8 ms·

One has to wonder...does it really matter what you learn in school? Relative to who you meet, and what brand you get to slap on your resume at the end of the da

One has to wonder...does it really matter what you learn in school? Relative to who you meet, and what brand you get to slap on your resume at the end of the day? Do you remember anything you learned in AP Calc or APUSH all those years ago? I think it's important to learn how to think. But you can always do that in your 4 years at college, once you get into an ivy league, right? Who needs life skills when you can get a cushy job straight out of school and just pay others to cook, clean, drive, etc. for you? Isn't it every parent's dream that their child's life be better than their own?

conceit 11y ago
before you care about that question, you should ask yourself, "should it?." BTW: Am I doing this little american grammatical quirk with the punctuation within quotes right?
- mindcrime 11y ago
  Am I doing this little american grammatical quirk with the punctuation within quotes right? Well, since the question part is quoted, I believe the '?' should go inside the quotation marks in this case. But I think most Americans would put the period outside of the quotes, or leave it off altogether in that case. It's one of those things where I doubt anybody (other than an English teacher) actually knows the formal rule for sure. If there even is a rule. :-)
  - dj-wonk 11y ago
    http://djwonk.tumblr.com/post/29687578295/silly-punctuation-rules-in-english http://djwonk.tumblr.com/post/29687578295/silly-punctuation-...
  - CalRobert 11y ago
    If memory serves, style guides suggest putting the punctuation inside the quotation marks, even if the punctuation applies to the larger sentence. This, of course, is dumb if you think about it. print "What an absurd convention!;"
    - mindcrime 11y ago
      If memory serves, style guides suggest putting the punctuation inside the quotation marks, even if the punctuation applies to the larger sentence. Yeah, I've definitely seen that, but I've always thought of that as one of those controversial points where there's no real agreement. I feel like I remember this coming up on HN before and leading to quite a lot of discussion, although I might be mis-remembering.
      - CalRobert 11y ago
        I've ignored it my entire adult life and haven't been corrected on it. Similarly, my stepmother once insisted I was committing a grave error not using two spaces after a period, but ignoring her advice has been for the best.
- bpyne 11y ago
  Not quite. You need to capitalize the S and remove the period. We don't typically use double punctuation. Frankly, the whole phrasing of that statement would be very bizarre from an American's standpoint. We would typically say something along the lines of "Is the question worth caring about?" It's more concise and doesn't emulate an inner dialog. More to your larger point, the placement of punctuation within quotes, while grammatically correct, has the feel of leaving a sentence incomplete.
  - timthorn 11y ago
    But to a British ear, the phrasing of your sentence is good. It creates the link between the two questions, not suggesting that the original question is not of value, but placing a qualifier on it.
- kagamine 11y ago
  As a Brit: You should ask yourself, "should it?".
  - SixSigma 11y ago
    Or, as another Brit: You should ask yourself: "should it?"
    - kagamine 11y ago
      A colon?! A COLON?! Are you sure that should be there?
      - roymurdock 11y ago
        Personally, I would go with the em dash. You should ask yourself -- "Am I sure that colon should be there?".
        gardano 11y ago
        Should I ask myself, "Do I love this rabbit hole?"? Edit: The answer is YES.
- mattlutze 11y ago
  Depending on the style guide (punctuation in English is unfortunately not universal), all you need to do is drop the period. Give a few of these pages a read if you'd like to really get into it: From Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS style), "Q: This may be impossible": http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation.html http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Pu... From Modern Language Association (MLA style), https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/ From American Psychological Association (APA style), http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around...
coryrc 11y ago
I'm not sure if your post is sarcastic. Of course I remember what I learned in high school. Just had to waste time repeating orders that 90* is the proper offset so the slope is maximum on one sine wave when the slope is minimum on another. It'd be really great if they taught kids accounting, net present value calculations, how to clean themselves properly, avoid getting pregnant when desired, and so many other skills. Not everyone is lucky enough to have good parents.
- grogenaut 11y ago
  My catholic highschool taught me all of the above and prepped me well for college. Even taught me to question religion and a lot of other things. Point was "think for yourself, come to your own conclusions. Love God for real." I didn't get the last one, got the other two. They were totally fine with the result.
  - emp_zealoth 11y ago
    My catholic highschool vehemetly denied condoms work, scared everyone about anything contraceptive, lied and manipulated about a lot of various other things too. Point was "Listen to your betters, sheeple" It was a truly traumatic experience, considering it only reinforced my hate for self-proclaimed-"authority" Imagine how fun it is right now to live, surrounded by lying sacks of shit right and left (obviously not all,but disheartening amount) PS. Yes,I am angry. Very much so
notalaser 11y ago
> One has to wonder...does it really matter what you learn in school? When I'd just finished high school, I thought it was irrelevant. Now, many years afterwards, I can see the incredible influence it had over me and I can wholeheartedly say that it does, to an incredible extent. Virtually every single element of the foundation of my profession, views about and understanding of art, science and the human spirit in general have been touched by the interaction I had with my teachers, more often than not mediated by what they taught. I do not agree with everything I learned in school. Many of the things that I do agree with (because there is no objective disagreeing with e.g. Calculus) I now view in an entirely different light than that in which they were taught to me. I passionately hated (and still hate) the idea of schools -- either state institutions, or for-profit private entities -- having a monopoly over intellectual and often ethical concepts, so I went through school challenging it intensely. As for this though: > Do you remember anything you learned in AP Calc or APUSH all those years ago? Calculus is the mathematical foundation of virtually every engineering profession so yes, not only do I remember everything I was taught in AP Calc, I apply a lot of it every single day. I didn't go to high school in the US so I didn't go through APUSH, but History is one of the most important subjects that was ever taught to me. It is not a tool with which one is able to predict the future, but it is a large set of lenses through which one can look at the present and understand it.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- krinchan 11y ago
  I don't use Calculus every day, but the whole "stop thinking about specific Y-values and start thinking about how functions behave together and influence each other" is just invaluable in a world ruled by numbers that are in constant flux. To be honest though, I always thought that Linear Algebra would've been a much better AP class than Calculus. Sure Calculus naturally follows Trigonometry, but Linear Algebra has the same sort of "teaches these critical thinking skills" effect and, more importantly to me, was much more visual and easier to get excited about. Especially when our class started futzing about with OpenGL and particle fountains towards the end of the class.

