Dantes Revenge
Caldari
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Posted - 2009.02.10 21:13:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Slade Trillgon
I do not disagree, that much of the text that is thrown at you is of little use later in life, but I was implying that there are other things that can be learned in grade school other then memorizing information  I do not disagree with what he says about many kids not wanting to learn. I do not disagree that grade school should be a dividing ground for those that deserve a higher education and those that should be fast tracked to careers in bluer collar jobs. But telling someone to go to school and be closed off because there is nothing for you to learn there is haphazard at best.
If you are not taught the elementary things, how are you supposed to find something that you are or want to be passionate about. It is possible but much more difficult. If you never had a teacher that inspired you, or introduced you to a new way of thinking, pre-college, then I am sorry that your education may not have been as fruitfull as others. With your opinions I hope you home school your children.
Slade
I think the real point is that you are taught the basics at school but you learn far more once you leave. At school, I could never get my head around pure math on paper but when I left, I found that in practical use, I could do it with relative ease. However, that may be more to do with teaching methods used in schools. Theory is fine but unless you can define a practical use, it's hard to understand why it needs to be learned at all.
As a logical thinker, I found myself drawn to programming when home computers came on the market. I learned to program in Basic without even having a computer to practice on (even the TRS80 was like ú300 back then and that was the cheapest). My first Computer was a ZX Spectrum and I learned to write in Z80 assembly language straight off the top of my head with no charts or pseudocode because I could already switch to "computer mode" in my head and think like the computer does. When I went to college, the lecturer realised I was already way more advanced than his class would ever be and put me on a task of writing a plotter control program in Z80. Two days later he almost fainted when I told him I'd completed it and it worked first time with only one minor bug that took 3 minutes to solve.
Considering that computers or anything more than basic physics were never on the curriculum at schools until I was nearly 20, it shows that you can find your preferred vocation long after your school years. Once found, it doesn't take long before you are learning all there is to know about it. Often this has absolutely no connection with school studies at all apart from the basics of reading, writing and math.
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