School...

[Redblueflare]

Originally posted by Sir ReGiN: Why would anyone only want to know stuff that they use everyday? It's great to have a broad general knowledge. I mean, if you would only learn what you needed to know, you wouldn't have to go to school at all. The thing is, it's not what you teach, it's how you teach it! Today the school system is getting too boring, at least in Sweden it is, teaching is not just about handing out a book. It's about making what you teach fun! Of course if you don't care much for the subject then there's not much you can do, but when no one thinks it's fun to go to school, that's when you gotta question the school system.

It's not that we want to learn stuff that we use everyday Sir Regin. We wouldn't be in school much at all that way. The point is that we don't want to learn stuff that we'll never use at anytime. To be honest I don't really mind learning useless facts as long as the stuff is interesting. I can't say i've jumped up in excitement about learning a formula like F=MA.

[Neb]

Originally posted by Sir ReGiN: Why would anyone only want to know stuff that they use everyday? It's great to have a broad general knowledge. I mean, if you would only learn what you needed to know, you wouldn't have to go to school at all. The thing is, it's not what you teach, it's how you teach it! Today the school system is getting too boring, at least in Sweden it is, teaching is not just about handing out a book. It's about making what you teach fun! Of course if you don't care much for the subject then there's not much you can do, but when no one thinks it's fun to go to school, that's when you gotta question the school system.

It's nice to learn a lot of stuff Regin, even if you might not ever need it, but there is just an absolute OVERLOAD of useless junk in school.

Teachers DEFINITELY lack the ability to make teaching fun, for us they just position themselves in front of the blackboard, rant out what they want us to know, give us homework and then expect us to know it.

Personally I don't think that any kids have found it fun to go to school for a long while.... Or perhaps that's just me.

Posted by Mistral:I guess you could look at it from the point that all this knowledge is meant to give us a broad idea of what the various fields have to offer, so that we have a better idea of what area we'd like to dabble further in when we start working.

I can agree that it's important that we get a taste of it all so that we know whether it interests us. But they can do that with much less of it than they're giving us now. Like I said, I don't mind a bit of useless stuff, you never know, it might just be useful some day. But there is just a total OVERLOAD of it.

[ 05-24-2002, 01:22 PM: Message edited by: Neb ]

[Charean]

I know I will get flamed for this:

Neb, I agree with you 150%.

I am 38, and remember when schools taught more things that I liked - Social Studies and Political Science. Mind you, I was lucky to get that amidst absolute drivel.

Unfortunately, the school system in the States in under constant and unrelenting pressure to up the scholastic scores that have been dropping. They have lowered the standards and still the scores drop. At the moment, many schools have gone to only teaching what is on the scholastic tests and little else. Teachers are ticked off and they should be.

What we are teaching is to have kids regurgitate what is given. No thought involved. No creativity allowed. No thinking outside the box... we need good employees and THAT is what is being taught. Not to excel in any way, but to only do what is expected.

I think the public schools are doing a horrendous disservice to many who have terrific potential and are not allowed to explore that, much less know they have it.

There are exceptions that are way too few and far between in my opinion. I have been lucky to see some teachers that love what they do and in the process instill a love of a subject to the students. This is so rare it is tragic.

I would love to see a system (which in itself would be impossible) that would not only allow creativity, but foster it. That would train students to THINK, not parrot facts. That would have kids learn through working out solutions for themselves. These would help them in life. Learning geometry is almost superfluous (unless one is going into a field that requires it!)

I know I will get bashed for this. It is a belief I have had because I was SQUASHED in school... I did most of my learning on my own - I read prolifically - in college and in life. The best thing I learned was that kids are cruel and that schools are not up to date with the latest information. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 05-24-2002, 02:38 PM: Message edited by: Charean ]

[Alexander]

I agree, there is a lot of useless crap, but the idea is that you're covered if you want to become a mathematician or a scientist.

I wish, however, that they could somehow divine what you were probably going to be in life - based on what you were skilled in and what you enjoyed - and just teach you everything you need to know regarding that area.

[/)eathKiller]

school only seems to teach what the teacher want to now a days and not what the students want to learn, that is because many students these days are getting to be quite dimwitted and unatentive

[mistral4543]

Come to think of it, I did most of my studying at home as I was just too tired during school hours to really pay attention... it came to point where I slept at about 2 am in the morning and woke up about 3-4 hours later to catch the early bus to junior college (equivalent of the A levels). It was all tutorial work, studying for tests and recopying of notes (badly scribbled because the lecturers kept an incredibly fast pace in throwing the information at us and we were supposed to copy all of it during lectures). So, I do know what you mean by overload

You know what I find interesting? It's that the youth of today are more vocal about their opinions. I know I didn't really enjoy school that much, but I didn't have any outlet for my views And I certainly didn't have such a wonderful forum like IW to hang around in

But I do stand by my earlier post about the broad knowledge that schools aim to impart to us. The intention is there, but I suppose the execution may need to be reviewed.

[Alexander]

Yes, I've noticed that SAT scores have been adjusted nowadays, so that low scores prior to the adjustment actually get higher - possibly because are children are getting dumber. Or maybe because society's getting dumber, what with all the garbage music and entertainment out there. Who knows. All I know is that certain people could get into Harvard with the current score adjustment

[Lanthir]

well lets see i acutally agree 100% with Charean about something. [img]smile.gif[/img]
I also have to say to those of you complaining about beig ntaught usless junk You are proving the point about the failure in our school systems. It really does seem we are dumbign down out system in order to try to show that our children are gettign better grades. I was shocked when i firs thelp a friend fo mine grade soem spelling tests for her 6th grdae class. Silly me I figured if there were 50 questions and a child only answered 10 of them they failed. It turned out i was wrong. In order to not make some students feel like they do not know as much as the othr students soem only had to answer 10 questions. So this kid who answered 10 got a 100% while a child who answered 40 out fo the 50 they were required got an 80%. Great system we have.
I think it woudl be much better if a child fails he fails. Why not do like some countrys and administer tests that acually gage a child abilities. If they do well they advance to collage at taxpayers expense if not they go to a tech school. Oh wait that would make those going to text schools possible feel inferior we could never do that.

[ 05-25-2002, 09:46 AM: Message edited by: Lanthir ]

[Beaumanoir]

I 100% Agree. When In Life Am I Going To Need To Know How To Find The Radius Of A Circle With A Diameter Of 10Cm. Grrrrr

[Talthyr Malkaviel]

Well, I agree fully with Neb, but just to be a smart-as, you would use that if you were an architect for example, or other jobs Binky. [img]tongue.gif[/img]