I don't understand school. There's something about it that makes me feel like someone punched me in the face. I just feel so drained, so exhausted. I've completely lost the will to care. What does sitting in a classroom, learning mundane facts have to do with life? I'm sure that if Precalculus ever comes up in my future career I can get a tutor or read a book (shocker!).
A friend of my mine went to vocational school, training during high school so that the minute she graduated she could go straight into a job. Though I do want to go to college, there's something about learning practical skills. If by some chance I couldn't go straight to New York I would be able to work my way to where ever I wanted to go. But it's even less about having a job (no, the hunt has not gone well), it's really about being able to take pride in something.
Creation in its rawest form is done with two hands, determination mixed with curiosity, and a whole lot of time. Recently, an artist (I wish I could remember his name) holed up in his brother's garage for two weeks. He created a live art project, leaving his web cam running the entire time he worked, creating a self portrait on a turning wheel with letters from significant moments in people's lives who called in.
Crazy, you say? Need years of training you say? Wouldn't you be surprised to know that during the week this man works as a computer processor. People have the capacity for the amazing. The technological advances we've made in the past fifty years speak to that. But how can we continue to grow and to really understand our world if we're never in it? We spend so much of our lives sleeping or stuck in a cubicle/desk that the world becomes idealized; a glimmering bit of sunlight almost completely blocked by Venetian blinds.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in education. As a society we cannot grow as a society if we never have any knowledge, but students (that means you!) need to demand more real world experience. Whatever we learn in those seats are useless if we can't carry them with us.
You might be wondering how these photos fit into this post. Notice the black and grey? Yea? Well that's my mood.
What do you think? Am I a whiny slacker or is school getting you down?
A friend of my mine went to vocational school, training during high school so that the minute she graduated she could go straight into a job. Though I do want to go to college, there's something about learning practical skills. If by some chance I couldn't go straight to New York I would be able to work my way to where ever I wanted to go. But it's even less about having a job (no, the hunt has not gone well), it's really about being able to take pride in something.
Creation in its rawest form is done with two hands, determination mixed with curiosity, and a whole lot of time. Recently, an artist (I wish I could remember his name) holed up in his brother's garage for two weeks. He created a live art project, leaving his web cam running the entire time he worked, creating a self portrait on a turning wheel with letters from significant moments in people's lives who called in.
Crazy, you say? Need years of training you say? Wouldn't you be surprised to know that during the week this man works as a computer processor. People have the capacity for the amazing. The technological advances we've made in the past fifty years speak to that. But how can we continue to grow and to really understand our world if we're never in it? We spend so much of our lives sleeping or stuck in a cubicle/desk that the world becomes idealized; a glimmering bit of sunlight almost completely blocked by Venetian blinds.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in education. As a society we cannot grow as a society if we never have any knowledge, but students (that means you!) need to demand more real world experience. Whatever we learn in those seats are useless if we can't carry them with us.
You might be wondering how these photos fit into this post. Notice the black and grey? Yea? Well that's my mood.
What do you think? Am I a whiny slacker or is school getting you down?
Images Via: lookbook.nu, becausei'maddicted
