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Two and a half weeks in, and NOW I get sore.
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The only subject that should not be taught is math(as it is currently understood), due to its high levels of evil and stupidity. I have never used the quadraric equation once in my life, ever. It was a complete waste of time.
All other subjects are necessary. Especially the ones NH pooh poohed- no reading for analysis, foreign languages or art, I knoe you are a math person, but you have got to be kidding me.
There's a difference between "reading for analysis" and what I was taught both in high school and college as "literary analysis", and what Impus Major is getting (more of the same of what I got).
One of the topics on Impus Major's list was, "Throughout xxx, the author uses the color blue. What was the author trying to convey with this?"
I've never liked "reading as mind reading". If the author doesn't say it explicitly, I don't get it.
So "reading for analysis" (what is the author trying to say? Is he or she supporting his or her arguments?) falls into my "political analysis" frame. "Literary analysis" in my experience has been exactly what I said: "Guess what your teacher thinks the author was thinking when he or she wrote this book, and Heaven defend you if you guess wrong, because no matter how well you present your arguments you'll never get above a C."
Happened to me. Happened to Impus Major. Seems to be Standard Operating Procedure among high school and college English teachers. "Guess what I'm thinking and write to support it, or get a crappy grade."
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So yes, I have enough religions, customs and that kind of thing. So I really have no interest in getting any more exposure with it.
Now Chinese tradition are like all over the place. Each Feng Shui Master will have a different interpretation on what should be placed where in your house, so at the end of the day, who are you supposed to listen to?
Yes if you keep getting mired up in old customs, nothing gets done.
Look at our late Minister Mentor Mr Lee. Religious groups said that he should not build the Mass Rapid Transit because he would disturb the earth dragon. Blah blah, bad things would happen. Yet without the development of the Mass Rapid Transit, would Singapore be able to have the success it now enjoys today?
Sure, you're entitled to your beliefs of whatever, just don't let them get in the way of GETTING THINGS DONE.
Oh and not listening to your mom and following customs is considered being disrespectful of your elders.
*throws paws in the air in exasperation*
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And a trench digging class, not to learn any skill per se, just to build character.
I've been digging a lot of trenches this week.
Although I'm told we're getting a guy for that.
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Once you chop through the fiber optic cable, it pretty much digs itself. :-)
I was home schooled.
Same questions, if you care to answer.
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A topic on a different site has got me thinking about the basics of education, so quick informal FAWLT poll:
What subjects do you consider essential for the citizen of a modern first world country?
The hard sciences should probably also be mushed together into more integrated blocks of related subjects -> mathematics + chemistry + physics for example could be taught as a single subject.
Are there subjects you were taught that you consider superfuluous?
(In my case: it was English -> taught a long time = proficient, German -> about half as long = meh, Spanish -> taught for only a couple of years with minimal hours = right down the crapper).
(My top candidate for immediate scraping as a school subject).
Are there subjects you consider essential, which aren't taught? Or weren't taught to you.
Up here we where taught Comparative Religion for a few years (its mandatory, but the focus was on the "three big monotheistics").
I am not the sort that gets philosophical so I don't have any comments with regards to education. Sorry Tequilia.
Oh, I'd call this a practical question more than a philosophical one. What skills and knowledge does every adult need to know? What helps with day-to-day life? What shared knowledge helps society function? That kind of thing.
I know I wouldn't want to do comparative religion for certain. The very subject of religion gets up my heckles since my Mom is trying to foist a whole bunch of customs that I'm supposed to follow for my wedding and I just told her I'm not having any.
Fair enough. Ideally though, religion classes are there to educate about a variety of religions rather than shoving one religion down anyone's throat.
Although I am currently brainstorming a dystopian story where 'religious survey' classes are used to do just that.
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I was home schooled.Same questions, if you care to answer.
Nobodyshome covered all the bases with the exception of music and trench digging being essential.
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Literary analysis: What does your teacher think the author meant when he/she wrote this?
Oh, Scint agrees. English should focus more on effective communication, but I don't write the standards.
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Blue as a colour generally represents intellect, contemplation, but can also mean sadness and loss.
what does green mean?
