School...

[Deathcow]

Originally posted by caleb: quote: Originally posted by Neb: they eat with their mouths open,

I HATE that [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img] My sister does it all the time. "Excuse me sis would you like to go chew cud with the other cows please?"[/QUOTE]my sister does too, and it makes me wonder why the noise it makes doesnt bother her

[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.

[ 05-27-2002, 04:07 PM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

It can work both ways. Aspects of Maths which are of nearly no use could be taught in a fun fashion (has anybody used cosines out of school?). For instancee, we memorised the rhyme:

Silly Old Harry Caught A Herring Trawling Off Aberdeen

S.O.H.C.A.H.T.O.A

Sine = Opp/Hypo, ,Cos=Adj/Hypo, ,Tang=Opp/Adj

It must have been good as I finished school 14 years ago and still remember that line

on the other hand, more useful topics could be taught so badly or boringly that they are not taken in

[Attalus]

The trouble is, the age you kids are when you are in school, you are too young to know what to do with your life. So, since all kids have to go to the same schools, they have to teach the same core curriculum, allowing some custom tracks in High School (or whatever it's equivalent is) and, in college, you study what will be useful in your career. I even recall griping, when I was a premedical student, about studying plant morphology and physiology, because I wasn't going to be treating plants. Well, I have spent more time this weekend treating plants than people (Galadria's garden and our yard). You just never know. By the way, Winston Churchill gave credit to diagramming sentences for his considerable command of the English Language.

[Staralfur]

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.

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. )