Hi guys, slowpoke here.
[MENTION=12471]Fitzwilliam[/MENTION]
If it were me in your position fitz, I'd be glad this wasn't happening IRL. Personally I'm quite fond of my traditional values, and I think there is trouble with the youth of today (having worked alongside and lived with a great deal of the partying-smoking-snorting-drinking-having-fun-but-never-thinking types) BUT this doesn't make polytech students are in now way lesser human beings, because believe it or not, most of those kids are at university.
If anything, you might see harder workers at polytech - people who haven't done well in the past, had some time to think about their mistakes or what they might want from life compared to what they have now, an who work damn hard to get there.
[MENTION=7814]Midi2Med[/MENTION] I have a HUGE amount of respect for midwives, I think they're doing a very important job in NZ and they've got a fair amount of people admonishing them for it, it's absolute BS. I don't know if you saw the article in north&south, but it really showed what this country thinks about midwives, in a bad way. I've heard that NZ is one of the global standards in choice-as midwifery, and it really sucks when stupid people take unavoidable birth complications to the media looking for someone to put the blame on other than themselves.
Midwifery is a course at polytech. Does this make it a degree awarding course? No. Does this make it any easier than a university course? No. Does this devalue the course or qualification in any way? No. Does it mean the person has to go to polytech to do this course? Yes.
To be honest I'd rather have a conversation with a plumber/gasfitter who did a polytech course than some moustached skinny-jean wearing philosophy student who does the top button on his shirt up, or any person (usually supported by their equally "expressive and open-minded", sometimes vegan, parents who might even own a healthfood-cum-homeopathy store) doing one of the many BFA courses we offer here in nz (bachelor of f*** all, or fine arts, same diff but one is a subset of the other... imo... although not all BAs are BFAs.)
Grades, hey you might be right statistically, but as froot said that's in no way a judge of character or determination to succeed. FYI I'm going to Knox, failed 6th form maths, every paper in 7th form physics and two in each of biology and chemistry. I'm also in the 99th %ile for UMAT this year. If you think UMAT is a good judge of someone's character (which is what I used to think lol) then the whole "bad grades=bad person" thing doesn't hold up.
I'm re-doing NCEA lvl three this year, with a vengeance (and ritalin lololololol) and when I get to uni, it's going to be fun, and it's going to be hard work. Not either or, but both. It'd be the same at any hall. Hell, CityCol would have been good for me if I were fresh out of high-scool. It offers perspective, from what I hear. The real world gave me that though, and all I had to do was sell my soul to retail for 2 years!
It follows from this that grades aren't a measure of work ethic, they're a measure of how many questions you get right when you're sat down for three hours in a room at the same time as heaps of other people. Some people need to work to prepare, others chill out in front of the tv and get the same grades as the hard worker. I think you could say, relative to the past behaviour/academic record of an individual, their grades are related to how well they've absorbed knowledge that year.
*que acoustic down to earth guitar*
To be honest fitzwilliam, it's time to make a change; but relax, take it easy. You're still young, that's your fault, there's so much you have to know. Find a hall, settle down, if you want you can party - look at me - I get Es, and I'm happy. I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy to be calm with your childhood moving on. Just take your time, think a lot, why think of everything you have got for you will still be here next, but your schol may not.
[OFFTOPIC] All the tests, that I've tried, keeping all the things I knew inside, it's hard - but it's harder not to ramble. [/OFFTOPIC]
You see they're right, I agree, and it's you they know not me so...
yeah that's all I got and my shift is starting soon, so gtg. pm me fitz, we can meet up for a beer or something when the madness begins (i.e. next year)
/rant^over9k
[/offtopic]