Comments on: A High Score

By: Leah

Leah — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:32:19 +0000

I think saying if one does something we don’t like for pay we are whores ignores the whole aspect of life that is deferred gratification or the basic pains of life. Education, like any life experience has parts we do simply because they will benefit us later. I do agree that too much of school can become about deferred rewards and the grade attached to performance rather than the intrinsic rewards of learning. One speaker I heard talked about students being aware of what their passions are and excelling there but doing well enough everywhere else. The students who feel compelled to get all As sometimes don’t know what they really care about and love and sometimes find it hard to hear the inner voice that tells them what their calling in life is. You sound like someone who hears his own voice and will have success by following it.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:17:44 +0000

Your philosophy teacher is taking a very extreme view — which philosophers are great at.

Is a cheetah a whore for chasing gazelle when he’d rather be lounging by the watering hole?

We work to live. School is work. Some of us try to work the minimum to live, others the maximum, but nobody can escape “whoring” completely.

Oh, and if a prostitute likes her job, in this definition is she no longer a “whore”? In the Bay Area, we now call them sex workers, btw.

Perhaps the problem is with the word whore…

By: Skyline Student

Skyline Student — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:41:24 +0000

Damn son. Its too bad many kids will never realize this ever.

By: TheTruthHurts

TheTruthHurts — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:48:01 +0000

Nextset, what evidence do you have that this is more the case now than previously.

By: Nextset

Nextset — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:30:14 +0000

An interesting essay. But here is what is going on. People care abour their futures and their prospects for the future. Education at the moment is more about credentialing (“badging”) than knowledge for it’s own sake. It’s nice if you learn something useful, but that is to a large degree optional.

In the Brave New World, like hires like, marries like, goes to school with like, lives in like housing, has like occupations and gets treated a certain way based on credentials and associations. People are rational beings, they learn things that are in their interests and act according to their perceived best interests. Individual decisions are less accurate than group trends.

Which is why so many of you students are so busy lining their ducks up to get into Harvard or it’s functional equivalent. They prefer to have that life – or at least the life they are busy swimming towards.

As far as people calling other people “whores”, well – you might get to know local whores – you’d learn what that term actually means. Whores are typically mentally ill – dysfunctional and disease carrying professional victims. I don’t think that term fits what you are talking about here so well as “mercenary” or other terms.

Watch your society carefully. You will see that some people are heading out the exits into other society. You and those you are standing next to are not standing still, the ground beneath you is moving. You might want to consult the map as to where you are going to. Make sure you are dressed correctly and like the destination. Because if you don’t, the exits may becoming fewer with greater distance between.

In the end you are responsible for what you become. Make it a good choice.