School vs. Programming

Don''t let school interfere with your education I graduated high school with honors, but I couldn''t care less. I didn''t get anything out of it. Secondary education was much more fun, since I took what I wanted (programming). I have no idea how important a high school diploma is anyway, though ....

And what the hell''s wrong with a B?

Chris Barry (crbarry at mts.net)
My Personal Programming Depot

I disagree. That Highschool diploma and good transcript are going to get you into the secondary school of your choice, and at this point in your life is a primary means for other people to measure your intelligence and work ethic. Don''t let it go, as it will disrupt your college plans (where you WILL get to focus on what you want to do, after a year or two of ''broadening'').

I thought about dropping out of college during the .com to pursue all the ridiculously paying jobs; I am glad that I didn''t, as that is over and I would have been left with no degree and not enough experience.

Pursuing what you want to do is important, and you should continue to do so, but completing highschool and college will serve you better than dropping out to learn on your own (for 99% of people).

--OctDev

Yeha, the problem with Bs according to my momis that I got like 95+ perentile on the standardized test scores.... So her intuition tells her that I dont try ver hard, which is partially true. I wasnt asking wheather or not I should drop otu of school or not I just wondered if its worth getting strait As in high school if that takes up all of your time.

Thanx for the thoughts

Dwiel ~ Tazzel3d

You need to balance. High School seems like a waste of time but it''s not. Personally I''m a B student so I''d say keep doing what you''re doing. But if you want to be an A student then you need to put the computer away until your homework is done.

One thing I would do is write programs to do your homework or do practical application of lessons. I wrote a ton of little math programs for the TI-85 and learned how to do 2D rotation in the process having never read a tutorial. It is possible to mix school and programming. You just need to be creative about it.

Ben


IcarusIndie.com [ The Rabbit Hole | The Labyrinth | DevZone | Gang Wars | The Wall | Hosting ]

Well then I would look at your future goals and decide based on that . For instance, do you want to go to college to get a CS degree (or something similar)? You''ll need great grades to get into a really well though of university. If you don''t mind going to a smaller or less recognized school, or do not even want to pursue an impacted major at college, then you''re doing fine with B''s.

The extra work you put into A''s now will probably payoff ten fold later, but you have decide how it will help your future in relation to your personal goals.

And please, don''t think I am being preachy and advocating nothing but school in your life--far from it. Just advocating the proper balance. Just step back and take a look at the big picture, and you will be able to make an educated decision for yourself, based on yourself.

--OctDev

As a junior in college, the only purpose of high school that I can see is to play a part in which college you go to and how much of the tuition, etc that you have to pay for.

I agree with the saying "don''t let school interfere with your education." I was a high school honors grad, now I''m a C+ student in college. The last standardized test I took (the "Rising Junior Exam" here) was some kind of assessment test administered by the ACT organization. My best scores were in science and math (top 99th and 98th percentiles, respectively).

School''s all bullshit. You get a piece of paper with your name on it, some pats on the back, and graduation money. Yet you should stick with it, if nothing more than to show that you''re hard-headed enough to see anything through to its end (not implying any negative personality traits on your part).

"If people are good only because they fear punishment and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." - Albert Einstein

Ok here's my true experience (I just graduated from High School, so don't make fun of my inexperience):

I get about a B- average and I couldn't care less. All the education that I have is general knowledge but nothing particularly useful (my parents tell me otherwise). I took an ACT test and got good score. Since that, it seems like the colleges added my ACT score to my GPA and made it real good. I guess the morale is: If you do really well on a big test, the small one is done with (but don't quote me or take this seriously) But if you want tution, you need to have good grades so you can afford to GO to college. If any one of you feel that there's something wrong with this, feel free to reply.

About the programming, I spend more time on this than my homework (in fact, I almost never did my homework hehe but most of the time I finish them at school).

Core I completely agree with you But I like them grad money

I don't think High School should affect the rest of your life, it should just start you off in a good way (I hope)

Just wondering, is there any other deaf programmer in here beside me?

EDIT: changed from grade to score, my mistake.

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You know your game is in trouble when your AI says, in a calm, soothing voice, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave"

[edited by - Zeraan on June 9, 2002 2:22:43 AM]

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Original post by KalvinB
One thing I would do is write programs to do your homework or do practical application of lessons.

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You can also write programs (games even) to help you with school. For the past year or so I''ve been meaning to write a program to help me study vocabulary for my language classes, but you could easily make some type of game to help you learn other things than vocabulary for example:

Cant remember those equations or procedures for chemistry/phsyics/etc?

Does your history teacher require you to know pesky details and dates?

etc...

Yea, those are all memorization scenarios but hopefully those will give you ideas for something else you can do...

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I will not make a list of links... I will not make a list of links... I will not make a list of links...
Invader''s Realm

School's important, but programming can be just as beneficial if can get recognized for your ability. Since you're in the USA, you can participate in this contest. If you get a high rank you'll probably get scholarship money and get into the school of your choice. At least that's the way it worked for me (Canadian contest though). I did have high grades too, but the contest definitely got me my scholarship.

Edit: spelling mistake

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks.


[edited by - thooot on June 9, 2002 12:54:17 PM]

...I''m homeschooled...
I envy you all... You have social lives...

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Original post by Dazyna
...I''m homeschooled...
I envy you all... You have social lives...

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Ha! That''s what you think!

Anyway, that contest thing look pretty cool.... especially the international one. *drools* Is it true that they still don''t allow STL in submissions? They really need to adopt the ANSI standards.

Anyway, I admire that whole thing for getting kids into programming. For some reason, kids learning how to program is taboo. "Do it the easy way! Wait until college!" people say. Bull honkey.

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Original post by 23yrold3yrold
Don''t let school interfere with your education

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roofles


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Total Instant Messenger. It''s better than AOL.

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Original post by Forcas
Ha! That''s what you think!

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Social life as in actual interation with other homo sapiens.

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Don''t let school interfere with your education

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Ahhh.. truth.

I''m stuck in a burned-out crumbling innercity high school filled with stoners and idiots who waste my time. I gather that this is normal. Since murder is (unfortunately) illegal in this country, I''ve decided to retreat into myself and start building calculator games and such.

And so far, I''ve learned quite a bit more than I would have normally. I keep getting yanked aside to be told I''m "jumping ahead of the class" and that I should slow myself down. Now isn''t that utter bullshit?

Stick with highschool, all you need it for is the transcript, but without that little shitty database entry in some machine ticking away on an insecure government-sponsored network, you won''t get jack from university. And the little piece of paper you get from university gets you a job.

Resist everyone

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Original post by Ravuya
And so far, I''ve learned quite a bit more than I would have normally. I keep getting yanked aside to be told I''m "jumping ahead of the class" and that I should slow myself down. Now isn''t that utter bullshit?

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That is bullshit! At least my teachers reward me for trying to teach myself something new =)

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I will not make a list of links... I will not make a list of links... I will not make a list of links...
Invader''s Realm

Educational school. One of the more accurate oxymorons.
Unfortunately the stupid piece of paper saying you attended for several years is a huge part of getting anywhere in life, so you''re stuck with it.

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