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A modest proposal for [higher education]

1235

Posts

  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    No foreign language either.

    So basically people with no real knowledge of how other countries work and only speak English.

    Quid on
  • Protein ShakesProtein Shakes __BANNED USERS regular
    edited March 2010
    Duffel wrote: »
    Ancient history broadens one's worldview and enables the learner to understand how societies develop and change over time. Education isn't just about learning facts and skills, it's about developing an understanding of the world.

    I disagree. The goal of education should be to teach people fundamental, core skills and values, such as critical thinking and curiosity, so that they can then pursue the subjects they are really interested in.

    Nothing is worse than trying to teach kids stuff they aren't interested in, because that makes them more likely to dislike school in general, and discourages them from further education.

    Protein Shakes on
  • AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Nothing is worse than trying to teach kids stuff they aren't interested in, because that makes them more likely to dislike school in general, and discourages them from further education.

    So, just cancel school then?


    Kids need to know history because it's the reason why we (the world) fight. Tensions in the Middle East are 1000 years old.

    Atomika on
  • SpeakerSpeaker Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    History and Phys Ed. seem to be out as well.

    For history I think we should only teach our own history, and if they are interested they can go learn other histories on their own.

    Ancient history seems pretty useless in the grand scheme of things - I think we teach it only because we have an abundance of history teachers, not because it serves some practical purpose.

    Wha . . .

    O dude.

    Speaker on
  • Protein ShakesProtein Shakes __BANNED USERS regular
    edited March 2010
    Nothing is worse than trying to teach kids stuff they aren't interested in, because that makes them more likely to dislike school in general, and discourages them from further education.

    So, just cancel school then?

    No, of course not.

    Jesus christ dude, how do you go from "teach people fundamental skills" to "cancel school"?

    Protein Shakes on
  • SpeakerSpeaker Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Your school sounds horrible.

    Like something the Soviets would have come up with.

    Not that anyone who went to your school would even know what that means.

    Speaker on
  • Protein ShakesProtein Shakes __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2010
    You are entitled to your opinions. :)

    Protein Shakes on
  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Something being an opinion doesn't keep it from being a bad one.

    Quid on
  • SpeakerSpeaker Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    You are entitled to your opinions. :)

    O, you don't really want to talk about it.

    I was confused because you set up a thread to talk about it.

    Well, it's been real. See you round the pixelhood.

    Speaker on
  • Protein ShakesProtein Shakes __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2010
    Quid wrote: »
    Something being an opinion doesn't keep it from being a bad one.

    Well, he didn't elaborate on it beyond "it's something the Soviets would come up with", which means... what?
    Speaker wrote:
    I was confused because you set up a thread to talk about it.

    Well, it isn't my thread, so, yeah.

    Protein Shakes on
  • PicardathonPicardathon Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    It seems that history has taken up the conversation in this last page, but I will second the idea that high school phys. ed is a steaming pile of uselessness UNLESS you got into a weightlifting class. The schedule for the generic class is as follows.

    Passing Period: Don't dawdle! Anyone who shows up late without a pass doesn't get to change!
    Five minutes: Change. Dawdle while changing.\
    Three minutes: Jogging (optional, depends on teacher's mood/time before the next fitness test)
    Five minutes: Half assed stretching that doesn't protect the student's bodies in the slightest and probably just reinforces bad form.
    Now, let's play some sports!
    Basketball: Three weeks spent on drill, last week spent on pickup games. This is about as good as it gets.
    Socccer: Athletic kids move the ball up and down the field while everyone else stands around. I played goalie.
    Racquetball: Sure, why not? Kids line up in pairs, and then take as many as three steps at a time in order to contest a shot (I never did move. My partner did all of that. She put up with me because I could ace the serve every time. Fifteen minutes of actual swimming may occur. Mostly lap swimming. Very little movement. (Note, school must be rich enough to afford pool).

    Football: None, kids might get hurt.
    Baseball: None, most kids didn't know how to swing a bat, majority non-white district.

