During summer, I like to take online courses to make sure I’m ahead throughout the upcoming school year. Khan Academy is definitely one of the better websites I’ve used. There are tons of online tutorials for a wide variety of subjects, as well as several quizzing features. The best part? It’s completely free! Here’s a guide to navigating this awesome educational website.
School
How Online Courses Have Helped Me More Than Public School
Currently, in my science class, we’re studying earth science. Since fourth grade, we have been studying nothing but earth science mixed with a little bit of meteorology here and there. Although I am far from a fan of earth science, I think it can be interesting if it is taught correctly. Today, in science, we watched Ice Age. Specifically, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Although I can go on for hours about the scientific and historical inaccuracy of this movie, that’s not the point. The real question is: why are we watching cartoons in science class?
Why We Shouldn’t Be Awarding Anything Less Than A 4.0 GPA
A scene most parents and kids are familiar with is that of an academic awards ceremony. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s a perfectly fine way to honor kids for achieving their goals. But as the event starts to drag on, and people are only half paying attention, the fact that not all of these kids should be getting awards in the first place becomes clear. For example, at my elementary school, they had 3 levels of honor roll, the lowest one attainable by getting up to 2 Cs. Are these really the grades we want to encourage the next generation to get? Why do we applaud mediocrity? It could because we just want to encourage kids to reach their dreams, but maybe our academic standards have lowered over the years.
Thoughts of a Middle School Nerd 