conceit 11y ago

before you care about that question, you should ask yourself, "should it?." BTW: Am I doing this little american grammatical quirk with the punctuation within quotes right?

mindcrime 11y ago
Am I doing this little american grammatical quirk with the punctuation within quotes right? Well, since the question part is quoted, I believe the '?' should go inside the quotation marks in this case. But I think most Americans would put the period outside of the quotes, or leave it off altogether in that case. It's one of those things where I doubt anybody (other than an English teacher) actually knows the formal rule for sure. If there even is a rule. :-)
- dj-wonk 11y ago
  http://djwonk.tumblr.com/post/29687578295/silly-punctuation-rules-in-english http://djwonk.tumblr.com/post/29687578295/silly-punctuation-...
- CalRobert 11y ago
  If memory serves, style guides suggest putting the punctuation inside the quotation marks, even if the punctuation applies to the larger sentence. This, of course, is dumb if you think about it. print "What an absurd convention!;"
  - mindcrime 11y ago
    If memory serves, style guides suggest putting the punctuation inside the quotation marks, even if the punctuation applies to the larger sentence. Yeah, I've definitely seen that, but I've always thought of that as one of those controversial points where there's no real agreement. I feel like I remember this coming up on HN before and leading to quite a lot of discussion, although I might be mis-remembering.
    - CalRobert 11y ago
      I've ignored it my entire adult life and haven't been corrected on it. Similarly, my stepmother once insisted I was committing a grave error not using two spaces after a period, but ignoring her advice has been for the best.
bpyne 11y ago
Not quite. You need to capitalize the S and remove the period. We don't typically use double punctuation. Frankly, the whole phrasing of that statement would be very bizarre from an American's standpoint. We would typically say something along the lines of "Is the question worth caring about?" It's more concise and doesn't emulate an inner dialog. More to your larger point, the placement of punctuation within quotes, while grammatically correct, has the feel of leaving a sentence incomplete.
- timthorn 11y ago
  But to a British ear, the phrasing of your sentence is good. It creates the link between the two questions, not suggesting that the original question is not of value, but placing a qualifier on it.
kagamine 11y ago
As a Brit: You should ask yourself, "should it?".
- SixSigma 11y ago
  Or, as another Brit: You should ask yourself: "should it?"
  - kagamine 11y ago
    A colon?! A COLON?! Are you sure that should be there?
    - roymurdock 11y ago
      Personally, I would go with the em dash. You should ask yourself -- "Am I sure that colon should be there?".
      - gardano 11y ago
        Should I ask myself, "Do I love this rabbit hole?"? Edit: The answer is YES.
mattlutze 11y ago
Depending on the style guide (punctuation in English is unfortunately not universal), all you need to do is drop the period. Give a few of these pages a read if you'd like to really get into it: From Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS style), "Q: This may be impossible": http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation.html http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Pu... From Modern Language Association (MLA style), https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/ From American Psychological Association (APA style), http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around...