    Line dancing: You explain this one to me. No, this is not a joke.
    Gymnastics: We all walk on the high bars. We split up by gender, with the athletic kids getting a good exercise and the out of shape kids getting nothing. The girl on the gymnastics team in my gym class did a cool 360 flip off of the pommel horse. It was cool.
    Wrestling. We learn basic technique, are split up into pairs with regard usually given to weight. I was the exception, being paired up with a member of the wrestling team. You would think that this would be a disadvantage, until you realize that I had 75 pounds on him because, again, he was on the wrestling team. He enjoyed it even less than I did.
    Martial Arts: What did we learn here? Apparently you should stick your hand out in front of your head when someone is trying to hit you, because your hand is less important than your head. Something like that.

    At the end, five minutes to change. Maximum time doing any of these activities is a half-hour. Often closer to 25 minutes. Normal students do each activity with the zeal of a man driving to the doctor to get a vasectomy.


    None of that was a joke. All of it happened. As an Illinois student I was obligated to take it for four years. If making gym mandatory for four years ever comes up on the ballot in your state, please vote no for your children's sake. The "pro" side will talk about childhood obesity and health, and they will be full of shit. Your child will not be getting healthy, they will be doing the above. If I didn't get into the weight training class senior year of high school I would have probably ended up weighing 300 pounds by the age of 30 due to a complete disdain for any exercise.

    In conclusion:
    Exercise: Valuable.
    Gym class: Valueless.

    Picardathon on
  • SageinaRageSageinaRage Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    It seems a good method to me to start educating kids in kindergarten with the most directly applicable skills. Reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. Then as they grow older, to gradually spiral out and teach more and more things that aren't as directly applicable to their everyday lives, to grow their interest, and also because it's not until they are older that they can appreciate why it's important. Yeah, ancient history gives you some very important perspective on life on this planet as a whole. But is it really more important than the history of your country, state, city? I don't see how you can tell students it's important at all without them having some more recent history to show them why it's applicable or important.

    SageinaRage on
    sig.gif
  • Protein ShakesProtein Shakes __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2010
    Oh, I also don't understand why we wait until kids are 5-6 years old to start educating them.

    Most kids are able to learn things such as math much earlier than that.

    Protein Shakes on
  • AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Oh, I also don't understand why we wait until kids are 5-6 years old to start educating them.

    Most kids are able to learn things such as math much earlier than that.

    Yeah, that's a bit confusing, too. My guess is that 5 years old is the best approximate age where:
    - you shouldn't wait too much longer to start teaching them
    - the kids are mostly over the usual pediatric immunity-acquiring period
    - the kids are potty trained
    - the kids can get through a 4-8 hour day without napping


    But yes, you should start teaching kids the minute they seem capable of retaining knowledge, especially lingual and mathematical skills. If you can get your kids to be multi-lingual, they likely won't ever forget it.

    Atomika on
  • Free HotelFree Hotel Registered User regular
    edited April 2010

    None of that was a joke. All of it happened. As an Illinois student I was obligated to take it for four years. If making gym mandatory for four years ever comes up on the ballot in your state, please vote no for your children's sake. The "pro" side will talk about childhood obesity and health, and they will be full of shit. Your child will not be getting healthy, they will be doing the above. If I didn't get into the weight training class senior year of high school I would have probably ended up weighing 300 pounds by the age of 30 due to a complete disdain for any exercise.

    In conclusion:
    Exercise: Valuable.
    Gym class: Valueless.

    Yeah, my gym class was nothing like that. Phys ed, sports, activities, and exercise are all necessary and really should be included all throughout school because people need them. Just because your school didn't do it well or you had a bad teacher or you didn't try or whatever doesn't make it inherently useless. A better solution, and something that people have been preaching throughout this thread, is to make better teachers and have a stronger curriculum. For all subjects.

    Free Hotel on
  • DuffelDuffel jacobkosh Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I disagree. The goal of education should be to teach people fundamental, core skills and values, such as critical thinking and curiosity, so that they can then pursue the subjects they are really interested in.

