Don't Stay In School

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?

You can't be taught how to think in a classroom. You can only be raised to think at home. In school you can be given hints as to where to look, but no teacher can force you to open your eyes. That's something you have to choose to do yourself, and it's your parents who raise you to have that desire, just as they raise you to want to stay fit, or be sociable.

I have sketchy memories of what I learned at school: the cabbage white butterfly, the Bayeaux Tapestry, Je suis, tu es, il est, elle est, blue copper oxide and the knowledge that sulphuric acid would make your fingertips go smooth, rice pudding, cumulonimbus clouds ( where exactly did these huge beautiful white things disappeared to ?) the Cumberland Square 8 Dance, The Ancient Mariner....

Then there are memories I have about the social aspect: needing to fit in with large groups of girls, the absence of boys, the realisation of richer girls whose dads drove a Jaguar, learning to laugh at myself, realising that all families were smaller than mine, kids having posh packed lunch containers and regular cash to buy sweets, stealing from the sweet shop and selling the excess, realising that it was un-cool to drink the free milk at break time, being bullied & bullying, being in the minority by having a flat chest for ages, learning to truant.

These days there are a number of kids who don’t master the first year of their transition from primary to high school and they have a long term difficulty of ever getting there, fitting in there and making new friends.

School is a sink or swim feat and just like the challenge of those thousands of wilderbeast who follow their herd through a raging river, I made it! 🙂

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?

As a teacher of some forty years experience in private education my guiding light has been Pink Floyd:

"We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall."

Noun. edgelord (plural edgelords) (informal, pejorative, Internet slang) A person whose attitudes or activities make them seem edgy.
edgelord - Wiktionary
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/edgelord

Originally posted by @ptobler
Noun. edgelord (plural edgelords) (informal, pejorative, Internet slang) A person whose attitudes or activities make them seem edgy.
edgelord - Wiktionary
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/edgelord

Correction: make them appear to want to seen edgy and k3wl. Almost inevitably, the effort fails.

Interesting.

As for myself



Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I don't claim to be an A student
But I'm trying to be
For maybe by being an A student, baby
I can win your love for me

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

La ta ta ta ta ta ta (History)
Hmm-mm-mm (Biology)
La ta ta ta ta ta ta (Science book)
Hmm-mm-mm (French I took)

Yeah, but I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

-Sam Cook

YouTube

Go ask an old man, see what he's got to say
Don't ask your teachers, they weren't much good anyway
Nothing really matters, as time drifts on by
Just a drop in the ocean, a shot in the sky

Don't stray from the narrow, and keep your hands clean
It seems very silly, if you know what I mean
You worry and worry, never really know why
I wake in the morning, as trams roll on by

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

Go ask an old man, see what he's got to say
Don't ask your teachers, they weren't much good anyway
Nothing really matters, as time drifts on by
Just a drop in the ocean, a shot in the sky

Don't stray from the narrow, and keep your hands clean
It seems very silly, if you know what I mean
You worry and worry, never really know why
I wake in the morning, as trams roll on by

The nihilist credo.

Originally posted by @shallow-blue
You can't be taught how to think in a classroom. You can only be raised to think at home. In school you can be given hints as to where to look, but no teacher can force you to open your eyes. That's something you have to choose to do yourself, and it's your parents who raise you to have that desire, just as they raise you to want to stay fit, or be sociable.

Thinking is natural and enjoyable. Good teachers create an environment for that.

Seems you are totally giving up on kids from bad families?