Quote:
Originally posted by Melusine:
Neb, there's a difference between not liking to learn things because of the teaching method or not liking to learn new things because you deem them useless. From a lot of the posts here, I assumed that the latter was the case. I completely agree that the teachers should strive to present the information in a fun way and try not to be boring, and I can understand why you would grow bored if teachers don't do that.
However, I maintain that kids shouldn't whine about the usefulness of the information they get, as long as it's taught in a fun, entertaining way.
An example: in my German class at secondary school, we did an in-depth critical analysis of two of Mozart's operas; one in the 5th year, one in the 6th year. It was very intellectually challenging, with difficult music-critical texts and a lot of work to be done, but almost everybody loved it (even the ones who were sure they weren't gonna need this stuff in their future careers). To a great extent, everybody's enjoyment cam from the way our teacher managed to interest us in the whole thing - he was one of the most erudite and intelligent teachers I had at that school, and it was actually a privilege being taught by him. And that's not just my geeky bookworm opinion, he was very popular (though judged quite weird as well  ) with everybody else.
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I had an English teacher who was much the same; I enjoyed his lessons more than any of the others, despite the fact it was my worst subject. I still keep in touch with him now, despite leaving the school a few years ago. I agree with Mel and Aelia about the teacher being more important than the subject, when it comes to retaining interest. All subjects can be interesting if taught in the right way. However, it is probably harder for teachers to get a 'WOW' from a class these days, because they have a lot to compete with. I also suspect that Neb (and probably some of the others) are being help back by the pace of the teaching. I know, from experience, how frustrating this can be for you (as well as the teachers). Unfortunately, there may not be a lot you can do about it, until you are put in sets or get to pick subjects.
(BTW Neb, if you think you are ready to Uni, you're quite welcome to sit my exam on Thursday for me.
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