[Splintered]

I've been gone for a while. I hate long leaves, but sometimes I can not just avoid them. While I do not live on the Internet, I love using it. It gives me information, and gives me feedback. With the whole "Web 2.0" movement, I can get information at an incredibly fast pace, and that makes me happy as all hell. I like learning things. I love learning new things every day.

What's been getting to me, is the way I have been forced to process information lately. At school, I can't help but notice a trend, where I am not really learning anything. While it's true that I am being given information, it seems like school is feeding it to me in such a way, that I can't properly digest it. Whether it is the school's fault, or my own personal vice is up for debate. I believe it's a combination of the both.

The thought that keeps bugging me is, if I learn X in school, I get certified for it, and I have someone who will vouched I learned it, even if I just faked learning X. As long as I have an above average grade, I am supposedly learning the subject. Yet, even if I go in detail, and learn something on my own personal time, until I go to school, I can not know X.

One of the things I am currently enjoying, is European History. The way Europe shaped the world, is simply amazing to me. I love learning about the history of England, the British Empire, Napoleonic France, etc. One of the things I am currently hating, is testing. I hate tests, because they require me to spew useless facts about things that are completely irrelevant.

A simple example would be this: I find Bismarck of Germany to be an incredibly amazing guy, and I like his ideas. In European History, we're taught about what Bismarck did, where he did it, and why. I find the overall idea something that's really cool, and awesome. Yet, come test time, how much I have learned about Bismarck, doesn't really matter. What matter is random dates, that have no meaning to me. I know he was made chancellor of Germany, and fired by Wilhelm the second. I don't know the day, the month, or the year. That's what is required on tests.

So far, I've been able to squeak by, because I can memorize things pretty quickly in a pinch. But, this doesn't teach me anything. Yet, if I just reject it, and try and learn things, and actually learn and dig into them, it won't count for anything.

I can set up a pretty nifty Linux desktop. Meaning, give me half an hour, and a Mountain Dew, and I can have Ubuntu up and running like a champ. This won't mean anything in the real world, because I have no certification that says I can do it, and no one really offers it as a class. So, how is learning how to do something like that, going to translate into the real world?

I want to get a job, probably in the computer industry, or the firearm industry. I know how computers work to a good extent, and I know how firearms work to a good extent. Yet, neither of these will count for anything. Simply because I didn't learn it at school. What's the purpose of learning anything? I mean, yes, I enjoy doing things like this, but it seems less and less like I'm going to be able to continue enjoying it, because I'll be forced to learn it in school, in a dumbed down and watered down version.

So. I'm stuck between two places. I can either memorize things, get certified, and get a job to do what I love, or I can learn things, and not be able to do them. The irony is killing me here.