    Nothing is worse than trying to teach kids stuff they aren't interested in, because that makes them more likely to dislike school in general, and discourages them from further education.
    So, you think kids aren't really interested in subjects like literature, world history or studying other countries, but they'll find things like statistics, cellular biology and time management fascinating?

    Duffel on
  • PicardathonPicardathon Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Free Hotel wrote: »

    None of that was a joke. All of it happened. As an Illinois student I was obligated to take it for four years. If making gym mandatory for four years ever comes up on the ballot in your state, please vote no for your children's sake. The "pro" side will talk about childhood obesity and health, and they will be full of shit. Your child will not be getting healthy, they will be doing the above. If I didn't get into the weight training class senior year of high school I would have probably ended up weighing 300 pounds by the age of 30 due to a complete disdain for any exercise.

    In conclusion:
    Exercise: Valuable.
    Gym class: Valueless.

    Yeah, my gym class was nothing like that. Phys ed, sports, activities, and exercise are all necessary and really should be included all throughout school because people need them. Just because your school didn't do it well or you had a bad teacher or you didn't try or whatever doesn't make it inherently useless. A better solution, and something that people have been preaching throughout this thread, is to make better teachers and have a stronger curriculum. For all subjects.

    My school won a god damn blue ribbon award for its gym program. Why? Because they spend the most money on equipment. According to the great powers that be, my school was doing things right.
    Was your program for four years? I'm betting that if gym was for one year then the teachers might take themselves seriously instead of being glorified elementary school recess watchers.

    Oh and the lawsuits that I'm sure would come if schools did apply themselves. "How dare you make my child run, you monster! You're discriminating against fat people!"

    Another question: How big was your school? I'm betting that a smaller school would handle gym better, as it would be easier to make sure all the teachers knew what they were doing and cut out the former jocks who don't know what to do with their life.

    Picardathon on
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Oh, I also don't understand why we wait until kids are 5-6 years old to start educating them.

    Most kids are able to learn things such as math much earlier than that.

    Yeah, that's a bit confusing, too. My guess is that 5 years old is the best approximate age where:
    - you shouldn't wait too much longer to start teaching them
    - the kids are mostly over the usual pediatric immunity-acquiring period
    - the kids are potty trained
    - the kids can get through a 4-8 hour day without napping


    But yes, you should start teaching kids the minute they seem capable of retaining knowledge, especially lingual and mathematical skills. If you can get your kids to be multi-lingual, they likely won't ever forget it.

    Alot of it ends up falling on the parents.

    There was a thread awhile back where someone linked to, I think it was, the Harlem Children's Zone: www.hcz.org

    Basically, get poor kids decent pre-school help and education and suddenly they perform just as well as the kids of rich familys.

    shryke on
  • PicardathonPicardathon Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    shryke wrote: »
    Alot of it ends up falling on the parents.

    There was a thread awhile back where someone linked to, I think it was, the Harlem Children's Zone: www.hcz.org

    Basically, get poor kids decent pre-school help and education and suddenly they perform just as well as the kids of rich familys.

    The interesting conclusion: parent's aren't a particularly important influence on a child's education once the schools take over.
    Also, too bad it's politically impossible to apply this everywhere.

    Picardathon on
  • geckahngeckahn Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Badminton is the best gym sport ever. Everyone loves that shit.

    geckahn on
  • PicardathonPicardathon Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    geckahn wrote: »
    Badminton is the best gym sport ever. Everyone loves that shit.

    It was fun. But was it exercise? And couldn't we be devoting 40 minutes of instruction to something more than 25 minutes of badminton?

    Picardathon on
  • electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Duffel wrote: »
    I disagree. The goal of education should be to teach people fundamental, core skills and values, such as critical thinking and curiosity, so that they can then pursue the subjects they are really interested in.

    Nothing is worse than trying to teach kids stuff they aren't interested in, because that makes them more likely to dislike school in general, and discourages them from further education.
    So, you think kids aren't really interested in subjects like literature, world history or studying other countries, but they'll find things like statistics, cellular biology and time management fascinating?

