I'm reading 1984 for English. As usual, I've gotta have a significant portion of it read by early toorrow morning. Man, I'm actually starting to like this book, too bad I don't have the time to enjoy it. =/ I really sympathize with a lot of the themes and ideas brought up in the book, like the solitude and the feeling of being the only sane person in a world gone crazy. It's like these emotions that I could never put into words- I feel like I really connect with the protagonist on a deeper level.

Oh but, for some stupid reason, they're making us mark up and take notes in the book- I mean, I'd gotten in the habit of doing that anyway. But now that it's for a grade, I find myself marking passages for their "structural significance," and not just cuz I like the quote or the idea it expresses. Man, I think that effectively defeated the purpose of the assignment- by doing so, it makes reading an otherwise pleasurable book into a painful process. I mean, several years down the line, will it really matter who can intelligently discuss the literary devices used in a book, etc.? Isn't the point just to teach students how to appreciate a good book?

Yea, school seems to do a lot of things meaning well but that ends up harming students. For example, the whole thing with grades. They're meant to guage our understanding of material, no doubt. But when you toss in stuff like class ranks, trying to impress colleges, and trying not to fail- grades turn into a cut-throat competition to see who's the best. By inflating the importance of "academic superiority" they practically encourage cheating... and they wonder why they've got such a problem with "academic dishonesty." Pssshhh... open your eyes! But I mean, the way I see it, the purpose of school is to learn; a grade is just temporary & utterly meaningless in the end. I know it'd be impractical to do away with grades, but seriously, there's got to be a better way! =/