I was "gifted" in high school. I could tell my teachers about what I read about Ralph Greenleaf or Bennie Allen. But they never asked me anything about them, so it was their loss.
Most of the kids wasted their time on Bill Shakesphere or Ichabod Crane. Me, I knew all about Irving Crane.
And the teachers! They drew them chinese-like figures on the blackboard in algebra class and then tortured your head making you try to guess what the heck they wanted you to try to figure out. Since I left school, I have never seen another algebra problem anywhere. You don't need that stuff in Wal-Mart or Giant Eagle or even when you're at the drive thru at Burger King. I got thru 48+ years without ever having to do algebra. I never made it to the geometry class. The kids who did good in calculas and chemistry were the first ones going to the nurse's office at every dodge ball game.
School is just something you have to do to learn to stay with something you don't like to do or really need. It taught me not to quit something just because I hate it. School prepares us to deal with having to work.
Back to the genesis of this thread, there's another group. The prima-dona's who are in stuff like "Who is who in America's High Schools" or they won a math problem solving contest during their summer vacation to the Smithsonian Institution. We watched gilligan's Island, they watched Lawrence Welk or PBS. They knew and often had everything, but never shared help or offered to help the dummys. (Me & my pals
) The cross over today is those few (only a handful really) at AZB who will say "water is wet" and get tons of rep. But even though they have a streak of green boxes all across their screen, they have never learned how to give rep back. That always amazes me.
If we were back in school, I would aim at them guys first in dodge ball...
