Don't Stay In School

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I wasn’t taught how to get a job
but I can remember dissecting a frog
I wasn’t taught how to pay tax
but I know loads about Shakespeare's classics

I was never taught how to vote
they devoted that time to defining isotopes
I wasn’t taught how to look after my health
but mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

Never spent a lesson on current events
instead I studied The Old American West
I was never taught what laws there are.
I was never taught what laws there are!!!

Let me repeat - I was not taught the laws for the country I live in,
but I know how Henry the VIII killed his women.
Divorced beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived
glad that’s in my head instead of financial advice

I was shown the wavelengths of different hues of light
but I was never taught my human rights
Apparently there’s 30, do you know them? I don’t
Why the hell can’t we both recite them by rote?!

I know igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks
Yet I don’t know squat about trading stocks
Or how money works at all - where does it come from?
How does the thing that motivates the world function?

not taught how to budget and disburse my earnings
I was too busy rehearsing cursive.
Didn’t learn how much it costs to raise a kid or what an affidavit is
but I spent days on what the quadratic equation is

negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared
minus 4ac over 2a
That’s insane, that’s absolutely insane.
They made me learn that over basic first aid

How to recognise the most deadly Mental disorders // or
diseases with preventable causes // How to buy a
house with a mortgage // if I could afford it
‘cause abstract maths was deemed more important

than advice that would literally save thousands of lives
but it’s cool, ‘cause now I could tell you
if the number of unnecessary deaths caused by that choice was prime.

Never taught present day practical medicines,
but I was told what the ancient hippocratic method is
“I’ve got a headache, the pain is ceaseless
what should I take?” Umm... maybe try some leeches?

“Could we discuss domestic abuse and get the facts
or how to help my depressed friend with their mental state?”
Ummm... no but learn mental maths
because “you won’t have a calculator with you every day!”

They say it’s not the kids, the parents are the problem
Then if you taught the kids to parent that’s the problem solved then!
All this advice about using a condom
but none for when you actually have a kid when you want one

I’m only fluent in this language, for serious?
The rest of the world speaks two, do you think I’m an idiot?
They chose the solar over the political system
So like a typical citizen now I don’t know what I’m voting on

which policies exist, or how to make them change
mais oui, je parle un peu de Francais
So at 18, I was expected to elect a representative
For a system I had never ever ever ever been presented with

But I won’t take it !
I’ll tell everyone my childhood was wasted
I’ll share it everywhere how I was “educated”
And insist these pointless things don't stay in school !

YouTube

What do you reckon?

Originally posted by @fmf
What do you reckon?

As a teacher, a Maths graduate and advocate of more Science in school ....

... it's bloody brilliant.

Originally posted by @fmf
[youtube]t656bGS7sa4[/youtube]

I wasn’t taught how to get a job
but I can remember dissecting a frog
I wasn’t taught how to pay tax
but I know loads about Shakespeare's classics

I was never taught how to vote
they devoted that time to defining isotopes
I wasn’t taught how to look after my health
but mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

Nev ...[text shortened]... pointless things don't stay in school !

[youtube]8xe6nLVXEC0[/youtube]

What do you reckon?

Perfect!

I left school with absolutely no idea about the outside world whatsoever. Even the so called “careers advice” was non-existent; I can still remember the 3 minute conversation now.

When I look back it was all such a waste of time.

Originally posted by @divegeester
When I look back it was all such a waste of time.

If it hadn't been for school, none of you edgelords would be able to read this. Education may not be perfect, certainly not in the USA, but it beats not being able to check that your electricity bill adds up.

These pointless things you learn in school teach you one thing -- how to think and learn.

So that when you do get out in the real world, you can figure out most things you need to know all by yourself. Only the most stultifyingly stupid people depend only on learning what they tell you to learn. That is the biggest waste.

Originally posted by @suzianne
These pointless things you learn in school teach you one thing -- how to think and learn.

So that when you do get out in the real world, you can figure out most things you need to know all by yourself. Only the most stultifyingly stupid people depend only on learning what they tell you to learn. That is the biggest waste.

I agree, the most important part of thinking is "how to think".
But that is not taught. (At least not as a discipline)

We should not be teaching children "what to think".

Originally posted by @wolfgang59
I agree, the most important part of thinking is "how to think".
But that is not taught. (At least not as a discipline)

We should not be teaching children "what to think".

My point is that by studying difficult subjects hard enough to get an "A", you do learn "how to think". As usual, what's really important is not so much the "what" as the "how".

Learning this skill basically teaches you how to use your brain, whether to solve your problem, or to find out where to go to get the data to solve your problem.