Oh, Scint agrees. English should focus more on effective communication, but I don't write the standards.
Literary analysis: What does your teacher think the author meant when he/she wrote this?
I appreciate you today of all days!
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Blue as a colour generally represents intellect, contemplation, but can also mean sadness and loss.what does green mean?
Gangrene.
Oh, Scint agrees. English should focus more on effective communication, but I don't write the standards.
Literary analysis: What does your teacher think the author meant when he/she wrote this?
I think this gets at another important ed question: What is the purpose of standards, how detailed should they be, and who ought to set them?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
A topic on a different site has got me thinking about the basics of education, so quick informal FAWLT poll:
What subjects do you consider essential for the citizen of a modern first world country?
Are there subjects you were taught that you consider superfuluous?
Are there subjects you consider essential, which aren't taught? Or weren't taught to you.
Essential:
History - How did we get here, and how is that influencing current events?Language - Words have meaning. If you're not using them effectively, you're going to be misunderstood, and that is the root of most problems. Be able to understand what is being said by others.
Math - Basic arithmetic is essential to being a functional adult, and the more advanced classes teach necessary logic.
Science - Biology perhaps moreso than the others due to its connection to how you yourself function, but again, logic is key.
FACS - I am an adult, and I can barely cook and cannot sew. These are a lot more important than you think they are as a freshman taking the danged class.
Computers - It's the 21st century, and I see kids somehow not knowing the very, very basics of how Office works.
Superfluous:
Fine Arts - They're important, and I'm a drama geek 4 lyfe, but...it's not absolutely necessary.
P.E. - ...just give us recess, same effect.
Graphic Design - ...so we teach them Photoshop but not Word?
Important but Optional:
Other social sciences - economics, psychology, sociology. You need to have a base understanding of these principles to really understand how things work, how people by and large react to change.
Foreign language - we're becoming more and more global, and having some understanding of a different tongue can be extraordinarily useful. However, language is easier to learn as a child, so this should, for maximum effect, be an elementary class rather than secondary.
Financial literacy - jeebus the amount of people who don't know what a budget is.
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I think this gets at another important ed question: What is the purpose of standards, how detailed should they be, and who ought to set them?Oh, Scint agrees. English should focus more on effective communication, but I don't write the standards.
Literary analysis: What does your teacher think the author meant when he/she wrote this?
The intent of standards is, or should be, to ensure that a student anywhere in the region affected by said standards (which would be most helpful at a national level for those kids who move across state lines due to parental jobs) at X grade level has achieved proficiency/mastery of Y skills. I moved to a different state as a freshman, but 9th grade standards gave a ballpark to teachers of what I should be capable of doing.
They should be detailed enough that a trained educator knows the level of mastery needed - "Identify a theme" vs. "Identify how two or more themes support each other" for a given text of appropriate reading level. However, they should be flexible enough for an educator to take initiative in crafting lessons to achieve these outcomes - for example, there are a lot of possible texts out there to use for standards regarding reading comprehension, and not every district necessarily needs to teach the exact same ones. It's physically impossible to get them all.
They should be set by experienced educators who know how learning actually works and kept far, far away from elected office.
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Essential Skills:
I'm with Lazarus Long on this one: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
But, putting it in more practicable terms, I feel the most important skills and/or bits of knowledge that a young person should get from education are:
* How to follow instructions, i.e. listen, apply, and follow through.
* How to think critically and know when the instructions need revising and how to best engineer the desired results. This involves studying physics and natural sciences.
* How to think critically and use one's best judgement to know when the instructions need to be subverted. This involves studying history.
* How to read for comprehension and enjoyment.
* How to write persuasively. How to compose a letter, a paper, and, yes, a sonnet.
* If nothing else, at least basic math, hand-in-hand with basic economics.
* Household management and budgeting.
* Auto shop, basic household repair (when I was in school, this was called "home shop" and covered everything from re-wiring a lamp to replacing the cords that raise and lower old-fashioned windows), and home-ec (i.e. basic cooking and sewing).
* Care of infants, children, plants, and animals. You know what city kids miss out on? 4-H.
* Vegetable gardening. Every school should have a gardening program.
