PSA: Laurel High School Accepting Students For Spring 2005

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 3:49 pm

I was asked to post this by one of the Laurel High School staff:

Laurel High School is accepting students for Spring, 2005. Imagine a school where individuality and creativity are praised instead of stamped out. Laurel High is a school for the unique individual, a small school with small classes. Students help direct the curriculum based on interest. Laurel provides a safe, open environment for people of all religious persuasions, ethnicities and background. If you're tired of the same tripe from the public conformity factories, consider Laurel.

Thank you,
Jeff Tatum

4X541N7 · Post by **4X541N7** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:57 pm

Whoa...Where's this, & why didn't I know about it like 6 years ago...Damn I feel old.............

Seaneleth · Post by **Seaneleth** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 5:07 pm

Laurel's done wonders for me.

Mother Mo · Post by **Mother Mo** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:40 am

Laurel's been around a long time. I taught there in the early 90's & they were around long before that. It's a great school for those who thrive in alternative learning environments. Does Kelly still teach wilderness skills?

CHRISTOFF · Post by **CHRISTOFF** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 2:06 am

DAMN i wish my parents had a clue back in the day. but i guess i turned out ok eh?

:twisted:

CHRISTOFF

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 4:03 pm

Well, pass on the info to the parents of any 12-16 whom you don't wish to see Happy Mealed...

The Stormstress · Post by **The Stormstress** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:26 pm

Amazing class selection!!! I woulda killed 2 hav thoze optionz n high school!!

JealousofRegis · Post by **JealousofRegis** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:48 pm

hey, that's right by my apartment
I see kids outside playing guitar and shit all the time
that sure woulda beat the hell out of my high school experience

JealousofRegis · Post by **JealousofRegis** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:50 pm

check out the last page of random pictures
that kid with the suit and cane looks just like me

iblis · Post by **iblis** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:16 pm

I wonder what they consider "programming"?

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:48 pm

Go by the site and see if you have anything for their Wish List.

Uziel · Post by **Uziel** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 5:14 am

Hello everyone, I figured it would be just as easy for me to create a profile here and answer questions personally.

I am a teacher at Laurel, and my classes include, but are not limited too, martial arts, calculus, electronics, physics, U. S. History, psychology, computer programming, computer networking, hacker methods, and religion and occultism.

To Mother Mo: Yes, Kelly still teaches wilderness skills, and he has a very impressive climbing program going as well. Mojo, unfortunately has passed away, but he has two new dogs, Bell and Camo.

To iblis: I teach introductory Visual Basic, C, C++, MATLAB, FORTRAN, Mathematica and Linux scripting, as interest demands. Since Laurel tends to be a lot less strict than public schools, I tend to stick with Visual Basic to teach the general structure of programming, and then slowly bring in C. A For loop is a For loop, only the syntax differs. I teach MATLAB and Mathematica programming to calculus and physics students. If you have any tips on creating a bifurcation diagram of the tent map using Mathematica, it would be much appreciated. I have a lecture planned on chaos theory and Lypanouv exponents for next semester, and I have created some beautiful graphs in my off time to demonstrate period doubling and deterministic chaos.

To JaNell: Thank you for starting the thread, it is much appreciated.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email me directly. As soon as we get the issues (by issues, I mean switching ISPs) with BellSouth ironed out, our school web and mail servers will be more reliable.

Hardcoregirl · Post by **Hardcoregirl** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 7:39 am

I have a son who will be turning ten in February and I absolutely loathe the school system he is in. He has horrid ADHD yet can't be drugged up like the other kids can. I've considered homeschooling, etc, but I can't do that right now because I am in school.

However, I've known a lot of kids that went to Laurel and I don't know if I'd consider them terribly socially functional, though thats probably not the schools fault, but maybe just a combination of factors. I don't mean they were cookie cutter kids either, but I think that individuality should be encouraged, but being able to function appropriately around everyone who didn't go to Laurel should be encouraged to. I've been able to pick out friends and say, "you went to Laurel didn't you?" and be correct. Maybe thats a good thing.

