Tim: >> But then I disagree with the notion of homework, anyway. It's only >> value is to involve parents with their child's education, but most >> don't, or don't do it in a worthwhile manner. The kids go to school to >> learn, at the end of the day they've done enough of that. Likewise most >> parents have had enough work during their day, and don't want to spend >> several more hours doing work on something at home. >> >> It, homework, is pointless anyway. I work in electronics, I highly >> technical field. I've never needed anything I was taught at high school >> beyond basic maths in the first couple years, and the same applies for >> most people that I know in a wide variety of jobs. All those nightly >> hours of grief were a complete waste of my time. If I knew then what I >> knew now, I would have coasted school. I would have flatly refused to >> waste my time with pointless rubbish, insisted that they constrain >> themselves to teaching things that were genuinely useful, and flatly >> refused to co-operate with any punishments meted out. Even when I >> worked in schools I realised it was a pointless place for most people. Thomas Cameron: > That has got to be the dumbest argument I have ever heard in my life. Oh really? Have you also spent around 15 years working in schools? I have. I have practical experience from both sides of the fence that it's a pointless exercise. Can you remember everything that you were taught at school? Do you use a fraction of it? I did the highly academic subjects (English, Maths I & II [trig and algebra, I never remember which is which anymore, we didn't have calculus], Physics and Chemistry). All of which were listed as prerequisites for my tertiary training, NONE of which were ever needed. > The academic load at school is not just to teach you the fundamentals, > the core bits of knowledge about mathematics or sentence structure or > turning wood on a lathe. The academic mix is to teach you about > pooling knowledge, to be able to associate dissimilar knowledge sets, > to (hopefully) think critically. Yes, schools *should* teach you how to learn, but they invariably don't. They teach by rote, they teach things that are incorrect, they have teachers that are incompetent (who not only don't really know about what they're teaching, they're hopeless *at* teaching), they make huge issues about ridiculous things (the colours of your socks) but put little effort into teaching someone grammar or how to properly spell (not anymore, at least). My critical assessement is that they don't do the job that they should do. My moment of final disillusionment was when I asked the principal whether they thought the school should be teaching students in a manner that prepared them for life outside of the school, and her one word answer was, "no". It wasn't an experience unique to that school, either. The dumbest arguments I hear are that schools *are* "practical" education institutions. Those people that do have common sense, know how to figure things out, are creative, genuinely useful, etc., didn't learn that from school. If anything, it dulls that out of most people. In all the years I spent working in schools, the most practical education was the old non-school sort of mentoring, not the academic that they focus on. The time spent on the practicalities of life and social interaction was more beneficial. Those I've met who've been home schooled, or distance education out in the bush, were generally smarter people. But in contrast, many of the main stream school students who're supposedly top of their class seem to be as thick as two short planks. > Learning, say, geometry might not *seem* to help you directly in your > job, but every time you want to cut a board or navigate a curve in a > car, you will be more likely to be successful if you understand the > concepts of measuring and calculating the curves and angles. When I ride, throw a ball, or some other intuitive physical skill, I can tell you that I don't use physics to figure out how to do it. Physics might explain the processes, but it's certainly not needed to do so. The skills involved in such basic tasks don't require several years of training either, just some apppropriate time for the task. > School is about learning to think, not silos of knowledge. I am > appalled that no one ever taught you that. It's not how schools work (they discourage thinking, they discourage individuality, they encourage obedience without question of any sort), hence my comments about it being a waste of time. -- (Currently running FC4, occasionally trying FC5.) Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