* How to debate, how to argue, how to listen attentively, and how to have a meaningful and balanced conversation with another human being.
* Responsible citizenship.
We're not living in the 19th century and children are not going to learn more than a handful of these skills at home, unless their parents are freaks of nature.
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So "reading for analysis" (what is the author trying to say? Is he or she supporting his or her arguments?) falls into my "political analysis" frame. "Literary analysis" in my experience has been exactly what I said: "Guess what your teacher thinks the author was thinking when he or she wrote this book, and Heaven defend you if you guess wrong, because no matter how well you present your arguments you'll never get above a C."
Happened to me. Happened to Impus Major. Seems to be Standard Operating Procedure among high school and college English teachers. "Guess what I'm thinking and write to support it, or get a crappy grade."
This is why I'm the English teacher who hates lit analysis but has to teach it anyway. I'm much more interested in how history influenced the book's writing.
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I can't sew, but I can cook. Again my culinary education is all over the place. Mind you, I won't starve but you know it's like I don't have a fixed repertoire.
I'll just hit the fridge and see what there is, then improvise based on what I've eaten before. I live on copying dishes and improvisation.
And of course I don't know how to use a rice cooker, funnily enough so you'll probably end up with pasta.
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It turns out with these new fangled inventions called pots and pans you don't need a rice cooker to cook rice.
Green has connotations with life, nature, peace, tranquility and healing.Blue as a colour generally represents intellect, contemplation, but can also mean sadness and loss.what does green mean?
Also envy, sickness, and wealth.
Fair enough, I don't usually make the rice, I just make it into stuff, like Rice Pudding.
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I never took any "shop" classes in high school or in college. Considering the scope of my work history, though, I should have. On-the-job training hasn't been too difficult for me to pick up and run with, fortunately, but I think I would have been better off if I'd had the slightest background for it . . . .
Home economics should be a prereq for *everyone*. Period. Some practical training along those lines might not have staved off my divorce 13 years back, but it would have likely kept the recovery from its factors being so overwhelming. [Insert acknowledgement of all required historical cautions, character flaws, and exhortations to "not be so stupid, Syrus" here.]
I haven't used the quadratic equation for anything yet, either. Ever. Pythagorean theorem, yes. 'Cause it's on my "Find X" t-shirt -- and the letter "x" has been appropriately circled in red and identified with "Here it is."
I like the idea of a comparative religion study -- it is, after all, the field of study I found to be most enjoyable . . . well, maybe just the NT Greek I took. But it's all connected enough, in my opinion.
I, too, am not a fan of "psy-lit" studies. I am no mind-reader. But literature is a *very* worthy study. Though I *am* biased -- I love the power of story.
A trench-digging class would be handy, too. :)
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Eh. I don't feel qualified to really say any more -- got plenty of opinions, but insufficient discipline or support to speak well of "how it should be".
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The General was straight up told she shouldn't go to college and should instead focus on landing a husband.
She went to college, and majored in graphic design.
And that's how you become the black sheep in a biker mechanic family.
Ugh working all night then a meeting mid day then working all night again. Someone at meeting may get mangled.
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Hermione is going through a freakish germophobic phase...
"Mama, I may have stepped in dog poop six days ago and now I just changed my shoes and then scratched my nose and my finger was right next to my mouth, so what will happen?"
My standard answer has become "Anthrax".
If she keeps this up, I'm going to *play* her some Anthrax.
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A topic on a different site has got me thinking about the basics of education, so quick informal FAWLT poll:
What subjects do you consider essential for the citizen of a modern first world country?
Are there subjects you were taught that you consider superfuluous?
Are there subjects you consider essential, which aren't taught? Or weren't taught to you.
Ok, I just got home from Tuesday Movie Night, and I haven't read anything that was said in the 4 hours and 20 minutes from the time Tequila posted this.
I'm going to base this on the high school level, but some of it could be (or is/was) at the junior high/middle school level.
Essential:
Math. Not just "this is how math is done" (and please, can we go back to teaching it...I don't know...correctly?) but the why, and the application of it to real life within the math class itself. I always had an issue with kids saying "we're never going to need this" and then finding out years later why, in fact, they needed it.
