do kids learn anything in school??

i used to think a basic knowledge of Geography was vital to one's understanding of the world. apparently i was wrong. i mean, geography isn't like mathematics or anything. it just takes a little memorization. here's an article from CNN today.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/05/02/geog.test/index.html


"Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill."

The most important thing you will learn in school is how to learn.
Beyond that lies the level at which you able to communicate and interact with others. You certainly don't have to learn all that silly stuff, but be prepared to look like an idiot when everyone else around you is chatting about trivial stuff like vacation islands, business opportunities and just life in general.
Geography is the one subject I wish I had paid more attention to, well, that and history.
Suck it all in while your young mind is still free enough to enjoy it.

Most of my learning came from reading books in the library. None of them had even been used. I also use to read the encyclopedia on cd and later folks got a copy of them in hard bound format at food lion with their groceries and I read them cover to cover.

I've learned WAY more online and from talking to intresting people then in school. However I will state I've learned lots of math from school, and I dont think I could have (would have..) done that outside of it. All the other subjects can really be learned from reading a textbook, if you have to desire to do so.

i hated school so much what place i hated only good thing about school is they gave me breakfast and lunch .back then i lived with real mom and she didnt have food to much so i sure liked to get them meals

I hated eating around the others, so I ducked into the library to read and ate while in the bathroom.

I learned a lot too in shop class, but the books may of caused a delay in my people skills. Back then I was treated like I was lazy and had aids, now I am disabled or was disabled.

School isn't the same for everyone. For many people and for many reasons, schools can be just a waste of someone's most productive years. I never learned anything from school, even though they were somewhat more competent then.

Today schools have evolved way beyond education. Today's schools are tasked with replacing the nuclear family, which has, for the most part, disintegrated. Today's schools attempt to replace the nuclear family's male role models with psychotropic drugs. Some parents who have resisted their school's attempts to drug their children into submission have been threatened with charges of child abuse. Today's schools must start at age three with preschool so that all adults, both male and female, may be members of the work force and pay taxes. That is what schools are about. They are instruments of social change and they are the babysitters for the children of taxpayers.

Today's schools take possession of children earlier and earlier in their lives and when they are done their students know less for all of those years than any who have gone before them. The results are there for anyone to study.

Schools operate completely opposite of the real world:

• In school you learn your lesson and then you take your test.
• In the real world you take your test and then you learn your lesson.

YMMV

if things keep going the way they are, the only thing you'll learn in school is how to take standarized tests; creativity, critical thinking, and free exploration of ideas are not encouraged enough, IMO.

I think I am haveing a "blue day" so I do not have to answer this question it might mess up my self esteem.
Oh you got to pass me to the next grade anyway.
Topper

school will always suck to they learn to teach us who dont think like others

OOPS Double tap.

My daughter in third grade is learning algebra concepts. They can actually do simple algebra problems (3x+4=15 type stuff). There's a lot of abstract thought in there but the concept of balancing both sides of an equations (like in chemistry) is hammered home. There's emphasis on critical thinking skills. Hopefully, this kind of teaching keeps up through the secondary education system but I doubt it. K-6 gets a lot of focus but 7-12 tends to lag behind. So yes, they do teach things in school if you're in a good system.

I think school is all about networking and socializing. If you are different, you really loose out.

When I did those yearly tests I always scored high, but performed poorly in school I was always also put in the classes with the misfits. I was also critized for being an underachiever.

Whats funny is that I tranferred to another school mid year and was put in with the smart kids. I was learning algebra in 6th grade. Next semester I was back with the loosers, the ones who talk over the teacher and threaten to drive off as they already had their license in the 7th grade. Many ended up in jail or suspended. Some lived in in school suspension.

We were expemted from all field trips for fear of the behavior of the students and many classes were just us talking or sleeping while busy work was assigned. You know, that was graded an F if you did not turn it in, nothing if you did.

I have to say I like college way better and its the way I thought school should be. I did come across a few difficult professors, both from a lecture standpoint and working with my disability, but for the most part it was great.

School is not all about networking and socializing. It should be about teaching kids to be independent. I don't mean independent as in "leave the house and fend for yourself". Rather, it should teach them how to teach themselves. It's about being resourceful. College is like that. I remember kids I graduated with in high school that went to the same university and they were at the top of their class in high school. What they were really good at was rote skills. Memorize the right stuff and pass the test. At the university level, that does not cut it. It's about solving problems and being able to think independently. They throw material at you and it's up to you to figure it out. Professors and TA's are not into spoon feeding. Sink or swim. Just like real life. You can't depend on social skills and networking to be successful. You've got to be a critical thinker.

College is not for everyone.

JM-99

Well, I learned Calculus II and Linear Algebra... and I think I learned how to spell, too. Maybe even a little grammar.

I've always been really puzzled by reports of kids not learning in school or not knowing their head from their rear end, and even not knowing things like the Earth revolving around the Sun. Where the heck are people *not* learning? I've never met anyone so unenlightened.

But four years ago, I couldn't tell you where Iraq was, except that it would be somewhere near India. :shrug:

And as my science teacher used to say, I might be dumb but I sure ain't stupid.