Interesting thought: I've never understood the importance of having children memorize

ledmitter_nli

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"I've never understood the importance of having children memorize battle dates. It seems like such a waste of mental energy.

Instead, we could teach them important subjects such as How the Mind Works, How to Handle Finances, How to Invest Money for Financial Security, How to be a Parent, How to Create Good Relationships, and How to Create and Maintain Self-Esteem and Self-Worth.

Can you imagine what a whole generation of adults would be like if they had been taught these subjects in school along with their regular curriculum?"
- Louise Hay





Thoughts?
 

Norm

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George Santayana

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

Norm
 

jtr1962

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I agree here. Schools need to teach children to think. I always hated subjects which required memorizing tons of meaningless facts. My rationale was, you can just look these facts up, so why waste time and brain capacity memorizing them? It's gotten even worse than when I was young with the trends of standardized testing and teaching to the test. I sometimes wonder if we purposely do this because we just don't want large portions of the population to think independently, but rather just do what they're told. Maybe that's why there's so much advertising. It doesn't work with people like me, but if you've never learned to think I'm sure it might. Now more than ever we need to start putting out a society of thinkers. The time is approaching fast when robots will do all the grunt work and people's time will mostly be their own. If we keep teaching children just to be good employees and consumers, they will be bored and miserable in a world like that.
 

orbital

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Big +1 for jtr1962


Mindnumbing memorization does zero for problem solving or troubleshooting.
(what's the term "book smart ,, street _____")

We also need video cameras in classrooms for staying on task & accountability sake >>>> YEP!!!!
This is not a privacy issue, it's an investment.
 
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idleprocess

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I believe that the United States needs to rebuild its educational system from the ground up. One should not need a bachelor's - or even a master's - degree to find entry-level work in either the public or private sector. I think we should arrange things so that you have a foundation of practical skills such as the classic Three R's, critical-thinking, the more useful bits of the liberal-arts core that high schools still dish out, and some relevant vocational skills (ie how to read a schematic, how to perform some basic Excel calculations, how to communicate effectively, how to operate an electric drill) - such that you are employable in entry-level work. It takes some time and experience for young adults to figure out what they want to do with their careers, so let secondary education wait until it becomes both personally and professionally relevant before committing the time money and effort to it.

The primary education system should not stand still either. Its vocational skills should be updated regularly so they remain relevant to what the public and private sectors are demanding.

Of course, this sort of change will be inconvenient to the massive secondary education industry in the US, which is one of the larger sources of debt behind mortgages and cars. Sadly, the industry can't explain why its costs have risen so dramatically while the benefits it offer have simultaneously shrunk alarmingly. It needs primary education to continue to be marginal "college prep" in order to keep peddling the dream of a better life.

Perhaps the secondary education system needs to be pulled into this initiative - some of what I'm describing is offered by community/junior colleges to high school students in exceptional cases... these should be more the norm. As a transitional period, we should allow students that are bored out of their skulls and being effectively held back by the slow plodding pace of primary education to enter secondary education at an early age as a matter of course.

George Santayana

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

Norm
Indeed - but rote memorization is pretty useless if you don't understand some of the Big Ideas at play when significant events occurred... and with the mere presentation of these Big Ideas becoming increasingly controversial, they're often omitted or slanted in favor of those interested enough to apply pressure on local educators.
 
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inetdog

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George Santayana

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

Norm
'Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.'
"...But those who study the past and learn from it are merely doomed."
-- unknown comic
 

Norm

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Posts containing political commentary have been deleted - Norm
 
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