That was weird when brontosaurus went away. Ever since, I've always wondered what kind of burger Fred Flintstone was actually eating.
Friday OT #2 - We Don't Need No Education
- Thread starter Angie
- Start date
Pretty sure it's not - as @WooClone15 pointed out, once you tell kids how good those drugs make you feel, more kids decided to try them out. For our class, since my dad was good friends with the chief deputy of the local sheriff's department, we got to tour the jail and get locked in cells. That left a lasting impression.
One thing that I feel that needs better emphasis in schools is to learn a coding language, or just how to code in general. As data becomes more complex and larger, better methods are going to be needed to mine that data to the point where people are going to have to write their own programs. I think that this needs to start in elementary school (kids are already playing on tablets) and continue through high school. I do not think it needs to be its own subject early on but just needs to be incorporated into the curriculum. Additionally, for those that do not move on to college, this should add to their skill set on operating/fixing machinery in a more automated world.
I was lucky in that a required class my senior year of high school was economics, where we learned about basic economics, retirement, savings, etc. I think it is a class everyone should take, but unfortunately, schools do not offer.
For me personally, I am bad at grammar, so I feel that my education failed me in that regard. My life depends on spell/grammar check.
I was lucky in that a required class my senior year of high school was economics, where we learned about basic economics, retirement, savings, etc. I think it is a class everyone should take, but unfortunately, schools do not offer.
For me personally, I am bad at grammar, so I feel that my education failed me in that regard. My life depends on spell/grammar check.
I still don't know why WWI happened and was recently discussing this with someone else who also never learned why.
History in general. And I was in the same school district for K-12, so can't blame it on moving.
Mostly the scope and sequence seemed a bit off, like we concentrated heavily on certain things and other things just weren't covered at all, or were just given a cursory glance.
Here's a synopsis of history as I was taught from late elementary through high school (I finished high school in the late 90's):
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There were some Greek philosophers doing some stuff, and they invented democracy. But everyone quickly forgot about democracy and then came the medieval times, which mostly involved kings building awesome castles, and trying to knock down their rivals' castles with catapults.
A couple years later, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Finding the new world, a bunch of other cool and brave explorers sailed around in boats and met with Indians for a good while. Speaking of Indians, did you know they were really good at planting corn and building lots of different types of houses? Some houses were long and made of mud bricks, some lived in adobe caves, and some lived in tepees. There were awesome sounding tribe names too, like Cherokee, Choctaw, and Sioux. Meanwhile, Pilgrims & Williamsburg happened, and soon there were a lot of colonists who were really hearty living in North America and they made things by hand, like horseshoes.
Some of the colonists read some books and remembered democracy, so they got mad at “taxation without representation” and threw tea in the ocean. This angered the British, so they sent their army to the colonies, which made some important guys declare the American colonies to be an independent nation, and those important guys picked George Washington to be their leader. Washington defeated the British in the Revolutionary War and we got a country! ‘Merica!
George and his friends forgot about the slavery thing, so shortly thereafter Abe Lincoln tried to fix it but this made some guys in the south mad, so the Civil War happened. The north won and slavery went away. (Insert watching the movies “Glory” and “Dances with Wolves”) Yea!
Not much else happened after that, except World War Two. Which is kind of strange, because while there must have been a World War One, no one really knows anything about it. Regardless, the good guys won both.
Mostly the scope and sequence seemed a bit off, like we concentrated heavily on certain things and other things just weren't covered at all, or were just given a cursory glance.
Here's a synopsis of history as I was taught from late elementary through high school (I finished high school in the late 90's):
+++
There were some Greek philosophers doing some stuff, and they invented democracy. But everyone quickly forgot about democracy and then came the medieval times, which mostly involved kings building awesome castles, and trying to knock down their rivals' castles with catapults.
A couple years later, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Finding the new world, a bunch of other cool and brave explorers sailed around in boats and met with Indians for a good while. Speaking of Indians, did you know they were really good at planting corn and building lots of different types of houses? Some houses were long and made of mud bricks, some lived in adobe caves, and some lived in tepees. There were awesome sounding tribe names too, like Cherokee, Choctaw, and Sioux. Meanwhile, Pilgrims & Williamsburg happened, and soon there were a lot of colonists who were really hearty living in North America and they made things by hand, like horseshoes.
Some of the colonists read some books and remembered democracy, so they got mad at “taxation without representation” and threw tea in the ocean. This angered the British, so they sent their army to the colonies, which made some important guys declare the American colonies to be an independent nation, and those important guys picked George Washington to be their leader. Washington defeated the British in the Revolutionary War and we got a country! ‘Merica!
