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Currently on hiatus :-(
 S&W in German/auf DeutschGaia (my fantasy comic) Scarlet (my science fantasy comic) |
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![[0506] Dangling On A String](/comics/2013-08-22-0506-dangling-on-a-string.png "[0506] Dangling On A String")
So that Sandra and Woo can be promoted to a “Premium comic” on MangaMagazine.net (which is very lucrative for us), the next two strips will be published on MM.net first. They will follow on sandraandwoo.com one week later.
- Sword of Damocles: History test
- Richard: Don’t mind me.
- Sandra: I hate it when he does that.
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Sandra and Woo by Oliver Knörzer is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. See the About page for details.
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I wonder where he got Damocle’s Sword from…
@ The J.A.M.:
And how did Sandra NOT notice it before Richard went to cut it down??
Klingon cloaking device??
Leomon wrote:
Maybe she just ignored it.
Well Sandra, it could be worse. You could have a test in Sex Ed. I’d hate to see what Richard would hang in the ceiling for THAT occasion…
Evidently this is far from the only time Sandra’s been confronted with The Sword 🙂
Novil: So will S&W be following in Gaia’s footsteps by eventually moving to 3 updates a fortnight, or are the rules different because you’re already publishing Gaia over there?
@ The J.A.M.:
OMG you know what that is? Yay! Friendship. 😀
I think he considers this test important.
Not sure why, just a hunch.
mittfh wrote:
The update schedule of Sandra and Woo won’t change. It will be updated on Monday and Thursday as before. But we’ll try to increase the buffer on MM.net a little bit over the course of time.
This is pretty much how I feel the week leading up to an anime convention.
The Sword of Dad-ocles?
Usually my dad just says ‘you have a test coming up’ but now I wish he would cut a hanging sword down in the living room to remind me. Or have it engraved into my wall. Or maybe even have a plane spell it out in the sky. That’s what I like, people going that extra mile.
At least Richard makes sure Sandra has her schoolwork in order. Sometimes you may question the quality of his parenting, but I can imagine this gets some rather nice results.
Suddenly I get the image of a well muscled, oiled man in a golden speedo….
That ain’t no crime.
(Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)
on my head is “Deadline”…….smart dad anyway….
Using this subtle method, you can get people to study without them knowing you were trying. subliminal messaging.
So if she fails the test…
A week delay is disappointing to those of us following you here. But having it bring in more money (the usual definition of success these days) is great! You have given us years of great comics, I can wait a week to see more. So congratulations and good luck!
Of course as an impatient sort I may have to check out MangaMagazine.net to avoid that delay. Probably their nefarious plan all along!
“the sword of Damocles is hangin’ over my head and I’ve got the feeling someones gonna be cutting the thread”.
well I typed it so ill keep it but it seems a few people beat me to the rocky horror references
so woah is me my life is a misery….
Well many webcomics operate with a “buffer” of comic strips so that they can post content for a few updates even if the author gets sick or for some other reason is unable to draw new strips. Delaying before you post the newest strips here is not that much different! So practically for us readers, there won’t be much of a change once we’re past that one week pause. 🙂
Alternate strip title: Sandra vs Damocles. 🙂
Very good symbolism there.
Incidentally, I believe the original “sword” of Damocles was a scimitar, and it was held up by a single thread, or a single human hair, or something similar.
The point was to teach the foolish servant who was being “king for a day” just how perilous the life of a king was in those times, what with plots, attempted assassinations, wars and so on. The king’s claim to his throne and kingdom “hung by a single thread”, just as the sword did, literally.
Cramming a.k.a. studying the nights before a test, is for those who did not pay attention in class. It does not help. But for some reason, there are those ignorant people (her father seems to be one of them) who cannot comprehend this. I was always harassed because, I would not cram the night before or in class before the test started, and I would be the one making the A’s on the test.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Damocles
towerwarlock wrote:
Agreed. I highly recommend avoiding studying the day before a test. Get it done before that! Then, go relax, enjoy a little free time, and come in feeling good! With the lack of tension, being well rested, and having learned the material, you will be able to focus and deal with the test easily. Concern, however, is not a bad thing… but maybe they need to sit down and have a talk about this! After all, if it makes Sandra feel nervous, it may negatively impact her score.
Read differently it becomes Test History, which may explain the reason he resorted to this method.
Robert wrote:
Some of us will be nervous regardless of how much we study, know, etc. I know I’ve thrown up before a test I aced before, and I always shake badly before them. Even in classes I could ace sleeping through (and in one case that was quite literal.)
Sandra: I advise jumping out of the way then getting right back to watching tv. I doubt he has too many Swords of Damocles just lying around.
