Alan wrote:
I don't know how you can just make the assumption that everyone does less than 4 hours of homework every night.
Alan, re-read my post:
I don't think I could possibly be wrong in thinking that four hours of homework is simply ridiculous.
As in, it's my thought. My opinion. I didn't say it was a fact. I did not say that everyone has four hours of homework and it's ridiculous for them. I said that I THINK that the mere thought of four hours of homework is ridiculous.
Alan wrote:Well let me tell you, people like me who TRY HARD an study like crazy DO have 4 hours of homework every night, whether you believe it or not.
Fine, I believe it. I still think the whole concept is ridiculous, but that's my opinion, it's not fact and you shouldn't take offense at it.
Alan wrote:Just because YOU probably didn't study hard when you were in high school and didn't have a lot of HW, DOES NOT GIVE YOU A REASON TO belittle people on this forum.
Where? Where did I belittle people? I still stand by my opinion that four hours is ridiculous, and that I did not verbally attack anyone.
Alan wrote:Please try to be at least a little open minded.
Believe me, I'm open minded. I don't think that has anything to do with your four hours of homework and my opinion that four hours of homework is ridiculous.
Alan wrote:Its also ironic because you always tell people not to put down anyone, yet you do it yourself!
Yes, I tell people not to put anyone down. And I don't do it myself. Please, show me evidence. Scan through all my posts, and show me what you believe to be me putting someone down.
This whole thing is getting tiring, really. So I'm just going to lay all my cards down, tell you my opinions, and hopefully we'll reach an impasse where we'll just agree to disagree or decide to drop the subject entirely.
OPINION ONE: Four hours of homework is ridiculous. Yes, people can take AP classes and be given teachers who will give them large amounts of homework. But in my opinion and experience, a little time management can whittle that homework down. If anything, homework doesn't have to be done all in one day or in four straight hours. Stretch it out a bit, give the mind a break from thinking. My brother (Kram, if anyone's forgotten) had AP classes through most of high school, and spent a good two hours or so sitting at our breakfast table (soon it just became his homework table), and probably was the most stressed person I've seen. Now, I took honors, which is just one notch below AP, and throughout high school I was perhaps the most relaxed I've ever been.
OPINION TWO: In this entire thread, I do not believe that I ever verbally attack or belittle anyone. If anything, I just verbally attacked and belittled the concept of four hours of homework.
As such, here are all my posts in this thread:
Page Two:
All this talk makes me miss high school!
I never took AP courses, just the Honors courses, and maybe because it came to me naturally or maybe because I rushed it and still got A's and B's, but most of my homework during my 4 years of high school I always had done within an hour, two hours tops.
Now, in this one, I was merely stating that I missed high school and that I took honors classes and it never took me four hours to do my homework.
Page Three:
Alan, you're 14. You're not in college yet, so you have no idea what the workload is. And I for one don't believe that you enjoy homework, nor do you really have like 4 hours of homework a night. That's exaggeration on your part, perhaps to brag a bit, perhaps to impress.
Not every college will be a pre-conceived hell where you have 100 pages read by the next class and a 10 page essay as well. Many classes give homework that isn't due for another week, or even several at that. If you schedule yourself wisely and do it all in moderation, you don't need to have 4 hours of homework a night.
In this one, I'm trying to tell Alan that he is not in college, therefore he does not know the true workload that colleges give. I also say that in my opinion, I didn't think he enjoyed homework or that he really has four hours. But given that he has insisted it so much since, I can only give him the benefit of the doubt now and simply say, "Okay, you have four hours of homework".
Page Three, Part Two:
Because of the length, I'll divide it into segments...
Alan, don't take this personal, but here's what I think:
1. I wasn't making an assumption. I was saying you haven't experienced college yet, so you have no way of knowing the workload to be able to warn ANYONE of the horrors of how it'd be more than 1 hour a night.
In this part, I was trying to re-iterate before that Alan had not experienced college, therefore could not possibly know the workload.
2. I don't care what school you're in, nor that you're in honors/AP classes, nor that you think you're smart. A school is a school.
'Nuff said. I really don't care what school anyone's in as a school is a school.
3. I personally don't believe anyone could possibly have four hours of homework a night unless they are writing like one letter a minute or taking 10 minutes to read a sentence or reading and checking everything four times and hoping it'll jump out of the page and say "Enough already, you know it!". But you're you, and if you insist that you take 4 hours to do homework, more power to you. I just find the whole idea ridiculous. Four hours, meh...
Once again, my opinion that four hours of homework is ridiculous. I'm not saying that it's not possible. Just that I think the mere thought is ridiculous. I bolded the part where I'm basically giving Alan the benefit of the doubt. He has four hours of homework, and while I'll find the concept ridiculous, I cannot argue with it anymore.
4. You're right. I don't know your real life or your study habits. But my real life and study habits must differ, if I was in possibly the New Jersey counterpart of this "best and most competitive school district of Massachusetts". I took honors classes as well (though I could've, I didn't do AP because I knew I'd be taking more than I could handle), and according to the school's grading policy, I was smart if I had A's and B's. And all I did was read things once, do it, and have everything done in an hour. I'm not saying my school's teaching policy and grading policy and my study habits were better. I'm just saying that it's different for everyone.
