Speaking of school...

You know, that was for my Rizal Class. I bet you couldn't guess. It's kind of rushed and sloppy. I wasn't too interested in the topic. It's pretty boring and plain a topic to be creative. And we had a limit of only a single page on MSWord, possibly with 1.5 line spacing which I didn't want to use. There's nothing to be proud of if you can write that much. A middle-schooler should be able to write that much. Hell. We had a minimum of words to write. 180 words. I've used more words in MSN conversations with my friend Lochy. 180 isn't much of a standard. Much less for a college level class.

Am I being elitist? Maybe I'm being extremely critical of today's youth. Maybe I'm just bitter. I remember back in elementary school when we were forced to read books so we could pass. I also remember that I got free pizza if read enough books. Reading was fun, I read bunches of books - Huck Finn, Desperation, Onion John, and things like that. That was in the 5th grade. 5th grade. This started not only in the 5th grade but as early as 3rd grade. It was a brilliant idea to force children to increase their literacy. Books are wonderful gateways to excitement and all that jazz. Now they don't. What the hell.

It might be that it's a different school system but that doesn't excuse the illiteracy that I have observed. I don't want to be so opinionated but I've observed it firsthand. My younger sister doesn't read that much. I'm ashamed. Deeply ashamed. Maybe not deeply but she doesn't read enough for her own good. We have several shelves of grade school level books, particularly in my older sister's room. I clearly know that there are dozens of Baby Sitters Club or Sweet Valley High books. One or the other. Maybe it's not that clear but that doesn't deter the point I want to show. We have the means but she doesn't use 'em.

I now want to vent a bit about my last few English professors. One teacher wasn't exactly a bad teacher, not in the least. However, there was one question in a certain quiz that discredited any faith I had in her profession. Stay with me here, it's not heinous for most people but if this was heard by sound-minded people, there will be RAGE. Now the question in... question: What is the book of all books, the greatest book of all time, etc. etc. ? Some of you might be anticipating the answer and I'm sure you might be right. Her answer? The Bible. The bloody Bible. I have no problem with the Bible as a piece of literature, it's actually quite nice, I've read it. But let's be honest, greatest book of ever? That's just too opinionated and close-minded to be in good taste. She's only lucky it's a Catholic-themed country or there will be head rolling.

The second teacher is also a fine teacher, I suppose. It's just that she's old. Yeah. Old. Geriatric. She isn't extremely old, maybe. In her 60's probably. It's a minor complaint really. It isn't the fact that she's old but that she thinks certain things are still a modern representation of the world today. The thing that caught my ear: "Negro people use the slang term flatfoot to refer to the police." Like I said, minor. First, she used the word Negro. I'm not racist or really aware of political correctness but I'm thinking Negro is more derogatory than Black. I remember watching The Color of Friendship on Disney a few years ago and that I realized that there are so many ways to refer to Black people that it's racist. I think most people can agree that saying Black is just dandy. At least better than Negro. Especially in a class of purely Asians where there is no risk in being a racist bigot.

Next word. Flatfoot. It's quite true that Flatfoot refers to the police, detectives in particular. It is not true that it is used purely by Black people. Notice how I didn't say Negro. It's mostly used by gangsters of the mafia sort. In the 1930's. Wow. Think about that. I would understand if she used the term Popos in that example but Flatfoot? Man. Get with the times.

I guess I'm just being picky but it gets on my nerves. Enough of venting though. I'm tired. I just hope that the school systems would some how pick up the slack. I also wish the libraries would have a better fiction section. Bookstores too. Eh. Too bad. One can dream.

NP: Vintage Queen - Goldfinger What can I say? I love Goldfinger to bits and this song is just honey in my ears.

Thought of the day: Don't believe in yourself. Believe in me who believes in you.