FYI, MM isn’t viable for me until they support RSS update notifications.
This comic is technically set in America right?
Dunno what Sandra has to be so worried about, it’s not like there’s not much history for her to learn in America… 😛
DAMOCLES SWORD! I ALWAYS got threatened with that thing by my Year 6 English teacher! One of my few favourite teachers.
@ Mr_Nabby: I know what you’re suggesting, but I can’t imagine anything other than Larisa hanging there.
@ towerwarlock:
I look at this way, his daughter told him that her friend would be coming over, so they could both study for a history test, but considering they were watching TV and snacking instead, he thought he’d give his child a gentle reminder.
And having lived with her dad all her life, she knew exactly what he was getting at, without him needing to nag, yell or badger her. 😉
@ Elonex21:
Well, I guess we’re just dumber than Europeans, but for us, 43 presidents, 50 states, and roughly 9 major wars and around a hundred smaller conflicts is more than enough to fill up our brains.
But I’m curious how far back European history is taught in primary school. Surely you don’t go all the way to Romulus and Remus…
@ Chris:
Well that’s because he has them all hanging in strategic locations so such a plan will not work.
@ Xezlec:
Quite the contrary: We Europeans (or at least Eastern Europeans) always starts history with Greek and Rome and avoids too recent topics the teacher is not sure how to teach without risking jail time next time radicals get to rule.
Not sure how many teachers actually got to jail, but they surely prefer to play it safe.
(Note that there is LOT of history before Romulus. For start, Romulus and Remus were descendant of Aeneas the Trojan, guy who escaped Troy when Greeks destroyed it. Also, Egypt alone have 3000 years of history BEFORE Rome conquered it … luckily THAT is teached only heavily summarized.)
@ The J.A.M.:
Knowing Richard? he probably made it!
Sandra has already flunked one history test, so I guess Richard wants to make extra sure she doesn’t do it again. I hope this isn’t the last day day though, as someone earlier said, it’s already to late then.
Anyway, in my country we begin history with stone age and then move forwards.
@ hkmaly:
I’m aware there is a lot of history before Rome (almost 14 billion years’ worth) but I was assuming we were only talking about things Europeans might culturally identify as part of the lineage of their present nation-states (that obviously excludes ancient Egypt). Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense to say the US has “less history”, as did the original comment I was responding to.
That said, if you learn about the stone age and ancient Rome in middle school, I think it’s safe to say you learn a lot more than us. Since you also learn more languages (and learn them much better) than we do, it seems as though you just learn more information than we do overall. I wonder how that happens. Do you spend more time in school than we do? Or do the classes just go faster? Granted, there might be an IQ difference, but that alone doesn’t seem sufficient to explain it.
I think he’s trying to say that T.V. is distracting Sandra from paying attention to her history test and the sword symbolizes the fact that her failing the test will kill her good grade in the class as well as future opportunities down the line.
@ Xezlec:
It primarily has to do with the fact that American public education systems repeatedly receive funding cuts but extremely rarely get any boons. In most states, anytime there is a budget crunch or special interest program that hasn’t been budgeted for, the pools of money that are reserved for education are often the first to be dipped into. As a result, our schools stretch the little money they get so far that most public students are having to learn the same material taught to 8th grade students in private institutions as late as 10th, 11th, and even 12th grade in some cases simply because they can’t afford to buy the materials necessary to teach at a higher level.
In practice, fewer concepts are taught per class session. After moving from a rather well-to-do neighborhood whom’s school received a number of private contributions to a much less fortunate school system, I recall spending a full week going over quadratic equations. In my previous school, we had covered that the year before and in just one class session. Because the bar is set so low many students never bother to strive to be better, resulting in individuals with very little skill in regard to higher order thinking. Case in point, where as over half my previous class understood quadratic equations with ease after spending a day on them, just as many of the students in the new school scratched their heads for days on end over them.
There are those few that naturally have a drive to push themselves harder than they are told they need to, but those individuals are far and few between. As a result, those few individuals actually get something out of their education, while the rest are left to stagnate because they are too young and ignorant to know better. It really isn’t fair, but that is the sad truth of the matter. So few students even know what it really means to study until they reach college. And so many ill-equipped for it that they multiple semesters just getting the hang of it. By then, so many are so frustrated that they just coast from test to test, never bothering to actually absorb any of the material they are supposed to learn.
Based on your screen name and tone of reference, I am assuming you are fairly young (8-10th grade range). If I am right, take my advice and start working your ass off now. Even if you don’t think you need to, learn to take good notes now. Even if you don’t think you need to, teach yourself to study at least an hour a day. Even if you don’t think you need to, try restating what you just read in your own words every few paragraphs while reading through your class books. Do these things now and you can wire your brain for a real education. Not only will your grades today improve, you will actually be training your brain to think logically and absorb information more efficiently.
