Why putting a kid into traditional school is pointless...
This thread has been closed and archived.
This discussion is public.
Original Post
Bear with me, this is a long one...but it might provoke some interesting thoughts (hopefully) and give you insight to the school problem that's happening right now.
There is a persistent myth that as kids get older they become reluctant learners. Up until around age five they're sponges-- they learn an incredible amount. When they enter school, this amazing learning curve levels off and within a few years it's pretty much flat. Is this because a kid simply doesn't want to learn anymore? No!
It's because the human mind learns what it wants, when it wants. We can't tell a kid to learn something-- he has to want to learn it first. Of course, our educators say "We know kids learn effortlessly if they have their own reasons for learning, but we can't wait for them to find their own reasons. We have to provide them with reasons that are not their own. This doesn't work and we know it doesn't work, but it's the only practical way to run our schools."
Primitive cultures don't send their kids to school. Their children are kept with them, played with, payed attention to, talked to, and let try everything for their own. They don't herd them together to learn pottery making, or hunting, or their history. These kids grow up knowing everything about their culture and everything they need to be successful without a single moment of ever being spent in something remotely like our schools. They learn everything because they have mental need too and they learn on their own time, much unlike our society that forces kids to learn things when they don't have that mental need to. Kids, when left to learn on their own, do learn...and when forced, won't learn.
Are primitive cultures learning less that our kids? Not at all, they're just learning things that are different. It's how the human mind is built to work, just like every other creature on the planet. So why do we have public schools that are vastly ineffective, while we could be teaching our children this way? This worked for the first three million years of human life, so why did we switch to public schools in the first place?
Posted at 1:59am Nov 16, 2008 EST
Responses
this is why i dropped out of college, 3 years in to my 4 year degree, I learned more at home and at work, then being taught by someone with less experience than me.
I had my drafting teacher ask me questions about the program we used, I had 7 years of experience with it in real world use and full time job use, and he had 6 months of experience.
-Chris
Posted at 2:19am Nov 16, 2008 EST
I learn *so* much more on my own. As a kid I ignored the teachers and went home to teach myself most of the time. Now I'm an artist and a writer, and still learning. I love learning new things...although much of my research ends up with me on a tangent on a totally different subject haha.
Posted at 2:22am Nov 16, 2008 EST
mathaowny said:
I learn *so* much more on my own. As a kid I ignored the teachers and went home to teach myself most of the time. Now I'm an artist and a writer, and still learning. I love learning new things...although much of my research ends up with me on a tangent on a totally different subject haha.
__________
when I was a kid I read 3-4 books a week, played with my chemistry set, watched the stars, invented, watched the discovery channel, and helped my mom build things.
and don't' you learn more on those tangents then anything else?
Posted at 2:25am Nov 16, 2008 EST
But we're not primitive anymore and today one needs a college degree, even a masters to make any kind of decent living. You can always learn new things, after you learn the basics.
Posted at 2:26am Nov 16, 2008 EST
Definitely Shade. I was reading 1000pg books before I was ten :)
Posted at 2:27am Nov 16, 2008 EST
Shade, most kids today sit in front of the video games until their eyes start to droop at night. No amount of home anything is going to get in their video brains.
Posted at 2:28am Nov 16, 2008 EST
I wouldn't say its pointless. I learned so much through public school. With the different teachers who had different interests, perspectives, and backgrounds, I was exposed to ideas and view points I would have never gotten at home. If it weren't for public school, I wouldn't even be in the career I'm in now since my immediate family just doesn't do biology. I also would not have developed the love of history I have nor would I have ever gotten some of that critical encouragement I needed to continue doing art.
Posted at 2:29am Nov 16, 2008 EST
lawsonfolkart said:
Shade, most kids today sit in front of the video games until their eyes start to droop at night. No amount of home anything is going to get in their video brains.
__________
The problem with that is that school isn't' nearly as fun as self learning.
If homework is given as a punishment, then why should I do it if I was good?
Posted at 2:30am Nov 16, 2008 EST