But whining that school didn't teach you what you need to live is lame as hell. You should have taken matters into your own hands. The disconnect here is that a lot of these same people whining about school not teaching them what they really need to know are also the same ones whining about how some other group of people sit back and wait for others to support them. Two-dimensional people unable (or unwilling) to think for themselves.

Originally posted by @suzianne
But whining that school didn't teach you what you need to live is lame as hell. You should have taken matters into your own hands. The disconnect here is that a lot of these same people whining about school not teaching them what they really need to know are also the same ones whining about how some other group of people sit back and wait for others to support them. Two-dimensional people unable (or unwilling) to think for themselves.

Quite; and if a child can't do that, don't blame the school or the teachers, blame the parents. It's the teachers' job to teach their pupils, but the parents' job to raise a child that can be taught in the first place.

Originally posted by @suzianne
My point is that by studying difficult subjects hard enough to get an "A", you do learn "how to think". .

This argument reminds me of the one used by my Latin teacher:
"Latin will help you find the meaning of many English words"
My question was why not just teach us the meaning of the English words directly?

Similarly my question to Suzi is why not teach "how to think" directly?

Originally posted by @shallow-blue
Quite; and if a child can't do that, don't blame the school or the teachers, blame the parents. It's the teachers' job to teach their pupils, but the parents' job to raise a child that can be taught in the first place.

Blaming the parents doesn't help the child much!

Where I currently reside (in an Indonesian fishing village), education is not free at the point of being educated. It costs about six pounds (Sterling) a month to send a kid to primary school, which covers school fees, uniform etc, and most families can't afford it, so most kids don't finish their education. We sponsor as many as we can, and some have now gone on to university, but without help, forget it, further education is like flying to the moon.

So my first point would have to be; if you see fit to complain about the education system in the west, stop complaining. It isn't perfect, but what is?

If they go to school, and we try to make sure that they all do, kids and young people emerge from the most basic dirt - floor timber dwelling wearing a white school shirt which is so white it's hard to look at. They walk bare - foot to and from school to save wear and tear on their (well polished - they glint in the sunlight) shoes, and they buy them a size or so too big so they have room to grow into them. At school they are taught by rote, so they are absolutely brilliant for example at mental arithmetic; they can tell you what 36 x 7 is without really thinking about it. Now having about the worse mathematical brain which has ever existed since homo sapiens were invented, (and probably most Neanderthals), this impresses me, but the point is that they aren't taught anything creative. No creative writing, no art (paintbrushes are for applying emulsion to walls, if they have walls), and as for poetry, what's poetry? They can solve problems so long as they are instant; they can fix a car engine with a twig and a certain type of leaf, but our constant mantra over here is that 'they don't think it through'. A to B is okay, A to C via B is beyond them; consequences of actions beyond the immediate ain't something they are good at, probably because they aren't taught how to think outside the box, and it's quite a small box. They obey instructions and orders without question, which is, you know, a good thing and bad thing, depending on how you look at it, but they are the best behaved school children I have ever seen.

School isn't for learning how to fill in tax forms; that comes later. It's for learning how to think, create, concentrate, beat up the guy who sits next to you and then make up afterwards, what a girl looks like (if you're a boy), and who the Kings and Queens of England have been. (If you're English). Most of it we forget, but it's all in there somewhere, and it's the learning of it that's important. I went to about the worst school in England, but it was free at the point of being educated, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Post script; 36 x 7 = 251. You see, I'm crap, and I used a calculator....

Originally posted by @wolfgang59
This argument reminds me of the one used by my Latin teacher:
"Latin will help you find the meaning of many English words"
My question was why not just teach us the meaning of the English words directly?

Similarly my question to Suzi is why not teach "how to think" directly?

How often in your own life were the most important lessons you learned not the ones that you were told you were being taught?

Humans are multi-taskers -- we can learn far more than we are taught. We don't need to be 'told' this, and we don't need 'permission'.

Originally posted by @fmf
[youtube]t656bGS7sa4[/youtube]

I wasn’t taught how to get a job
but I can remember dissecting a frog
I wasn’t taught how to pay tax
but I know loads about Shakespeare's classics

I was never taught how to vote
they devoted that time to defining isotopes
I wasn’t taught how to look after my health
but mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

Nev ...[text shortened]... pointless things don't stay in school !

[youtube]8xe6nLVXEC0[/youtube]

What do you reckon?

FMF stands for fees must fall here in SA

Originally posted by @shallow-blue
If it hadn't been for school, none of you edgelords would be able to read this. Education may not be perfect, certainly not in the USA, but it beats not being able to check that your electricity bill adds up.

Maybe if I had a proper education I’d know what an “edgelord” is.

Originally posted by @divegeester
Maybe if I had a proper education I’d know what an “edgelord” is.

Ditto the above, pray enlighten us.