P.S. – If you happen to be one of those people who believe they study better when the T.V./radio/MP3 play is on, you are lying to yourself. You are just getting bored while studying and giving into distraction. There is an almost endless amount of empirical data that proves that people absorb what they read better in a stimulus vacuum. Learn to leave the electronics off to just sit down in a quite room and do what needs to be done. You will get it done faster and with a much higher level of understanding.
@ Xezlec:
All I’m saying Xezlec, is that we’ve got castles over here, and they’re not made of plastic. 🙂
@ Kaoy:
I’m a 32-year-old computer programmer with a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. I am unusually immature for my age though, so I can understand your mistake. 😉
Your explanation regarding the faster pace of education in some schools is interesting. Personally, I would not have understood quadratic equations in one day. In real numbers, they can have zero, one, or two solutions. There are several different methods of solution, each of which is important for its own reasons. Graphically, there are several ways to look at them, again, each of which has its own significance. Even if you’re only going over the quadratic formula, you have to spend some time talking about the discriminant at the very least.
Not sure where the studying/mp3 player thing came from, but yes, I like to work with music. It helps me be more efficient, in part by getting my energy up so I feel like I can dive in and tackle difficult problems, and in part by blocking noises and conversations that genuinely are distracting. Where I work, almost everyone else does the same. If you want to cite specific research, please go ahead. While in certain circumstances (i.e. a quiet environment) and for certain kinds of studying (i.e. reading), certain kinds of music (i.e. music with vocals) can be more distracting than the background, I don’t think that result necessarily generalizes very far beyond that.
@ Elonex21:
There’s actually a “castle” in my hometown (Google “Richard Garriot”). But ultimately I guess the conclusion we’ve reached here is that you’re probably right: we do learn much less history, but students here still dread tests because they’re dumber over here, which in turn is because our school system isn’t very good.
Yet another reason I’ll never go to Europe. I don’t like being “the dumb guy”. 😛
@ Xezlec:
We really don’t study ‘European’ history as a whole where I’m from (Scotland). To be honest, it is mostly the history of the country that you live in, and since Europe is so old, the chances are that one specific country will have a whole lot of history just on its own.
Scotland is a country very rich in history, so we mostly focused on it when I was in primary education and still do most of the way through secondary, though we brushed upon other countries like Italy, Greece, England and others with long histories like that. As to how far back we went, we went all the way to the first settling in our country, which was around the first century if I recall correctly, when there were just tribes like the Picts roaming around. That’s pretty damn far back.
Not sure if its like this everywhere in Europe due to the drastically different countries and languages, but it is here.
Kaoy wrote:
This reminds me of a Stephen Fry quote on a QI outtake:-
“It’s always the children who say ‘Sir, sir, what’s the point of Geometry?” or “What’s the point of Latin?”, who end up having no job being an alcoholic, and they don’t notice the ones who actually find knowledge for it’s own sake and pleasure in information of history and the world of nature around us, are actually getting on and doing things with their ****ing lives!”
@ Luke:
I’m from America myself, but I do agree with you on how most history classes focus mainly on the learner’s country’s history. It does make more sense that way.
Then again, since I’m in the IB program (look it up), we learn World Geography and Culture, United States History from Native American culture to about 5 years ago, European History from Renaissance to present, and World History, Government, and Economics from Stone Age to present (in mostly Asia, Europe, and the Americas).
It’s quite a bit more than most other high schoolers as far as I know.
Well… that’s a good motivator. 😀
I have to say something about the education in the U.S.. It sux now and is getting worse as certain political factions try to indoctrinate the children to believe they are the best.
I grew up in the army and the military takes a more serious attitude toward education. See, the military has figured the best resource for future sailors, soldiers, and such is the dependents of the present sailors, soldiers, and such. Thus, the military has very strict rules about what is taught (and what is not) to the children.
Even now (at 56 years old), I am surprised at some of the thing people I meet have not learned that I learned in high school, Jr high school, and even elementary school. I have noted the kids who grow up as military dependents STILL get better educations than those who grow up civilians.
man, that’s some really edgy parenting there.
*badum, tss*
I love Sandras face in the last panel so much, I copied the image on to a word doc, zoomed in, cropped out everything else, and printed it onto construction paper. I then taped it to my 5 year old brothers DS. hilarious. It is still weird how we have a 20ish year gap tho.
At first I thought the sword said “Test History,” and thought it was referring to bad grades.
Then I remembered that English comics read left-to-right.