American public schools need money. Superfluous events and activities (few of which actually have to do with learning) have become the norm. And yet poorer, foreign countries manage to teach with fewer supplies and teachers than we have. Miraculously those students ending up scoring higher than us. Perhaps it's because they don't waste time with things like "Career Day"
Career day is one of the many attempts by the school system to convince us to go college and then get real jobs. We're supposed to get pumped up about being a hairstylist or a computer programmer, because they're afraid that without proper motivation, we'll all become hoboes. Not to offend any hoboes out there.
We learned about all sorts of jobs, but the only one that I had any expectations for was Advertising & Marketing. They couldn't actually get someone who worked in Advertising or Marketing, those people are obviously too high and mighty to donate their day to talking to a bunch of uninterested high school kids about the great pay and exciting opportunities in the field of brain-washing. Instead, we got someone from the human resources (you could see it in her eyes) department of the local Nordstrom department store, sent to teach us about advertising and marketing.
Nordstrom is a company that prides itself on the fact that it doesn't do any advertising or marketing.
We spend the time watching a history video. On the history of the Nordstrom company. At the moment I write this, I know the history of the Nordstrom better than I know the history of Canada. Hell, do they even have history up there? If so, it certainly can't compare with the life of a poor Swedish man who immigrated to America, armed with nothing but a dream. And shoes. Plenty of shoes.
I drank my
Wild Cherry Pepsi though the farce. We're a
Pepsi school, with about a dozen Pepsi machines located in strategic places. We drink this
overpriced soda as if it were water. I noticed myself tapping my foot on the ground at a high speed, without a real reason. I've noticed quite a few people doing this, it can get annoying, after a while. I can't help but wonder if it's the surplus of
caffeine in our systems.
It's the year 2002. There's a good chance you aren't from a generation in which you spent a significant amount of school time learning from a television screen. Times have changed. These days, they put televisions in every classroom. Big ones.
The Nordstrom video just didn't compare, in my mind, to CNN Student News, a patronizing show we watch in History class. A recent episode of CNN Student news informed us of Ted Turner winning some award or another. Following this we learned the story of Turner's life, and simply put, how he is God almighty.
Strangely enough, this same news program also had a "story" about how news programs these days are inferior to their predecessors, how television news has been...corrupted.
I kid you not.
After the
video (the majority of which was members of the Nordstrom family talking about themselves) we got quizzed for fun prizes like
Nordstrom pens, and
Nordstrom notebooks. We also got asked
innocent questions like
"Who here has shopped at Nordstrom?" and "How did you hear about our sale?"
The human resources speaker didn't seem to be too happy to be there in the first place. But she did have pride in her company. Far too much pride. If Nordstrom had an official flag, she'd be wearing a dress made out of it. And if everyone that works at Nordstrom is like this, it's only a matter of time.
As she tried to explain the obscenely complex Nordstrom pay system, I stared at the Gatorade posters located around the classroom. Famous atheletes with purple sweat on them.
At least we didn't have to bring our books to this farce. My chemistry book was getting a bit dirty, I forgot to choose from the various book covers the school offers. Cynical people might even suggest that the free book covers offered by "www.chickmail.com" are actually just advertisements. We ought to do something about them cynics. They really make this world a sour place.
They say that you can't learn anything from school. They say I should go
read a book. They say it's just a waste of time and that it kills
brain cells. That's just plain wrong. Hell, I'm perfectly normal, and I watch school all the time.