    Teaching "time management" and other personal growth skills, is, in my opinion, worthless. High school was an endless parade of advice along these lines, all of it a complete waste of time. Either you figured this out on your own or from parents, or you didn't.

    Putting it in a curriculum though is just wasting teaching time.

    electricitylikesme on
  • AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    shryke wrote: »
    Alot of it ends up falling on the parents.

    There was a thread awhile back where someone linked to, I think it was, the Harlem Children's Zone: www.hcz.org

    Basically, get poor kids decent pre-school help and education and suddenly they perform just as well as the kids of rich familys.

    The interesting conclusion: parent's aren't a particularly important influence on a child's education once the schools take over.
    Also, too bad it's politically impossible to apply this everywhere.

    Maybe, but I strongly believe parents are extremely culpable in the determination of how their children contextualize and utilize that education, as well as determining the importance of that education the older they get.

    The area I'm working in right now is a fairly poor Hispanic community, and it has the higher-than-average teen pregnancy rate that typically accompanies such things. The thing that strikes me, however, is how acceptable it seems to the parents that bring in their pregnant 15 year old. Then again, the girl's mother is usually in her late twenties or early thirties, so whatever. Embarrassingly, I often mistake a patient's mother for their wife because they aren't a generation apart. The hip 32 year old dresses a lot like the hip 19 year old.

    But that's all part and parcel of the whole education-economics-religion hydra that dooms just about everyone.

    Atomika on
  • L|amaL|ama Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    History and Phys Ed. seem to be out as well.

    For history I think we should only teach our own history, and if they are interested they can go learn other histories on their own.

    holy shit this is a terrible idea, please tell me you can see why when you think about it a bit harder.

    L|ama on
  • Muse Among MenMuse Among Men Suburban Bunny Princess? Its time for a new shtick Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Oh Gosh, my PE program was even worse! I don't know how to feel about it; bt maybe my PE experience has soured me to the whole thing. really, co-ed sports are such a bad idea . . .

    If I was to design a high school program:

    Required (1 year each):
    Personal Finance
    Civics/Basic Law
    Biology
    Chemistry
    Basic Physics
    Computer/Internet course
    Algebra 1
    Geometry or Statistics (why not let the kid pick?)
    Economics
    English Composition and Persuasive writing
    US History
    Ancient-Modern World History
    Sex-ed (half year course)

    'Enrichment' classes (let the student choose):

    Foreign Language (that is its own reward)
    Cooking/personal nutrition
    Autoshop
    Sewing
    Modern World History (as in, more in-depth, less US-centric)
    Creative Writing and Literary Analysis (I think these go hand in hand, personally)
    Media Studies
    Psychology
    Shakespeare

    Definitely not comprehensive. The 'required' I think is pretty bare bones but not too bad. Out of a total of 24 classes, the requirements add up to 12.5, so there is room for plenty of 'enrichment'. I would have added more English, being a humanities girl, but I can't help but feel that we reviewed the same concepts for years and years. Not sure what to say about English Literature. We did a lot of poetry and short stories and they have only led me to avoid Hispanic authors because I'm tired of reading Julia Alvarez, and I'm Mexican descent! I was never fond of Shakespeare, that is why he is under 'enrichment' ;9. 'Getting students to develop a passion for reading' is a thread of its own, so I don't know if it should even be discussed here. Obviously the enrichment courses would vary due to our personal tastes so make of it what you will. In my school, once you have completed all the required courses you can drop periods and stay at home. This doesn't help anyone if we really want to cultivate good, cultured citizens so students should be required to stay on campus and take classes unless taking classes elsewhere (like a community college), or working (in which case they may only be allowed to drop one class).

    Muse Among Men on
  • AtomikaAtomika Live fast and get fucked or whatever Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Sex-ed (half year course)

    I wonder how effective the 5% of your female student body who is already pregnant will find this class.

    Atomika on
  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I think the primary reason world history is important is that with the broader view of humanity comes an ability to understand and analyze it in a less culturally/temporally biased way. And I'd say it's obviously beneficial for society as a whole to have more people capable of viewing human cultures and institutions with some level of impartiality, because with this clearer perception comes an easier recognition of their flaws, and, ideally, solutions.

