High school is still the same, and it sucks

[garbon]

I just do not see how anything good could result from me using the term bitch or slut even as a compliment. 

It's all very tone of voice and the presence.

[dps]

My high school had a pretty clear socioeconomic divide.  The poor kids were dirt poor, smelled bad, always got in fights, never participated in athletics, had long, ratty hair, listened to RATT and other horrible hair bands, smoked, and had zero interest in academics.  The rest of us were mostly middle class with a few upper middle class sprinkled in.  Huge separation between the two major groups.  There were some subgroups but they were fairly fluid.

Almost everyone was white, so there was no racial or ethnic differences to come into play.

I had the advantage that everyone was basically poor except for the children of the few families that owned businesses in town.  That group of "rich kids" was too small to really be a group unto themselves so an economic divide wasnt really possible.  There was this one kid who's father was a professor though....

In my high school, most everybody was lower-middle class or working class.  There weren't enough rich kids to be a group of them, and the few really poor kids mostly skipped class and dropped out as soon as they could.  There were definately cliques, but as someone else said, they weren't nearly as rigid or well-defined as what you see in the movies.

I never heard any of the guys I knew call a girl a slut, bitch, etc., that I can recall.  I do recall hearing a few girls complain about being called sluts, but I suspect what was happening was that other girls were telling them that boys were calling them names.

[Monoriu]

It's a stupid game and the only way to win is not to play.  If 50% of students are objectively excellent but 45% of them wind up washing dishes, that's an indictment of the system.  Of course, I'm by no means under the impression that PRChina of having a system that isn't garbage and doomed to fail.  This is one reason why it will, incidentally; remember Jacob's article about underachieving elites?

A lot of students in HK probably think the same way as you.  They give up before they even try.  I understand the sentiment because I gave up trying to find a job in the finance world and settled for something a lot less.  I lost the game too.  But my excuse is that it is different from not playing altogether.  Just because you don't like the system doesn't mean you don't need to have basic necessities.  The beauty of the system is that anybody can do it.  Anybody with enough time and effort can cram enough useless facts into their heads and tick the right boxes in the examinations that are open to all. 

[merithyn]

Basically, what we both learned in this conversation is that teenage boys are horrible, horrible creatures.

Just want to throw this out there but didn't your sons have a similar opinion about teenage girls?

Which opinion? That girls were horrible, horrible creatures, or that girls were either bitches, sluts, or ice-maidens?

I don't remember my boys thinking girls were horrible, but I know that Jackson, at least, thought that most weren't very bright. Now he realizes that he hung out with the dumb ones thinking he'd score more easily. (He did.) Carter may have thought they were pretty awful, but that was because he dated girls who ended up cheating on him. (He was the nice guy.) Jeremy is in a very different world than any of this, since most of his spare time is spent with his friends from church. Since they're Unitarian Universalists, they have a pretty mature attitude toward sex and all of that. Plus, Jeremy just isn't the type to judge anyone. He figures people are all great until they prove that they're not.

[Valmy]

I just remember you posted a prom pic of one of them...I guess it was Jak.  He was with this really nice and attractive looking girl and I complimented him and you said something about how it was just a friend and he didn't date high school girls because they were not worth his time or something.

[Capetan Mihali]

I just remember you posted a prom pic of one of them...I guess it was Jak.  He was with this really nice and attractive looking girl and I complimented him and you said something about how it was just a friend and he didn't date high school girls because they were not worth his time or something.

La sanctidad...

[jimmy olsen]

Grades are given on a relative basis in HK.  For As, I think it is top 5% of students in that subject.  There is no objective standard.  If you are better than the other 95%, you get an A.  But even if everybody does well, only the top 5% get As. 

That is what I was saying.  You guys were getting played man.

Why?  If the rule says you have to beat the other 95% of students, then that's what we should do.  It is doable.  I think that actually works better than if there are objective standards.  An A would be meaningless if half the students get it.  That system is what makes my As valuable.

Grades only matter if they accurately reflect competence with the subject, wether half the class gets As or no one does doesn't matter. Individuals, Companies and Nations only benifit if they are capable. Being mariginally less ignorant then the rest of the herd and thus "meriting" and A helps no one.

[Ideologue]

The beauty of the system is that anybody can do it.

Why?  If the rule says you have to beat the other 95% of students, then that's what we should do.

[derspiess]

I just do not see how anything good could result from me using the term bitch or slut even as a compliment. 

It's all very tone of voice and the presence.

I can do a pretty good rendition.

[merithyn]

I just remember you posted a prom pic of one of them...I guess it was Jak.  He was with this really nice and attractive looking girl and I complimented him and you said something about how it was just a friend and he didn't date high school girls because they were not worth his time or something.

No, in that case, he didn't date her because a) she wanted nothing to do with him as a boyfriend because he was an ass, and b) she wasn't dumb and wasn't likely to drop her panties because he asked her to. Basically, he was exactly the kind of bastard that Riley was complaining about.

Though, if I recall correctly, by the end of his senior year, he was pretty much done with dating at that point. In fact, I don't think he's dated anyone since then.

[Caliga]

"For all the bitches I might take home, I got the Johnson's Baby Powder and Cool Water Cologne"?

[garbon]

It's a stupid game and the only way to win is not to play.  If 50% of students are objectively excellent but 45% of them wind up washing dishes, that's an indictment of the system.  Of course, I'm by no means under the impression that PRChina of having a system that isn't garbage and doomed to fail.  This is one reason why it will, incidentally; remember Jacob's article about underachieving elites?

A lot of students in HK probably think the same way as you.  They give up before they even try.  I understand the sentiment because I gave up trying to find a job in the finance world and settled for something a lot less.  I lost the game too.  But my excuse is that it is different from not playing altogether.  Just because you don't like the system doesn't mean you don't need to have basic necessities.  The beauty of the system is that anybody can do it.  Anybody with enough time and effort can cram enough useless facts into their heads and tick the right boxes in the examinations that are open to all. 

Likely not. I doubt that most kids from poor families have enough time to sit around cramming useless facts into their heads.

[merithyn]

A lot of students in HK probably think the same way as you.  They give up before they even try.  I understand the sentiment because I gave up trying to find a job in the finance world and settled for something a lot less.  I lost the game too.  But my excuse is that it is different from not playing altogether.  Just because you don't like the system doesn't mean you don't need to have basic necessities.  The beauty of the system is that anybody can do it.  Anybody with enough time and effort can cram enough useless facts into their heads and tick the right boxes in the examinations that are open to all. 

Likely not. I doubt that most kids from poor families have enough time to sit around cramming useless facts into their heads.

[Monoriu]

Grades only matter if they accurately reflect competence with the subject, wether half the class gets As or no one does doesn't matter. Individuals, Companies and Nations only benifit if they are capable. Being mariginally less ignorant then the rest of the herd and thus "meriting" and A helps no one.

The system is designed for selection.  If a person gets an A, that's an indication that he is better than the rest.  It would be meaningless if too many people get As.   

As an individual, I can only play along.  I am not going to say, the only way to win is not to play it, and end up washing dishes. 

[Monoriu]

The beauty of the system is that anybody can do it.

Why?  If the rule says you have to beat the other 95% of students, then that's what we should do.

Huh?  I don't see the contradiction.  Anybody can beat the other 95% and become the 5%.