02/22/2006

Hey everyone-

Many people have asked me why I hate school so much here... well, it's rather obvious-if you have EVER sat in a brasilian classroom. you just hate it. I don't know a single exchanger that enjoys school. every second seems like an hour inside those plain white walls. yesterday was a perfect example of how pointless school is here.

First off, you should know that I go to one of the two rich schools in my city. and that in brasil. in any third world country, and even back in the US of A. money makes the world go round-you know the golden rule-"whoever has the gold makes the rules." The students aren't stupid, they know who they are, how important they are, how one word from daddy gets a teacher fired in an instant. and the teachers aren't stupid either-they don't want to lose their jobs.. This makes for a rather reckless classroom setting.

I study with the senior class. the senior class that I studied with last year graduated in December, so now I am in a new class. I strongly dislike this new class. They are quite possibly the most immature people I have EVER encountered. When the teacher turns off the lights for the power point, everyone starts screaming and whistling one of their favorite things to do is to mess with the mentally challenged kid in my class (yes, I am dead serious).yesterday, the teacher stepped out of the room for about 2 minutes, and total chaos erupted. kids were running around stealing other kids' things and hiding them in places too high for them to reach, throwing notebooks behind the bookshelves, etc. it was ridiculous. While the math teacher taught, 2 kids made-out. While the chemistry teacher taught, this guy was being really rude, so the teacher yelled at the kid, and then the kid yelled back. so the chem teacher stepped over to the kid's desk and was telling him to knock it off-and you know what the kid did? He gave the teacher a titty twister-not once, but TWICE!! I couldn't believe my own eyes-I actually asked Salla (the finnish exchange student) if that really just happened.. And do you know what the teacher did? Nothing. Absolutely nothing-he just turned around and went back to teaching chemistry. Last period we have math. The math teacher wanted the kids to sing this weird song so that they would remember some formula. Some of the kids weren't singing along. So he threatened them-he told them that they would never pass vestibular without knowing this formula. vestibular is kinda like the SATs but much, much worse. Each college and each major has it's own vestibular and you have to pass it for every college you want to go to.. For most people, it takes several years to pass. they have special grades after high school called cursinho which is where most people end up (most people don't pass vestibular fresh out of high school)--where all you do is study for vestibular. So it's a pretty big threat. but still, not many people seemed too interested in the song-so he decided to up the stakes "Not only will you not pass vestibular, but you will marry a POOR person!!" Everyone sang. I am not kidding you. EVERYONE sang. Welcome to Brasil.

There are still many things that I like about Brasil. But I really felt like I needed to share this school day with you guys so that you could understand why I hate attending high school here so much.

Please feel free to email me whenever and let me know what's going on in all of your lives!!

Beijos,
Kati