The Trouble With Projects

Projects. The procrastinators nightmare. Teachers assign projects in hope that students will apply their knowledge, and turn it into a creative, expressive project or essay. The problem with projects IS, that as soon as the bell rings 3 o'clock, we all stop thinking. How do teachers expect us to focus at home, let alone make a big project worth 30% of our grade!? And if you're at all like me, not only can you not focus, but you choose not to even try to focus, waiting until the last minute to complete a big project more or less start to finish.

Of course, there are SOME people (I won't point fingers) who get home and start their project right away, which results in a fantastic A+ project that makes us procrastinators look like noobs. It's not that I don't care about school, it's just that I can't focus and I don't want to sit there for 2 hours working after a long day of school. I need some free time. I assume most of you feel the same way.

Even though I know the effects that procrastination leads to, for some unknown reason, I continue to procrastinate. My mom always tells me the following, "Don't do tomorrow what could be done today". I know that's what everyone wants to live by, but who really has the focus, determination and drive to live by those words religiously? No one that I know, myself included. I know some people who go through "procrastination binges", meaning simply, they procrastinate sometimes and work diligently other times. I am a full blown procrastinator, yet somehow, I manage to pull off straight A's. The reason for this, is because teachers think what and how they teach is effective, but really, it's a waste of precious time that we could be using for projects.

Projects can be fun, if they're supposed to be about something that you actually enjoy. When they're about something you struggle to understand or honestly don't give a damn about, they are the most boring thing in the world. Anything that combines research, organization, knowledge, the ability to retain stuff, writing, drawing AND having to put all that stuff together onto a neat, creative and colourful poster board that your mom always forgot to buy you, so you ended up having to rip the stuff on the last poster board you used and strategically place all the pieces of paper you had so that it covers up the pieces of glue that didn't rip off, SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!!! Ever wonder why teachers look happy when they assign a project? I bet it's because they're playing that thorough in their heads.

The even dumber thing is, that if my teacher assigns homework or knows that our secondary teacher assigned homework, he refuses, I mean flat-out REFUSES to give us class time to work on our stuff. He'll take extra time to talk to us about something we already know or add on to the pile of stuff we have to finish in class. He wants to make it so that we have to sit there and focus outside of school. It makes me shutter just thinking about focusing outside of class.

I also hate, how whenever you complain about focusing outside of class time, our teachers always pull out the same answer "Have you ever thought about how successful people like doctors and lawyers and athletes have to focus outside of working hours? All i'm doing is preparing you for the real world, where there's not going to be anyone hounding you to finish the assignment. In 8 years time, you will be thanking me"

There are a couple things I would like to say to teachers about this statement.

1) Yes, I have thought about the effort that has to be put into a successful job, but right now, while I'm still in grade school, I HONESTLY DON'T CARE!!!

2) I will not thank you in 8 years time. I will be thanking my college professors, my therapist for listening to me when I went crazy for a few months, and I will thank my mom for always lying to me about how proud she was.

And that concludes my rant on projects.

Chamomile tea in hand, I leave you, yearning for my next post. If there is one, lol.