Then again, I went to Oak Ridge High School which is probably not terribly normal either...

I am curious about one thing- my ex husband was a "troublemaker" of sorts, individual, creative, intelligent, rebellious, etc, and his parents took him out of school and placed him in a private school that included all the troublemakers and kids that didn't fit into regular schools. Well, they fed off each other and got more into drugs and illegal activities than if they'd been left in their regular schools. It was like a factory for drug addicts and he said they used to cut lsd on the desks, trip at school, smoke joints during their given cigarette breaks (!), etc. I know illegal substances will be around my son and he will have to make choices for himself, but I don't want it to be any easier than it was for me to find them (and it was pretty damn easy).

I am curious if drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc, is addressed or even a problem at Laurel because, even though I expect my son to experiment, I fear he may have the addiction problems his father did...One thing I fear about public schools is the access to illegal substances and I wonder if its even easier at a school like Laurel.

Also, is the class on hacker methods for educating kids on defending against them, or are you teaching them the methods that fuck up our computers ?

Also, is tuition not on the webpage?

Testimonial is also misspelled on the "fanmail" page...

iblis · Post by **iblis** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 9:42 am

Buttercup wrote:Also, is the class on hacker methods for educating kids on defending against them, or are you teaching them the methods that fuck up our computers?

Anyone who thinks that learning how to fuck computers up, and preventing it from happening are in any way separate, is a fucking moron.

I should hope they teach kids how to fuck computers up. Otherwise, the class would be shit, like most other Internet Security courses.

I realize that most non-technical don't know about this, so I'll elaborate: Learning how to really defend against DoS (that's Denial of Service, folks) and preventing computer intrusion includes how to break into systems and fuck them up. It's very much like self-defense, physically. If you don't understand what they're trying to do to you, how in the hell can you protect yourself from it?

Not only do you have to understand what they're trying to do, you have to understand exactly how it is done.

The big difference is ethics, and that's taught at home - if it can ever be taught at all.

If a child/teenager/young adult or what have you sits up and decides they want to learn how to "hax0r", go and look up the laws on network and computer privacy. Explain to them that breaking into a system can land you in "pound you in the ass federal prison" - to paraphrase Office Space - for up to ten years. Doesn't matter if the infraction hurt anyone or not. Hell, it doesn't even matter if you have immoral intentions or not.

And jail isn't the only worry - an associate of mine is still in a lawsuit with Intel™ over breaking out of a firewall to do his job. This occured in 1997. Who do you think has the money to continue going to court over this? (Yeah, that question is rhetorical.)

So yeah, I hope this school teaches their students how to break into computers and fuck shit up - and then repair it after the damage is done, and prevent it from happening again.

But I also hope they include lessons on what happens when you break the law using this knowledge. Because there are very good reasons for sticking to ethics. Reasons that keep a guy's ass from being violated - which, of course, are the very best of reasons. :mrgreen:

Hardcoregirl · Post by **Hardcoregirl** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 11:29 am

iblis wrote:
Buttercup wrote:Also, is the class on hacker methods for educating kids on defending against them, or are you teaching them the methods that fuck up our computers?

Anyone who thinks that learning how to fuck computers up, and preventing it from happening are in any way separate, is a fucking moron.

Well, when it comes to computer stuff like that, I guess I'm a fucking moron. I do understand that there is no way to prevent such things unless you know what they are doing, I just didn't know from what angle the class was being taught.

I just wasn't sure thats information I would want my kidlet to know...

I understand that you have to know what they are doing in order to defend against that, but I don't know how many high school kids really are interested in the good side of that, versus, how to fuck shit up.

My knowledge of such stuff is limited to running Ad Aware and McAfee....lol

karmakaze · Post by **karmakaze** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 12:50 pm

Buttercup wrote:
iblis wrote:
Buttercup wrote:Also, is the class on hacker methods for educating kids on defending against them, or are you teaching them the methods that fuck up our computers?

Anyone who thinks that learning how to fuck computers up, and preventing it from happening are in any way separate, is a fucking moron.

