Schooling

[Kyle]

I agree that today education generally is a waste of time. I've had a few great teachers, and I am thankful for that. I do not give that credit to the public school though. Almost everything that I know I learned on my own. I like to learn and I like to follow my own tangents. People should invest in themselves and direct their own education seeking wiser counsel when needed.

Calculus is awesome, but it is probably not for everyone. I am glad that I learned it. I haven't had the opportunity to explore statistics yet , but I will since I always hear it mentioned.

[haarp]

I've found that it is not difficult to teach yourself. I used to believe you needed to go to school or uni to learn but now realize they tend to drag subjects out. What uni teaches you in 3 years you could teach yourself in a year as long as you stay motivated, which I think is a huge reason why people go to institutions to learn, to be motivated. And get the qualifications.

I was actually home schooled from the age of 8, but all I did was follow the same school curriculum text books. But knowing what I know now, I'd do things differently if I was a parent. Trouble is the state can take your kid away if you don't get them to learn the state curriculum but there's no way I'd want them spending 6 hours a day in state education.

I'd rather teach them myself and make it fun, then sign them up to 3-4 different classes a week, to do with art, martial arts or anything where they can be exposed to different social groups.

[Int'l man of mystery]

In school you are taught useless academic minutia that wastes your time and talents. In life no one cares how smart you are, only that you will obey. In jobs, you learn on the fly, by practicing exactly what you are going to actually do. School has no relation to real learning or working. Every job I have had, I learned how to do by training on the job itself. Even my political radio show I prepared for by teaching myself things outside of school. In fact it is probably the antithesis of the propaganda I was told in school. From about 2nd or 3rd grade on school is pretty worthless. You could learn the few valuable things there are in math, history, and sciences in a few weeks with a tutor. The same way pretty much anyone learns how to drive a car, how to swim, or any other real world skill.

Of course school is worthless for the kids who have to go to it. It isn't there to enlighten kids, it's there to control them so they don't mess up the established system of doing things. As someone else has put it:

"... Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. ..." - Source

[Ry]

Phys we've seen you statistical skills when it comes to government stats on budgets, you learned a lot of nothing



The guy knows his math too
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[Ry]

[trelelnd]

When I was in college, I took all the math classes with the physics, and sometimes 2 physics classes at the same time.

But the physics classes were so well instructed and taught, that you HAD to know the math. So you're reading the math book a few months (or years) ahead just so you can do the physics problems.

I've measured the speed of light - pretty cool really, done all the chemistry experiments and odd ball thermodynamics, and it was fun to do. The lab stuff we did was really incredible, it really sinks in when you do it in person. Also, the professor would speak about something - lecture - but not spouting formulas, he we just talk about the experiment we were going to do in a fun way. You really got curious, what's gonna happen? And then he takes a break, then switches to the lab setup.

Everything was handled this way, nice introductions, great explanation, and help with the math (because people took his class because his was GOOD. It was fun. They didn't always have the needed math skills).

Now, remove that one good teacher, and I would not care one bit about the math.

Calculus/Integration I think is needed. Not so to the degree that it is taught, but you should at least understand it and be able to do it a few times in your life. You should have your cheat sheet of conversions right there, because there is no need to memorize it, just use it. After practical use, you will remember them.

I write software for a living, and I don't even make the slightest attempt to memorize the millions of possible function calls. There is no point, it changes constantly. If I need to do something, I look it up. I program in multiple languages (C/C++/C#/Delphi/Asm/Asp.net/Php/Java/VB/Pl1/Javascript) sometimes using all in one day (except pl1). You can't memorize that! At least I can't. I go with the flow.

I have a book here, written by a Russian, that teaches old school assembly language on x86. That's all you ever need! It teaches the basics of how computers work, has some lab exercises (programs), you solve it and you get it. That's how my physics professor operated, in a book. Once you get the basics, you don't need all the rest, you just need quick access to search material (google).

So yeah, went to school for physics and math and ended up a software engineer. The math did help me though, same as physics. I even used quarternions in some of my games I released, wrote the library for them. I have no recollection of writing the library, doing the work, in fact I have no clue - it just needed it to be done and it works.

In summary, I think what people need is a mentor/teacher, a goal and skip the school. So for all of us that know a trade, spend some time with the younger ones and teach 'em something. I do, and it helps.

PS: As of current, nothing in that old Russian code book works in Windows 6,7,8. Pitiful. No one can learn like I did anymore, unless they got an old beast laying around. Doesn't work in any form of Linux either.

[Ry]

Of course you need it in school, you don't need it in your life. In School, I had a nice time explaining the 1857 rebellion in India and what the causes really were vs the BS that is often said about it. Think that matters? As ICP said "can I buy a cheese burger if I know that shit, fuck no." Does anyone care if I know about electron tunneling, or the 5th Dynasty in China, or how many chambers there are on the heart of a bee?

I'd love just to test one year of school teaching practical skills and knowledge for the realistic majority of jobs and daily life. Insulate your own house, build furniture, make a website, change your own oil, do taxes, make beer, grow foods, CPR. put out a fire, cook stuff, write a resume, master a camera, swim, follow some white chip stocks, open a CD account, apply for a loan, even basic shit like ho air conditioning and refrigeration work because you would be Amazed how many tourist I saw who just drop it down to zero assuming that will make things colder faster and they just freeze the line which means we have to go get freon to open it up all the while their place is hot.

[Phys]

Thats awesome! I took math and physics courses at the same time but I had the skill set for it. We did some modeling on the computer in my quantum class but there isnt much hand on u can do in particle physics and analytical mech and so on.. I actually started my undergrad as a chem major until I took organic chem. That class was too artistic for me. I changed to phys/math the next sem. I was also required to do programming langs and when i got to grad school, I went to Texas Tech, I was glad I did.

[trelelnd]

I'd love just to test one year of school teaching practical skills and knowledge for the realistic majority of jobs and daily life. Insulate your own house, build furniture, make a website, change your own oil, do taxes, make beer, grow foods, CPR. put out a fire, cook stuff, write a resume, master a camera, swim, follow some white chip stocks, open a CD account, apply for a loan, even basic shit like ho air conditioning and refrigeration work because you would be Amazed how many tourist I saw who just drop it down to zero assuming that will make things colder faster and they just freeze the line which means we have to go get freon to open it up all the while their place is hot.

Sounds like a normal year to me living where I do, minus the A/C stuff. I use a swamp cooler.

[Ry]

yeh its a normal day of living but it could be taught in Jr. High. Instead they read fictional books and express what some snot's opinion was about them and re-leran Revolution to Civil War 4 times, do some science projects most of which was done by parents now plagiarized from the internet, a little bit of psuedo science when I was there is the was hole in the ozone scare now it is global warming, and lol they still have shit like "typing classes" like anyone isn't self taught about that. ART PE and Music are all based on attendance there is no merit based system for any of it. Health is an Elective, and there is no Economics, Philosophy, Anthro, Psychology etc etc.