    But that's just me. If we want future generations to have as narrow a worldview as possible then post-colonial American history is all you need.

    Kaputa on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    man, the stupid crap they made us read in high school english courses could fill an entire other thread. A whole universe of great literature, contemporary and otherwise, and my advanced/AP english class got assigned bronte? urgh.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • dispatch.odispatch.o Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Oh Gosh, my PE program was even worse! I don't know how to feel about it; bt maybe my PE experience has soured me to the whole thing. really, co-ed sports are such a bad idea . . .

    If I was to design a high school program:

    Required (1 year each):
    Personal Finance
    Civics/Basic Law
    Biology
    Chemistry
    Basic Physics
    Computer/Internet course
    Algebra 1
    Geometry or Statistics (why not let the kid pick?)
    Economics
    English Composition and Persuasive writing
    US History
    Ancient-Modern World History
    Sex-ed (half year course)

    'Enrichment' classes (let the student choose):

    Foreign Language (that is its own reward)
    Cooking/personal nutrition
    Autoshop
    Sewing
    Modern World History (as in, more in-depth, less US-centric)
    Creative Writing and Literary Analysis (I think these go hand in hand, personally)
    Media Studies
    Psychology
    Shakespeare

    Definitely not comprehensive. The 'required' I think is pretty bare bones but not too bad. Out of a total of 24 classes, the requirements add up to 12.5, so there is room for plenty of 'enrichment'. I would have added more English, being a humanities girl, but I can't help but feel that we reviewed the same concepts for years and years. Not sure what to say about English Literature. We did a lot of poetry and short stories and they have only led me to avoid Hispanic authors because I'm tired of reading Julia Alvarez, and I'm Mexican descent! I was never fond of Shakespeare, that is why he is under 'enrichment' ;9. 'Getting students to develop a passion for reading' is a thread of its own, so I don't know if it should even be discussed here. Obviously the enrichment courses would vary due to our personal tastes so make of it what you will. In my school, once you have completed all the required courses you can drop periods and stay at home. This doesn't help anyone if we really want to cultivate good, cultured citizens so students should be required to stay on campus and take classes unless taking classes elsewhere (like a community college), or working (in which case they may only be allowed to drop one class).

    High school level PE is just a chance for the jocks and assholes to have a class they're not terrible at. It doesn't usually help that they're encouraged to be unsporting geese to everyone else by the teacher, who is also usually the coach for some sport on which they are a member of the team for.

    dispatch.o on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I'm pretty sure high school PE is an excuse to get the football/basketball coach(es) an FT teaching position.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Muse Among MenMuse Among Men Suburban Bunny Princess? Its time for a new shtick Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Dyscord wrote: »
    man, the stupid crap they made us read in high school english courses could fill an entire other thread. A whole universe of great literature, contemporary and otherwise, and my advanced/AP english class got assigned bronte? urgh.

    In general I would say there is very, very little contemporary literature. And why don't they ever teach the 'bad stuff'; but good literature is in part defined in contrast to 'bad' literature.

    Okay, I just want an excuse to study this in class:
    kunstler_cover_formenonly67jul.jpg

    Muse Among Men on
  • PicardathonPicardathon Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    shryke wrote: »
    Alot of it ends up falling on the parents.

    There was a thread awhile back where someone linked to, I think it was, the Harlem Children's Zone: www.hcz.org

    Basically, get poor kids decent pre-school help and education and suddenly they perform just as well as the kids of rich familys.

    The interesting conclusion: parent's aren't a particularly important influence on a child's education once the schools take over.
    Also, too bad it's politically impossible to apply this everywhere.

    Maybe, but I strongly believe parents are extremely culpable in the determination of how their children contextualize and utilize that education, as well as determining the importance of that education the older they get.

