I commented on the post Good Day.....Bad Day.

H2O Flow

For the Past couple of weeks, my floor has been struggling with our water.  As most of us have figured out, the water pressure on our faucets are a lot lower, or they seem to be at least.  This is all due to “the environmental” direction our school wants to take.  The school has replaced all of our faucets with new low flow faucets, so now it seems like it takes twice as long to wash our hands, and really hard to wash our faces.  My floor was going to start a protest, and planned to leave all or our sinks running for 24 hours, but we used our better judgment and decided not to.  I feel that all of our “saved” water is going to water all the new plants that our school put in right in front of the three dorms Cockerel, Morison, and McElvaney.  Is the school really focused on saving water, or did it just need to take our water to water the plants?

Even though I understand making the school more beautiful, I don’t really understand why the school’s main focus at this point seems to be water!  50,000 dollars and they are worried about water?  Really?  I am going into environmental engineering, so most would think that I am down for this cut backs in water, but in reality things that have been so easy have been just now an inconvenience.  Washing my hands takes twice as long, washing off my tooth brush is irritating, and washing my face just pisses me off.  If everything takes twice as long, I would like to propose an experiment offered by my roommate.

Carry a stop with you, and every time you turn on the sink or use the sink, turn the stop watch on and turn it off when done using the sink.  Do this and record the time it takes to do what once took relatively fast.  Then time how long it takes to wash your hands or do things in a regular sink.  Compare the times together, and then let me know your results.  If everything works out like I think it will, by putting in new low flow faucets, the school is actually using a little more water than by using a regular flow.

I responded to rowdy or relaxing spring break.  I liked this post a  lot because I  thought that it focused on a relevant question.  It made me think if i really wanted to do what a majority of the people say they were going to do, which was go out and party.

Teach me something!

In my many years of schooling I have had those teachers that have opened my eyes to the way I think. My sixth grade teacher for example was the only reason I stayed at a public school all the way through elementary school. He was probably the first teacher that I had who I could tell really loved his job. It was obvious that he loved to teach. He was one of those teachers that everyone knew and wanted to have. He was funny, well educated, and most of all he taught with enthusiasm.

One of the big problems with the Hawaii school system is that schools do not hold education to the same standards of the mainland (continental US). I am not saying that public schools are bad, or that people who went to public schools are dumb or anything, but the statistics showed some interesting facts. I went to a public high school graduation of about 500 high school seniors and the percent going to further their education was below 25%. My parents thought that I was one of those kids that might get “lost in the hustle and bustle” so they sent me to a private school for the rest of my schooling years, and have continued to send me to a private university for my education.

Now this is where the big argument comes. In high school I also had great teachers, but I also had some teachers of questionable teaching abilities. My parents did not pay tens of thousands of dollars to send me to a school where the teachers were ok. They along as me expected excellence from those teachers. Well weren’t we all in for a big surprise. I have had teachers call me a retard, or have them say I should die; I have had teachers that do not even know how to solve physics questions during the physics class. I thought that when coming to SMU, all of this would change, but again like in high school, I was setting myself up for a little surprise.

As we all know, SMU for most people is not pocket change despite having the nickname of Southern Millionaires University. I would like to think that SMU prides itself of having great teachers and a very wonderful student body, so you would think that all of the teachers would be incredible. I expected all of my teachers to be so passionate about what they were teaching, and for the most part I have. But again like in high school there are those teachers that have disappointed me. I have two new teachers to SMU this year, and sometimes I feel that the school does not really care for the student. I mean if the school did care, wouldn’t they hire teachers that were the best of the best. I mean for 40,000-50,000 they better be the best of the best. Not the best of the worst.

All of my teachers are very nice people and I have nothing against them personally, but I think that the school hired these people based off of credentials and not on teaching ability. For example, I am almost positive that everyone attending SMU speaks English very well, or is so used to understanding English they sometimes don’t understand people who speak differently. If this is the case why have a teacher who can’t pronounce words. If someone pronounces certain words in three different ways, wouldn’t it be a little bit difficult. I am pretty good with understanding most accents, but accents mixed with bad teaching skills and the inability to get a point across with coherent thoughts, then I have a problem.

I feel like though the school says that they care for their students, but they really don’t at the same time. I mean for example I am in a class that has all future civil, mechanical, and structural engineers. I might be the only student in this class that is going into environmental engineering. All of these students have either taken physics or intro to mechanical engineering, all except me. Why would I be put in this class if I have not taken these two classes or at least one of them before? I have no clue what is going on, and it requires me so much more work to understand the same concepts. I mean the school can’t please everyone, but I feel like the school could try a little more for 40,000-50,000 thousand dollars. I mean at least find teachers that appease to the masses!