Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
there's alot in this topic---i think things will occur to me as time passes that i don't think of now---but for the moment:
from what i've seen teaching in universities, the main thing that high school teaches that's a real problem is intellectual passivity. there's way way too much emphasis on very concrete problem solving and nowhere near enough on encouraging kids to think their way through problems. more generally, kids coming out of high school seem in general to have a very difficult time thinking for themselves, taking intellectual chances, etc.. i've thought for a long time that high school kids should be taught philosophy, should have more seminar-style classes, etc..
the other thing i think would be a very good idea is to institute a year or two between high school and college. maybe a national service thing---maybe something international--but it seems to me that having some kind of break from school in the context of which kids can explore what they're interested in, who they might be turning into, to figure out a bit better what they want to do would have a huge impact on the quality of university education for them.
thinking about this...good thread.
|
Yeah pretty much agree. The problem with North America's education system is that students are measured by how well their grades are which quite frankly is putting the cart before the horse.
As long as memorization and regurgitation are used as teaching techniques, something that satisfies strictly short term retention, nothing will change.
Students from early grades should be taught how to think first and then take that skill and think how to learn. But that will require a new curriculum, more adept teachers who genuinely give a shit, creativity, more topics to study, etc.
Unfortunately nothing will change. And people wonder why so many hate their jobs and their lives as adults. Maybe because they weren't given a chance to think and experience something that they may have liked to pursue but couldn't, because it wasn't part of the same old, same old curriculum.