American Education

I just remembered I do have something to write about. This weekend the founder of FIRST Robotics and an inventor of many things Dean Kamen, was in Hawaii. I was able to go to two of his presentations on Saturday but was unable to go to the main one yesterday because I was taking my AP Physics test. Although his presentation may not have been much differnt I better understood his message. The main idea of FIRST is that the problem with the American education system is not that education is not properly available, but that youth do not want it. The main problem is the culture of american. America almost spends more money on education than the rest of the world combined. More students want to be celeberties and athletes than scientists or engineers. So the main idea of FIRST is to get students interested in science and technology through means that people are familiar with. FIRST was created to be a sport with a short season, TV friendly competition, and an element of luck involved in the game. Since then, FIRST has been extremely sucessful. FIRST alumni are 50% more likely to go to college, 3X more likely to major in engineering, and many other statistically significant changes to peoples lives.

Bored

It may seem that with only one class left I would be having the best time of my life. It is nice to have break all the time, but after being programmed to go to class everyday according to my schedule, I am not sure what to do. I know I should be kicking back now since I have barely anything to do, but I still feel like I have a lot to do. I know I probably never said anything meaningful in this post but I am not sure what to write about.

AP Exam

It has been about a month since I have written anything on here. This post may not have relevance to many people. I may have only finished one of the three exams but I still feel somewhat relieved. I barely studied for this past exam but maybe that is why I am so glad to be through with it. When I reflect over the past few hours of my life I try not to try to correct my answers in my head because it will not change what I put in the test booklet. I know I have another test tomorrow and it is probably best if I get some sleep. I don't know why I am concerned at all because AP exams do not matter. That is, they do not give me any credit for courses next year. One of my classmates suggested I should just turn in the booklet blank because the test doesn't matter. The only reason I wouldn't do that is because that is not the point of the exams. The college board wants to know if we were in an AP course over the past year and the test proves that. In a way a test is a way for us to show how much we know. And well, college course credit is a reward that can follow. By now I am starting to view school differently, one such reason would be that grades do not have nearly as much significance but yet, I am still maintaining my first semester grades. School is a lot more interesting when I do it because I am genuinely interesting in learning about the subject. I really am such a nerd. Rather than relaxing or cramming for the test tomorrow I was dead set on trying to understand the derivation for the surface area of a sphere, which I did not accomplish. anything that isn't immediately important is somewhat more interesting. I suppose in the back of my mind I am starting to think about preparing myself for next year. After all it would be a shame to have cruised through calculus only to be stopped by multivariable.