with more pages and words than you can imagine, yet was passed with hardly any reading or debate about it at all!) - which has ultimately led to a worldwide recession that seems to be rapidly leading to insane unrest worldwide for various economic reasons...
...and he was applauded for it!
This is the world you are stepping into. It won't matter whether you stay in the United States (again, big assumption here) or move to another country, this country claims to want educated children, yet cheers on ignorance. This same society has a nuclear arsenal that can turn the world into a smoldering pile of slag. It is also increasingly becoming fundamentalist, the left is the right, the right is crazy, the majority of the country thinks evolution is false, and a big percentage thinks the world is going to end and Jesus is coming (and oh, by the way, some of them are thinking about helping it all along!).
Like I said - you have likely been lied to about the true state of affairs, because when you honestly look at it, it isn't pretty. I'd rather see sausage made.
NOTE - splitting this up because I went over the limit...