For gazillions of years young humans grew up surrounded by kin, maybe not learning maths and chemistry, but basically learning about being part of human society. Very, very recently we started eradicating that part of our evolution and stuffing kids into packets called schools. From the age of maybe 5 to around 18, when before they would have been learning basically to be humans, they are now separated for most of their waking hours from their kin, surrounded by people who are pretty much strangers. What effects is this drastic change having on individuals and on society in general? Is it bad for us?
It sure is to be preferred to sitting alone behind a game-computer! I think it's quite impossible for children not to go to school nowadays, since many houses are empty during the day... mom and dad are at work.
Darn... You told me to start this thread, and I was going to, and then I forgot. I'm sorry Adam. I'll see what I can dig up on this. I am in agreement with you (or it seems that way) on this, I don't know if there has been much research on it though. "There's some tomatoes Chemically engineered They come out square To fit in boxes There's some people Chemically engineered They come out square To fit in boxes" -Dan Bern, Go to Sleep
It's not the idea, it's the system. The curriculums are horrible, and teachers don't get paid enough to attract people that would be good.
they attracted me... well actually I realised that I wanted to be a teacher. Even as a kid I always wanted to tell about things and explain everything I understood (or thought to understand). makes sense.
It serves a purpose, and the curriculum isn't exactly horrible. Try going to some other educational systems in the world and you will start lovin' your friendly neighborhood school. And besides, it's all about learning WITH other people.
I've seens schools in many nations/cultures. Yes, there are differences. But discussing those differences does not in any way touch upon the subject of this thread.
"But discussing those differences does not in any way touch upon the subject of this thread." That is true, but "And besides, it's all about learning WITH other people." does bear relevance to the subject. I see school as an advanced form of the social (educational) structure for lion-cubs.
I'm just trying to say that the curriculum is not bad or useless. And, what would be an alternative to school, may I ask? The ideal thing would be to somehow research neurology to the point where we can inject knowledge into a brain. Ha ha imagine a two year old reciting Shakespeare
Random thought I like school. Call me nerd, but I find school exciting, frequently amusing, fun, and perfectly sensible. You play and learn at the same time. I like all of my teachers. If they give me a 60% in a course, it's not their fault. They are just a reflection on my own poor abilities; therefore I should try harder. And being in school beats doing nothing, or having to find out things on my own. --Zero and Adam-- Yeah, I agree about the absurdity of small children reciting Shakespeare. It'd be pointless to have the information injected, because you'd just be another computer without the processing abilities. All input, no output. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But then again, parents won't have to worry about their kids asking where babies come from, or why Suzy and Robbie are different when they have no pants on Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
*lol!* I was just asking for it, wasn't I? Literally, heheh! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Well even if we could inject knowledge into our brains, some social gathering place such as school should be required. Seriously school is where we develope our social interaction skills, how to make friends or enemies, how to deal with both, forming cliques, working in a group, etc. I feel that is rather important. What I hate is grades, they are absolutely uselss and further more create an elite system. People judge your intelligence upon grades in this society, its disgusting but true. Either that or you're "gifted", what if you don't fit into either. I hope that many people on these forums would recognize the fact I am intelligent, but I don't get all A's I feel it is a poor system and I don't wanna do the work in classes I don't care about to recieve good grades when I could be taking that home work time and reading a philosophy book I am interested in or debating on sciforums. There are many people I can think of off the top of my head that get good grades in school but are not as intelligent as I am, not nearly. They just can work the system and further more stress themselves the fuck out with all this homework, I hate being judged by my grades in subjects I don't want to work hard in. Example of such a subject, Science - I knew everything that was being taught to me in that class, why should I do all the homework when I can be learning something new that interests me? That brings me to my second point, higher math (beyond algebra) and science should be electives. Now I realize why schools would not want to make them as such so they could keep their students options for the future open. But I still feel they should be electives do to the fact if they do not interest you and you are positive you are going into a field which does not require them, then taking them is a waste of your time and further more boring as hell. YES, the school system needs changes, but no it is not inherently bad.
When I left my old Elementary School I was overjoyed, I had so many bad experiences there, not with the grades, but with the teachers, take for example, the science fair (8th grade). It was on April 4 of 2000 when I had a tooth pulled. Coincidently, this was the same day as the science fair, and I returned to school a few hours after I had started with bloodsoaked cotton in my mouth and a serious speech impedement. I had brought a poster with me that I had scrounged together after a half hour of work the night before, which was just awful, but I was yelled at by the teacher, it makes me shudder to think about it, because of how awful the poster was. I had to spend the rest of the day making a new one. My god that day really, really, really sucked. Not to mention the principal was a nazi. She ran through the hallways, shouting "mong shnel!" at wayward kindergardeners. Hahaa just kidding, its a little joke of mine, since after she arrived I think 3/4 of the teachers there decided to retire or move to another school. When I arrived at High School I was in Heaven, English-with a great teacher, a very challenging class, computer programming with a burnout who had no idea what he was talking about, and two social studies classes! One dirt easy, where I established myself as king (arguably) and one dirt hard but where I learned the most from maybe any other class in the school. I loved it! But then...then a plague began to set in, yes, probably unfamiliar to any other high schoolers on sciforums from any other place on earth, gasp, portfolios!! They're sick little requirements, things we must finish, must bring up to standards by the time we graduate, or else we don't get a diploma. The system is beurocratic nonsense, thousands of dollars go into it yet all we get is a pizza party (with crappy pizza I might add-there are a million pizza joints on the island and they picked the worst one). If the students were allowed to decided it would be 100% unanimous-no more portfolios. It is the scourge of my local society.
Yeah, hes right portfolios are BS. Seriously I can understand having one where you ad your teacher choose things to put in, because it can show great reflection and what you learned. However these are horrific. The school chooses what you put in - no reflection and useless papers, you cannot graduate without them and these pieces must be up to standard - You forget a one page lab-report on bouncing balls that you learned absolutely nothing from and you cannot graduate, finally most subjects have just turned to making up projects to fit results - useless projects the teachers aren't clear on in which you do not learn anything but most do or you do not graduate. Also. our school lets you choose your classes freely - or did. Now you have to take classes to get the portfolio requirments, I wasn't allowed to choose what social studies class I was going to take I was forced to take a certain one. Once again making me hate the school system for forcing me to either learn things I don;t care about or allready have found out for myself. GOD DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What I found bad was in high school we had an "alternative assesment" of which th epurpose was that, theoretically, if you did bad on tests, the alt assesment project could even out the score and let you pass the course. Theoretically, of course. I got a stunning score on one exam, but because I got a 30% on the alt. asses., I failed. Summer school was fun though. Good teacher.
*confuzed* Alternative assessment?? Portfolios?? I've never heard of these things..... Yeah, sometimes it just feels as if they teach useless junk to rub your nose in it, eh, Cactus Jack? But hey, now you know what you hate, so you can avoid it, right? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I like school just because it's fun to be around other kids, and like that crazy old lady with all the cats says: What doesn't kill you straight off will leave you bitter and cynical for the future. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And what may seem like something large and terrible today will probably seem like nothing at all, after the hell you're going to face during life, not to be pessimistic or anything. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Grades are ok, as long as I get good ones. What I hate, though, is when parents bribe their children to get good grades. Those lucky bastards. And here I am, slaving away for what? The satisfaction of having a 93% average? The pride of knowing I'll get a handsome transcript? Noooo. Grr. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But I'm ok. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
never heard of them also, and I'm so happy about it. anywayz, 2002/2003 will be my last year in K12Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
