GOSH. NOW BECAUSE OF THAT POST I FEEL THE NEED TO WHINE ABOUT STUFF. LIKE OK wait let me stop using CAPS that is better Ahem. I understand that in life you are going to have to talk with people and with employers and everything. Like yeah, I get that. That's perfectly fine and everything. But that is completely different than say.. having to memorize an entire poem and having to recite it to an entire class for like half of your grade? I actually had to do that once. And, get this, I was basically the only one who memorized it (because my anxiety kicked in and I was like 'oh fuck I don't want to look stupid gotta memorize fast') but I got points knocked off for saying shall instead of will one time. Even the kids who didn't like me were like, "can't you just give him 100? I mean taking points off for that is unfair considering like none of us know half of it." That really has nothing to do with the speaking issue, but this is just collective whining about school systems.
Ahem. Unto something more related, once upon a time, in that very same grade, we had to work in groups and have a debate or some shit. No, not some fun sharing of opinions debate where we really try. But like we give reports on our reasons and stuff. Anyway, in order to earn the grade, each person in the group had to go in front of the class to state their case. Now, not only was I in a group with annoying to all hell people, but I was basically the one who did all the work. I gave ideas, I wrote them down, blah blah blah. However, since everyone just seemed to pick what they wanted to present without really discussing it with everyone, and due to my anxiety with saying anything, I was left without anything to say. So, pretty much, even though I did everything in the group and if it wasn't for me the group wouldn't have had anything to present, I was the only one in the group to get a failing grade since I had not gone in front of the class. Cool. Great. Awesome. I am so glad that people basically plagiarized off of me and got A's while I did all the work and got a D. Yeah. Cool. So happy.
Even now, being in a school that is basically supposed to be a haven for people with anxiety, I am forced into speakings and things and constantly receive lower grades because of them. I honestly cannot for the life of me understand why answering pointless test questions in uncomfortable speaking situations is in any way a better learning experience or more important than having a more in-depth written discussion that causes the students to think beyond the normal, memorization aspects of learning.