I can't exactly explain it anymore than what I quoted.
4. I didn't claim you were lying. I said exaggerating. That's different, and someone as smart as you think you are should know that.
Okay, maybe this one seems a little snarky. If you took this for the "verbal attack", Alan, then I'm sorry.
5. The
was completely unnecessary, IMO.
Well, it
was unnecessary.
6. In nearly all your posts, Alan, you seem to enjoy posting things you think may impress people. You know people that make $1000 a day, you have four hours of homework, you're in AP classes, you know such-and-such great deals on DVDs and point out to everyone that they should have done your deal instead of another, you're this and you're that and you lost me at hello. You have this attitude in your post, as if you expect people to be impressed by your young life and what you do. All honors and AP classes, oh my! Four hours of homework, inconceivable! But for Alan the SuperSmartWonderKid? It's nothing at all because homework is FUN. It's good to be proud of your intellect, it's another to flaunt it as if it were nothing. I think in one post, you were asking how someone could possibly take Calculus in their freshman year of college yet you're taking it your sophomore year of high school. Not everyone is as smart or as dumb as you perceive them to be. Not all of us are as rich or as poor as you perceive us to be. $1000 a day or $500 a month doesn't make one person better than another. Slipcovers are useless but decorative pieces of cardboard. Alan, you're just like everyone here: someone sitting in front of their computer. We're all equals. No one's more equal than the other. You don't need to impress people to be liked. Just lay off the slipcover and Ben-Hur obsession, and perhaps tone down your bragging a bit. I'm sure many others are/were in AP classes and many others come from a high-income family, but we don't need to brag about it. Who'll we impress anyway? Just people sitting at their computers. That's all we are, people in front of computers. No need to impress.
Okay, maybe the first half here could count as snarky too. But I rebuttled that by simply saying that he doesn't need to impress anyone (and you don't Alan, because we all like you for who you are, not who you want us to think you are). And the slipcover thing is a little tiring, but it makes you special here. The slipcover is one of your pieces of flair! Just like how Doris Day is Disney Guru's piece of flair, just like how defending soap operas is mine. We all are unique and such, and we don't need to impress anyone to feel good about ourselves.
Just my IMO, not to be taken personal or anything.
Yeah, what he said.
I was remembering an earlier
threadyou created, and my advice here is more sage and...well, speaks better. About how your essay, which was by you and checked and edited by someone at MIT got a "B", and someone you thought didn't deserve an "A", got one:
Me, a long time ago wrote:A "B" is neither the end of the world nor is it a reason for people to jump at someone who's complaining that he got one. Alan, if you normally get nothing but A's and this is your first B in like...ever, I can understand where you're coming from.
But you gotta realize, like everyone said, that a B is not all that bad, nor is it a sign that you're not doing well. There are people in your school who may be struggling and studying their damndest and only getting by on a C. Be proud that you can complain that a B is too low, but don't take it as a sign that what you're doing isn't good enough for this teacher.
Bias or not, he had a reason to give you a B. You say it was corrected/edited by someone at MIT. Well, good for you. Does your teacher know this? Does he know how much work you put into it? If he doesn't, perhaps he could reread your essay and give you another grade. If he does, perhaps even MIT couldn't improve upon it. It doesn't make you any less of an essay writer if it was edited by MIT and still got a B. You gotta learn to just roll with the punches, kiddo. A B is still a B no matter what you do to it, and just be glad it's not anything lower than a D.
The kid next to you who got an A- must be on Cloud Nine. If it's his first A, be glad for him. And be glad for yourself, since you know now to work better on your essays and to challenge yourself into earning your A's. Don't take high grades for granted, otherwise you become careless and don't put as much effort into them as you did before.
ETAA:
Decided to bold the last part, because that's another thing I wanted to touch on. Grades. Right now, you're in AP classes and smart and everything that you can complain about a B. So maybe, just maybe, this crazy four-hour homework thing is working. But never ever take it for granted. It will get harder. In your case, it will get longer too. Maybe next year you'll complain that you get four hours. But that's what you asked for with AP. So essentially, don't brag about it yet, until you've fully immersed yourself into it. Until you poured your blood sweat and tears into homework and academic life. Don't EVER take intellect for granted. And don't think it will always come easy at four hours. Even the smartest people struggle at something, that's what makes us human. It's okay to mistakes once in awhile. You learn from them.
Escapay
I think this speaks for itself as well and I have no need to explain it.
So...if anyone's still reading this, I hope that I made my opinions clear.
Oh and Roger Rabbit, thanks for your reply.
And castleinthesky, I'm glad you understood that there's nothing wrong in my thinking (or anyone thinking) that the concept is ridiculous.
OPINION THREE: Singing in the rain should be done early and often, but only when it rains. And you gotta wear a fedora.
OPINION FOUR: I hate typing long posts because I'm always afraid no one reads them.
OPINION FIVE: I think everyone should skydive at least once in their life, and if you die doing it, at least you'll be thinking about how much it'll hurt as opposed to "Oh my god, my parents are gonna be SOOO mad at me!"
Escapay