Well, when it comes to computer stuff like that, I guess I'm a fucking moron. I do understand that there is no way to prevent such things unless you know what they are doing, I just didn't know from what angle the class was being taught.

I just wasn't sure thats information I would want my kidlet to know...

I understand that you have to know what they are doing in order to defend against that, but I don't know how many high school kids really are interested in the good side of that, versus, how to fuck shit up.

My knowledge of such stuff is limited to running Ad Aware and McAfee....lol

in my personal opinion computer security entails knowing how to hack/crack and knowing how to prevent it. I also consider it a requirement for anyone taking programming classes to have a detailed background in. It is something that has to be taken into consideration with any form of programming and it is in my opinion the very basics that you have to start at when designing the layout of an application.

lets say you are writing a program and it needs to be networked and users to authenticate. what type of authentication are you going to use? what password format are you going to use? what rules are you going to apply to it? how will it handle privileges? what ports will use? will it respond to pings? will it send ACK packets? what protocols will it use? does it need to be tunneled? does it need encryption?

hacking is not some big fucking deal like it has a tendency to be made into. it just means that you are fluent in the environment you are working in. "hackers" are actually a big part of linux development. fedora core was written by hundreds of people. many of them just random hackers who decided to help out for the cause of an open source OS. hackers are also to thank for the majority of bug fixes and security patches in just about every piece of software.

if someone is going to take a programming class and not a security course it is a complete waste. then we just get more crappy insecure software like windows.

Hardcoregirl · Post by **Hardcoregirl** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 12:59 pm

Ok, I totally see your point, I know that those fluent in computers HAVE to understand what they are working with to fix stuff, even the powers that can be used for EVOL.

As I told ibbie, my son better keep his illicit internet usage to secretly downloading porn or I'll be forced to keeeeel him.

Uziel · Post by **Uziel** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 1:39 pm

To Buttercup: Unfortunately, Laurel has managed to create a great deal of stigma about itself. In years past, all the members of the Malignmen attended Laurel, as I understand. The current Principal, however, has made great strides in the environment. Of course, there is good with the bad. Laurel is about self-motivation. If a student who is not motivated attends, it could be worse for them. On the other hand, I have a 15 year old girl in my Calculus class, and she's ready for College Sophomore level math, such as complex Differential Equations, 3D Calculus, Complex Algebra, Abstract Algebra, etc. She's incredibly motivated an is capable of graduating at 16 if she keeps up her pace.

As for social concerns, every student at Laurel has a friend or two in public school and some form of life outside the school. Also, we require community service as a graduation requirement, as we are a community school. We do our best to teach social responsibility.

Concening Tuition: I only put information that I am told on the webpage. I will inquire about it, however.

Concerning Hacker Methods: I begin this class by addressing what a person convicted of computer crime can expect. We have an internal network, and it will get "fucked up" during lab in this class. I am teaching Information Security, but yes, to defend against hackers, one must learn their methods. However, I come from an earlier view of hackers. People who seek only to "fuck up" computers are generally malicious script kiddies. Most real hackers are capable of finding a lucritive job in Information Security, at least the ones I knew personally.

The Stormstress · Post by **The Stormstress** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 1:45 pm

HACK THE PLANET!

J/K ;-)

iblis · Post by **iblis** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 5:15 pm

Uziel wrote:Concerning Hacker Methods: I begin this class by addressing what a person convicted of computer crime can expect.

Awesome.

Uziel wrote:We have an internal network, and it will get "fucked up" during lab in this class. I am teaching Information Security, but yes, to defend against hackers, one must learn their methods.

I now have hope for pre-college educational system, in regards to the IT world. Fixing and breaking a LAN is probably the best way I've found to learn exactly how things work.

IMHO, learning how dangerous an "innocent" userland program can be to a server environment is a Good Thing, too.

Uziel wrote:However, I come from an earlier view of hackers. People who seek only to "fuck up" computers are generally malicious script kiddies.

Amen to that. I consider anyone who can code to be a "hacker". (I.E., "Just Another Perl hacker,")

The script kiddies (usually) either grow up, or live in their parents' basements until they're 30. But I'm admittedly very biased.