Re: schools banning homework

Most folks' GPAs drop from high school to college or university.

Try explaining that to my students. I got a lot of "I was a genius in high
school and I had good marks until I started your course" or some such
caterwauling.

Most eventually figure it out. The ones who don't, will eventually
figure it out via the school of hard knocks once they've been knocked
around and screwed over several times in the real world outside of the
ivory tower.

I've encountered a few weirdos at the Mensa gatherings I've attended.

I couldn't figure out what these particular folks' definition of
"strange" was. If I had to guess, maybe they thought my interests
were too "esoteric" for them and/or my interests didn't coincide with
any of their interests.

That could be likely. By weirdos, I meant genuine eccentrics.

Folks like George Trepal? (Some Mensa guy who's on death row in
Florida).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1535601/bio
http://www.amazon.com/Poison-Mind-Jeffrey-Good/dp/0312960166

Most people have to learn it from first hand experience to know what
it's all about.

As the saying goes, ve get too soon olt und too late schmart.

It seems to be the case that most folks are overconfident of their own
abilities, and underestimate the obstacles. Most like to think that
they can beat the odds over everyone else. Most folks usually change
their minds after they've been beaten down several times and see
things for what they really are.

It seems to be an almost universal truth that young people will
generally not listen to anyone that isn't telling them what they want
to hear. The optimistic naivety of one's youth, I suppose.

I wasn't a whole lot different, but, then, I had a more positive view of
humanity when I was younger.

I had a very cynical view of humanity when I was a teenager. I
suppose this could have been colored greatly by the sort of books I
was reading in those days. I came across Hitler's book "Mein Kampf"
and read it several times in those days, as well as Machiavelli's "The
Prince", and a few other nasty books. (At the time I naively thought
that all "powerful" people were similar to Hitler or Stalin). I
remember being thrown out of history and law class (in high school)
several times for making arguments like: politicians are only there
because they're able to get away with corruption and extortion without
being caught, or that laws are only made because they're "paid for" by
big corporations and rich people who "buy" politicians, or that the
most "efficient" governments are totalitarian ones like Nazi Germany,
the Soviet Union under Stalin, etc ...

.

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