Friday OT #2 - We Don't Need No Education

[Angie]

Thanks to @MeanDean for this one! As he explained, I'll ask the question at a high level, and then give an example to demonstrate what it means.

Educational gaps. These are topics or possibly even subjects that your educational system failed to cover during your elementary, Junior High and High School years.

Due to some oddities in our math teacher lineup and me being a year ahead of my classmates in math, our geometry teacher was just the shop teacher learning as he went for one year. As such, I never learned trig that year.

We never learned how to balance checkbooks, which I feel is a basic skill we should have learned.

What have you got?

 

[IcSyU]

I feel like driver's education is really letting people down every time I see someone on the side of the road trying to change a tire. If I'm not on a schedule, I'll normally stop and help out (have a better jack than the one most vehicles come with and have an impact wrench in my truck). The number of people who can't figure out something so basic is mind boggling.

I also feel like even the most basic math is rocket science when I see someone perusing a sale rack. 10% off shouldn't take any time to figure out.

 

[CtownCyclone]

I took AP Chemistry in high school. Our teacher didn't come back after Christmas break. So we got the a retired PE teacher who would sub when needed. Before break, we were talking about the quantum-mechanical model of the atom. After break, we were talking about the Bohr model.


Yeah, didn't pass that particular AP test.

 

[Cyclone.TV]

Wait people still balance a checkbook?

 

[EnhancedFujita]

American History. We spent a lot of time on colonialism up to the civil war, then spent like 2 weeks rushing through reconstruction, ww1, great depression, and a little bit of ww2. Never even got into post ww2, JFK assassination, space race or any of that.

 

[KnappShack]

Wait people still balance a checkbook?

What's a checkbook?

 

[Sighclone Fan]

How to manage money and simple investing principles.

 

[urb1]

Our family moved in third grade hallway through the year. The class I left was going to teach state capitals in the spring. The class where I ended up had already taught state capitals in the fall. I never learned state capitals.

I had no idea where Des Moines was when my dad told us we were moving there from the Detroit metro my freshman year in high school.

 

[MeanDean]

My two that I gave to Angie for the examples were:

You know how every school kid had to dissect a frog in Biology? We didn't do that. Not even a worm. I know I took Biology as a freshman but have no idea why we didn't do that.

The other is Shakespeare. I had 13 years of education prior to college and never read or studied a word of Shakespeare. Like others have experienced this could have been due to the fact I moved between Sophomore and Junior year. I suspect the school I moved from did Shakespeare Junior Year and the school I moved to must have covered it in Sophomore year.

When the topic is a category on Jeopardy I always groan a little bit inside. Not Opera or Poetry groan, but a groan.

 

[jcyclonee]

In third or forth grade, maybe both, we used to have writing class which basically consisted of us writing in cursive. Also, all reports we turned in for any subject needed to be written in cursive. To this day, my cursive writing is very neat but my printing sucks. A lot of good the cursive thing does me.

 

[MeanDean]

I don't remember specifically learning how to balance a checkbook. But I did learn addition and subtraction. That's pretty much all it is.

And no, I haven't balanced my check book for over 10 years or more.

 

[MeanDean]

In third or forth grade, maybe both, we used to have writing class which basically consisted of us writing in cursive. Also, all reports we turned in for any subject needed to be written in cursive. To this day, my cursive writing is very neat but my printing sucks. A lot of good the cursive thing does me.

Think of it as a secret language that your kids can't decipher. Waaay cool!

 

[JerseyGirl]

In 5th grade, NJ public schools were required to teach the original version of "modern math". (yes, I am that old, ahem!) I had a classmate that had emotional problems (rages, hitting, throwing desks) and at that time, kids were only given time outs in the hall way. So his outbursts then expanded to pulling alarms, etc. My math teacher had a nervous breakdown and the rest of the school year was a continuous rotation of subs or the principal to teach math and none of them knew the curriculum. I still have friends who ask me-didn't you learn that in elementary school? No!

 

[mj4cy]

The more I dive into history, the more I realized how much was not taught. For example, I never once heard Nikola Tesla's name ever uttered in school. Took me a long time to understand how significant his life's work was.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Personal finance was never taught to us, but I think it was assumed that our parents would instruct us in that.

I hated how history was taught. Dates and names, dates and names. The "why" was never taught. I hated history for that reason. I had to develop my current love of history much later in life when I took the time to appreciate the reasons behind everything.

 

[kevdiv48]

I moved a couple of times growing up and never ending up doing D.A.R.E.. (Is it still a thing?)

 

[WooBadger18]

In third or forth grade, maybe both, we used to have writing class which basically consisted of us writing in cursive. Also, all reports we turned in for any subject needed to be written in cursive. To this day, my cursive writing is very neat but my printing sucks. A lot of good the cursive thing does me.

So you know how teachers were always like, "when you're older you'll need to write in cursive so you need to learn how?" Being the gullible and innocent student that I was, I believed them. So now, with the exception of a few capital letters, I only write in cursive.

I also thought that cursive connected words not just letters in words, so for a few days in 3rd grade (edit: maybe 2nd grade?) my sentences were Aquickbrownfoxjumpsoverthelazydog

I moved a couple of times growing up and never ending up doing D.A.R.E.. (Is it still a thing?)

I don't think so because they found out it actually increased drug use among students, and my school didn't have it either

 

[jcyclonee]

The more I dive into history, the more I realized how much was not taught. For example, I never once heard Nikola Tesla's name ever uttered in school. Took me a long time to understand how significant his life's work was.

He's not that important. There were way better heavy metal bands in the 80's and 90's.

 

[oldman]

I went to school when a brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. Later it was discovered that it had the wrong head.

 

[jcyclonee]

I moved a couple of times growing up and never ending up doing D.A.R.E.. (Is it still a thing?)

We still have it in MN.