Okay, so ZOMG. The local school's run out of history profs. I'm taking a year off to fix my GPA (ONE course I need to retake, -_-`), and apply to Regent. I go tell the registrar.

Registrar says "Well, that's not problem. Actually, if you're getting all those extra credits at Regent..." *click click* "Hmm, yep. You've already done half a degree here in residency. Take a reading course on your year off, write an oral exam here after you finish at Regent, and we'll grant you a degree too."

I said "That's co- WAIT. You mean I get TWO degrees?"

Registrar said "Yes."

So. Palpitations. But also two Master's degrees. I will OFFICIALLY be the best-educated (or at least most-accredited) member of my family EVER in almost exactly two years.

I just thought I'd let everybody know how this works, so all you guys with undergrads and a hankering for sweet sweet alphabet soup can do the same;

An MA/MCS/Mwhatever requires 60 credits, which is about 20 courses/2 years and change, plus a thesis.
Take 10-15 courses (30-45 credits) at school A. Have GPA of 3.5 or better.
Transfer to school B. Take 10 more courses (30 credits).
Write thesis at school B.
Write exam at school A.

For about 10-30% more money, you get 100% more degree. Your milage may vary. Check with registrar and make sure you have a good reason for leaving school A (like "B is a stellar school" or "You guys ran out of history professors").

Rock, ROCK ON! *does dramatic Supaa-Student pose*

Sweet, you should get an office just to hang up your degrees no matter where you work cause everyone looks better with offical looking papers hanging up in their office.

Out - standing.

Good things really do happen to good people (provided they work their asses off ) Congrats!

Hehe, i thought you were gonna say "so i'm gonna teach history!"
that would be a scary thought indeed

but yeah, 'grats on cheating the system ^^ enjoy those two masters and all the goodly doors it opens

Well, I _am_, actually.

*leaps out a window screaming*

college history or highschool history?

Whatever he can get with a couple of masters degrees?

Oh gah, High School history, the futility!

Maybe, in 10 years, you will have 1 student worth teaching.

Gah.

Mainly because 1, they teach you wrong up until you get to college (not just in history but math, science, and pretty much everything else) and 2, they teach you not to learn or want to learn.

I would point out that you are mistaken about math. Everything else is up for argument, but not math.

Then why does it take them six years (grades 1-7) to teach basic arithmetic? They must be doing something wrong.

I agree; HS produces functionally illiterate and innumerate graduates on a large scale. Nothing in HS requires excellence; anyone who can do math coming out of HS does so either because they took optional course, or, far more likely, studied on their own.

And, in a move so ironic it goes past tragic and back to amusing, high schools (renowed for the complete lack of worthwhile education) require a two-year educational certificate on top of an undergraduate. So I, with an undergraduate and two graduate degrees, will not be allowed to teach HS. Not that I want to, but lordy, what a system!

No, I plan to teach at some university or college or another, publish some papers, and get my doctorate. Be a teacher for the rest of my life, woo.

Freakin congradulations man! That rocks! More than 2, even!

We always knew you'd be harrassing students in one form or another...and since chasing Japanese Schoolgirls around can be illegal, this was the better choice.

gone.

Shit, sorry, yeah - Tozetre, man, holy crap on a coatrack. Know what this means? Now you can totally rub it in your famalies face you're not the utter failure they were so certain you were becoming.

"COO-BRAAAAA!"

[/raziel]

Ahem. My bad. I didn't read what you said, SC, as "how they teach is wrong" but as "what they teach is wrong". I am sorry.

That said, it's not that they try to teach wrong, but that the kids don't value the information and so do not retain it. It is a fault of the system in that it assumes something to be true - the intentions of all of the kids are focused on learning - which is not the case.

And I'll just toss in that school isn't about learning - it's about passing tests.

Two very different things.

...

In order to pass a test without cheating, you must learn. Testing is used as a method of measuring rate of learning; if the test is failed, the student is not learning as fast as they should be. Tests are akin to milestones of learning.

On the other hand, I can cram (for example) history names and dates in my head, crap out a 96% on a test, and not know a thing about the subject.

Perhaps better to say, the focus of most High School learning is accquiring such specific subject matter that the hightest percentage possible of students pass their tests.

Admittedly, aside from tests, it is difficult to accuratly rate a persons educational progress - but as the only measure, it can be g4m3d.

Or get your teachers to cheat for you.

hehe, i've passed a semesters worth of tests without learning a thing...

Thanks Fiss. ^_^

Actually, Veritor's right. From personal experience, test-taking is a skill. Depending on the test you're taking it can do anything from guarantee a pass to adding as much as 40% to your grade. In fact, I recall two midterms and a final (business management, VB, VB, respectively) which I walked into knowing nothing- literally. I had skipped every class, not bothered to do any labs or assignments, etc.

I got a 90 on the management, and aced both VB tests. VB was open book I'll admit (like every other programming test, since you have a compiler and help files right there), but there's no way I actually learned VB in the hour-and-a-half it took me to write the test.

Now that I think about it again, I aced the mid&fin for COBOL, too. Multiple choice guarantees me 70-80%, metching or essays I an at least pass with a 60, etc.

Of course now that I'm a grad student... I haven't seen a single test since I arrived on campus, actually.

as a highschool student I can say:

the material they teach is all right, being that it is CORRECT material. however, I see all the students in my classes just sit around and not care about a damned thing they're listening to. I'm actually in my spanish one class right now, where a majority are freshmen in highschool. they dont give a fuck why they're there to learn spanish. the thought didnt occur to them they might go to mexico (only south of the boarder here in california) or spain even....then again if they keep this up they wont go anywhere.

everyone in this class is failing except me, I have like a 94.5. I dont really know enough spanish to go talk to someone but the tests are pretttttyy easy.

highschool learning is a waste of my time, I'd really like to enroll into a college already......

You can learn things that you don't retain. That's what cramming is all about. Realistically, it is cheating because you are doing it with the intent to only retain it for a short time. What's the difference between that and getting a copy of the answer key? Well, the difference is that, with cramming, you get the answers from having studied - you learned it, even if you don't retain it after the test.

This is not necessarily true of the sciences. At the very least, it is not true of physics. What you learn in high school is proven wrong when you take university-level physics. However, that is due to the necessity to teach simple ideas to people who can't understand the complex concepts within real physics. For example, "E=mc^2"? Blatant lie. No, seriously. I'm not being sarcastic. If I remember correctly, the equation is actually, "E=(mc^2)/[sqrt(1-[v/c]^2)]"? I might be wrong about that.

For easier reference.

E = Energy
m = mass
c = speed of light constant
v = velocity

*the usage of "sqrt()" is a function for finding the square root of a number.