h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, high school is starting again. I have good things to say about all my classes...except one. Computer applications.

I can stand the bored, ultra-sophisticated students in history. I can put up with the intimidating seniors in chemistry. But I find it difficult in the extreme to keep myself from screaming in frustration when I enter the fifth period computer lab.

What is my problem? you might ask. Just why are you so filled with emotion? Well, guess what I learned yesterday. Using a helpful book as a guide, I learned to perform the following functions with Microsoft Word: change font size/color/type, several different methods of highlighting text, save/open files, rename files, and print a document.

There are people in the world for whom this is new material. (I know, they're in my class.) But for me, these functions have become nearly automatic, on a level just above breathing. I appreciate the teacher's attempts to allow each student to work at his own pace, but they fall short: every few steps ("step" being a certain task to perform with the program) a student must raise his hand and wait to be okayed to move on to the next level. Since the teacher is constantly circulating the class to assist those who DON'T know how to open/save files and change text, it makes for a very long, boring wait.