Language Arts. In my school system it went thusly: Grades 6-8 spent 1 hour per day on "language" and 1 hour per day on "literature". Grades 9 and 10 then focused solely on more grammar. Grades 11-12 were focused heavily on literature. Grammar seems to have flown to another plane of reality. Literature, when taught well, teaches you to interpret what you read and see around you, and better detect and comprehend when you're being fed a giant pile of cow manure. When it's taught well. When not taught correctly/well it's utterly useless.
History. Nothing informs the present as well as the past. For those that are young and read this (why? Go outside!) and wonder what use history has outside of a classroom, there's a reason the term "institutional memory" exists. Since you're on a computer anyway, look that up. Too many places don't value it.
Health/Phys Ed. We need to do better with teaching long term health strategies.
Science. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. How the world works, to the best of our current knowledge. Also, helps with math.
Music. Kids who learn music do better in other subjects than kids who don't.
Consumer Education. In my school they started teaching this in junior high. It also involved what used to be known as Home Economics. How to budget. How to read and follow cook books. How to repair clothing.
Vocational classes. Small Engine Repair, Agriculture, Carpentry, Metalworking, etc, etc. Not every kid goes to college. Not every kid needs to. These subjects, while not sexy in the white-collar world, are necessarily vital.
Computer skills. No, I don't count your tablet. Or your phone. I want you to know how to type. I want you to know the difference between being told to "log off" and "reboot" and "turn off" your computer. I want you to understand that files are not stored inside of Word. Corporate America runs on, largely, Windows-based PCs, and it's a whole lot easier to take you seriously as an employee if we don't have to teach you the difference between your monitor and your computer. Honestly, from a usage standpoint, not a whole lot has changed since Windows 95. I should not have to keep telling you that the program you're looking for on your computer can be found under Start. People over 50-60 didn't grow up with computers. Some in that age range therefore have less understanding. I get that. What amazes me...absolutely amazes me...is how bad the people under 30-35 are with computers. Tell them to go to a website on their phone and they're just waiting for the phone to catch up. Tell them to do the same thing on the PC in front of them and they stare at me like I ate a live goat in front of their very eyes.
Superfluous:
At the high school level, I'd have to go with...
Art, and only because by this point the kids that can't draw/paint/visually stimulate in the 'high school art' sense by this point aren't going to get miraculously better enough to do anything with it - the kid can either art already or not, and needs to be thinking about art classes at art studios or colleges rather than what gets taught in most high schools. Sculpture is the same argument.
Psychology, sociology, and other "soft" sciences. These are nebulous enough for college students to grapple with, and most high school kids...generalizing here...simply aren't ready for it beyond the very basics.
Foreign Languages. The best time to learn a language is...let's see...right...when you're about 2. Past that, the brain has more difficulty with it, and you're either going to be ready to learn it or you're not, and dictating that it be required in high school pretty much means a bunch of kids are going to struggle with it. They'll either learn a foreign language when they're ready for it, or they'll learn it pretty damn fast when they suddenly find themselves stranded in a foreign country. I do completely understand that this thinking may flummox our European crowd - I've had this discussion with many European friends. Europe, to Americans, is small (it's certainly not, but it is to Americans). You drive two to six hours in much of Europe and you may go through 6-7 different linguistic regions. Or be a country like Belgium and have about 5 different languages that are *commonly* spoken. Therefore, people learn multiple languages. They have to. America simply doesn't have that. Near the Mexican border or southern Florida, yes, kids need to learn both English and Spanish. By and large, they do. But...and by no means do I mean to be condescending...or...ugh...American...but most Europeans don't have a true understanding of just how big the US is, and just how far we have to go to encounter another language in common usage. I can drive for 3 days straight from Seattle to New York City and never hear anything besides English. And that still doesn't cover the whole US...that's just across the northern section. This is why we don't value learning foreign languages as much as we should - we simply don't *need* to.
And for the movie we saw...Bad Samaritan. It's good. I know it can't make any money since it's out at the same time as Avengers, but really, if you like David Tennant playing the villain (and I know you do), give this movie some financial love if you can.
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Also...the color associations in literature...very dependent on culture.