    The area I'm working in right now is a fairly poor Hispanic community, and it has the higher-than-average teen pregnancy rate that typically accompanies such things. The thing that strikes me, however, is how acceptable it seems to the parents that bring in their pregnant 15 year old. Then again, the girl's mother is usually in her late twenties or early thirties, so whatever. Embarrassingly, I often mistake a patient's mother for their wife because they aren't a generation apart. The hip 32 year old dresses a lot like the hip 19 year old.

    But that's all part and parcel of the whole education-economics-religion hydra that dooms just about everyone.

    The thing is, I'm sure everything you're talking about also occurs in Harlem, but the hcz managed to overcome that.
    They might have just caught lightning in a bottle there, but I'd love to see whether that's transferable.

    Picardathon on
  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    In general I would say there is very, very little contemporary literature.
    Why would you say that? It's harder to tell what's going to be regarded as 2000s literature in the future, since history has yet to sift the good from the bad (or the influential from the underappreciated), but somehow I doubt our time period is going to be a massive blank spot in the history of writing.

    Kaputa on
  • dispatch.odispatch.o Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    The most useful class I had was practical math.

    It taught the basics of finance and calculation of interest along with balancing a checkbook.

    I hear they don't even do this anymore.

    WTF?

    dispatch.o on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I gotta say, I don't really know what there is to teach about balancing a checkbook.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    dispatch.o wrote: »
    The most useful class I had was practical math.

    It taught the basics of finance and calculation of interest along with balancing a checkbook.

    I hear they don't even do this anymore.

    WTF?
    My high school had a senior class called "paths" or something stupid which was life skills math like that.

    It had a reputation as being for the kids who suck at math, though. If you were decent at math you were probably taking calculus for your senior math requirement.

    Kaputa on
  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Dyscord wrote: »
    I gotta say, I don't really know what there is to teach about balancing a checkbook.
    This is how I feel when people mention Excel being taught in a class. It's an application! It has documentation and there's a whole internet full of information to answer any question you'd have about the damn thing.

    Kaputa on
  • Muse Among MenMuse Among Men Suburban Bunny Princess? Its time for a new shtick Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Kaputa wrote: »
    In general I would say there is very, very little contemporary literature.
    Why would you say that? It's harder to tell what's going to be regarded as 2000s literature in the future, since history has yet to sift the good from the bad (or the influential from the underappreciated), but somehow I doubt our time period is going to be a massive blank spot in the history of writing.

    Are we talking about this century? If so, I haven't read any. Last century (1900-2000), I haven't really read much either (aside from short stories).

    I think I'm all over the place, I apologize. I really just didn't like those short stories.

    Muse Among Men on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Kaputa wrote: »
    Dyscord wrote: »
    I gotta say, I don't really know what there is to teach about balancing a checkbook.
    This is how I feel when people mention Excel being taught in a class. It's an application! It has documentation and there's a whole internet full of information to answer any question you'd have about the damn thing.

    Excel is at least complex enough that I can imagine a class being helpful. A checkbook is just sums (and online banking has probably made "learning to balance a checkbook" irrelevant anyway.)

    Also, no significant literature in the 20th century? err... /boggle

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Free HotelFree Hotel Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    dispatch.o wrote: »
    High school level PE is just a chance for the jocks and assholes to have a class they're not terrible at. It doesn't usually help that they're encouraged to be unsporting geese to everyone else by the teacher, who is also usually the coach for some sport on which they are a member of the team for.

    And again we come to the problem of personal biases in this conversation. There are tons of athletic, sports-playing teens who enjoyed PE who were also smart and good at other classes.

    But just as we have the engineers who don't see the point of foreign languages or psychology and the literature people who don't think we need calculus at the high school level, we have the non-PE-enjoying people saying it isn't necessary.

    Guess what? To be a real well-rounded individual, you probably need all aspects we've discussed here.

    I also think we're overstating teenager intelligence based on our sample on these boards. Here, we have (no offense) mostly nerds and geeks who were pretty good or better at school, so yeah, algebra wasn't that hard and calculus was doable by Grade 11 or earlier. For a lot of students though, it isn't. But it's possible to improve that by improving earlier education. What kind of policies would help do that?

    Free Hotel on
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