UGH!

I really, really, REALLY hate stupidity. I love innocence, naivete, childishness, gullibility... But stupidity!? ARRRRG! It drives me up a wall. And people who are stupid "on purpose"... WOOOO! I might have to call in sick the next day.

Now you might be asking "What does he mean by 'stupidity'? No one is born knowing everything." No, I don't mean a person who doesn't know something. That would be ignorance, in the true sense of the word.

Stupidity is when a person KNOWS, has the mental capacity, the information skill set... to figure something out, but doesn't USE it. They don't grow mentally, they don't seem to want to move on from where they are. Sometimes they ask questions to see if you'll give the same answer. Sometimes they ask the same questions to see if they get more than what they're already getting. Sometimes they'll ask the same question as if the information "didn't stick".

"How do I make something bold?" I show the student how to do it. They ask how to save the file. I show her. Somehow, she erases the file, and we start again. She again asks how to bold some text. I show her. She again asks how to save the file. I save it for her, explaining the steps. She calls me over about a minute later because she can't find the file. Yes, she somehow erased it again. We start a new document. Yes, again, she asks how to bold, and, again, how to save the file. Now this is someone who has a "pimped out" MySpace page, a Facebook page, a SideKick (on which she gets text messages all the time), etc.. and she says she figured that out all by herself. So she's not incapable of learning to use computers and technology, so how can she not learn how to bold and save a file?

"Stupidity On Purpose"

If she doesn't have a finished resume, she can't be sent on interviews, and won't have to go back to work, and can stay in this program longer. Not looking at the long-run, it's benefits her to be stupid. But in the long-run, what happens? A learns about a job opening that she REALLY wants (great pay, great location, rubbing elbows with celebrities...), she rushes, RUSHES, to complete her resume. BAM! Done in minutes. BUT!!! She also needs to have a GED. She's been jerking around for months because she didn't want to be forced to get a job. She wants to be sent THIS WEEKEND to take the GED test, BUT 1. she's not ready because she hasn't been doing the work, and 2. the next possible test date is more than two weeks away. She gets upset blames everyone else. She blames me because if I had helped her, she would have had time to study instead of working on her resume for weeks. She blames her basic education teacher because she didn't give her more subjects to study, instead of focusing on fractions and percents (note: she never finished even ONE assignment)

Sometimes people are stupid on purpose, sometimes they're just stupid without putting in any effort at all.