George and his friends forgot about the slavery thing, so shortly thereafter Abe Lincoln tried to fix it but this made some guys in the south mad, so the Civil War happened. The north won and slavery went away. (Insert watching the movies “Glory” and “Dances with Wolves”) Yea!
Not much else happened after that, except World War Two. Which is kind of strange, because while there must have been a World War One, no one really knows anything about it. Regardless, the good guys won both.
They needed it or they would have only had WWII. Think how confusing it would have been to have WWII and no WWI.
My school was the same way, we had to write in cursive. Today, I don't understand the purpose of cursive and why we took the time to do it.
I feel this opposite from my experience, it seemed like from 4th to ~10th grade grammar was pretty heavily emphasized. At the time it was pretty dreadful but in hindsight I think it was pretty helpful.
TLDR version: entangling alliances, a rigidness of sticking to plans/trust in generals, and the belief that "modern" countries (countries in 1914) were so economically interconnected that they couldn't have a long war.
How'd I do, @CycloneErik?
As an aside, I was at a party in college in the early 2000's and somebody asked me if I had ever heard of Franz Ferdinand. I was all fired up to talk about the causes of WWI, but then he started talking about a band I had never heard of.
To be fair, my post only means it's a bad idea to have it, not that schools have stopped doing it haha
Boy this reminds me of a doozy. If any of my HS classmates are on here, they'll know it by this story. My US History teacher did not teach AT ALL. All of our exams were open book, take at your own pace. He never taught a single word the entire year. Each period he would pass out exams you hadn't finished on previous days and you'd work on them by going through the textbook. Then, he'd turn on a "historic" movie including the likes of Dave and Independence Day.
I realized after college that I couldn't even name the decade of the Civil War or Vietnam. I since decided to read one book about each major war in sequence starting with the Revolution. I've since become a lover of US History. What a scam that class was...
I realized after college that I couldn't even name the decade of the Civil War or Vietnam. I since decided to read one book about each major war in sequence starting with the Revolution. I've since become a lover of US History. What a scam that class was...
The thing about history that most kids don't get (I was one) was that it was not inevitable. I went through most of history classes thinking, "Yeah George Washington did all that, but he was George Washington - that's what George Washington was always going to do. Because he was... George Washington."
It's only later that it dawns on me, hey he didn't KNOW how his life and actions were going to turn out. With that realization it becomes much more interesting to try to understand the motives and actions of historical figures in their times.
Or maybe I was just an idiot all along.
It's only later that it dawns on me, hey he didn't KNOW how his life and actions were going to turn out. With that realization it becomes much more interesting to try to understand the motives and actions of historical figures in their times.
Or maybe I was just an idiot all along.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Good start. I'd probably move point #2 into a discussion of why the war lasted so long.
Mention the deep national rivalries that led to those entangling alliances, do a lot of build-up on Germany's emergence that sets so much of that in motion, and make sure the Archduke is involved. His death really is the spark that blew it all up.
For my money, my history teacher in high school was terrible. He was the prototypical guy who was there to coach, but a school merger left him as the assistant, and he was bad at that. Thanks to him, I know that the other team can inbound the ball and score when one coach extends the time out too long. Other than that, it was a lot of work to get him into accurate history. He
I moved from Ankeny to a much smaller school for the last 3 years of high school. It was a huge difference. This particular small school really had some environmental issues and struggled mightily to find people that could or would teach. By the time they knew how, the teacher found a better job somewhere else. A revolving door is never a good thing in that profession.
There. Two answers for the price of one, and one long essay to boot.
Funny you mention WWI. We went to the WWI museum here in KC this past summer because I'd never taken the time to visit it. It's fantastic. I'll highly recommend it.
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand is pretty compelling to read about.
One of the most interesting classes I took at ISU was, I think a speech class. Propaganda. I figured it would be all Russia this and Hitler that. But it actually delved into the hidden ways stories are presented to push a message. Like showing a protest up close to make it seem bigger. Really did open my eyes to how a person can be manipulated without realizing it.
One of the items he had us look at was a photo of an ISU fan and an Iowa fan at a football game. And asked the class what messages it might present. Everyone said, "We have our differences but should all get along." Finally he said, "What about the actual existence of major college sports as a given?" Mind blown....
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Holy crap, spot on! Also, did you know the US never did anything wrong ever? They just kicked ass in battles.