coryrc 11y ago

I'm not sure if your post is sarcastic. Of course I remember what I learned in high school. Just had to waste time repeating orders that 90* is the proper offset so the slope is maximum on one sine wave when the slope is minimum on another. It'd be really great if they taught kids accounting, net present value calculations, how to clean themselves properly, avoid getting pregnant when desired, and so many other skills. Not everyone is lucky enough to have good parents.

grogenaut 11y ago
My catholic highschool taught me all of the above and prepped me well for college. Even taught me to question religion and a lot of other things. Point was "think for yourself, come to your own conclusions. Love God for real." I didn't get the last one, got the other two. They were totally fine with the result.
- emp_zealoth 11y ago
  My catholic highschool vehemetly denied condoms work, scared everyone about anything contraceptive, lied and manipulated about a lot of various other things too. Point was "Listen to your betters, sheeple" It was a truly traumatic experience, considering it only reinforced my hate for self-proclaimed-"authority" Imagine how fun it is right now to live, surrounded by lying sacks of shit right and left (obviously not all,but disheartening amount) PS. Yes,I am angry. Very much so

notalaser 11y ago

> One has to wonder...does it really matter what you learn in school? When I'd just finished high school, I thought it was irrelevant. Now, many years afterwards, I can see the incredible influence it had over me and I can wholeheartedly say that it does, to an incredible extent. Virtually every single element of the foundation of my profession, views about and understanding of art, science and the human spirit in general have been touched by the interaction I had with my teachers, more often than not mediated by what they taught. I do not agree with everything I learned in school. Many of the things that I do agree with (because there is no objective disagreeing with e.g. Calculus) I now view in an entirely different light than that in which they were taught to me. I passionately hated (and still hate) the idea of schools -- either state institutions, or for-profit private entities -- having a monopoly over intellectual and often ethical concepts, so I went through school challenging it intensely. As for this though: > Do you remember anything you learned in AP Calc or APUSH all those years ago? Calculus is the mathematical foundation of virtually every engineering profession so yes, not only do I remember everything I was taught in AP Calc, I apply a lot of it every single day. I didn't go to high school in the US so I didn't go through APUSH, but History is one of the most important subjects that was ever taught to me. It is not a tool with which one is able to predict the future, but it is a large set of lenses through which one can look at the present and understand it.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
krinchan 11y ago
I don't use Calculus every day, but the whole "stop thinking about specific Y-values and start thinking about how functions behave together and influence each other" is just invaluable in a world ruled by numbers that are in constant flux. To be honest though, I always thought that Linear Algebra would've been a much better AP class than Calculus. Sure Calculus naturally follows Trigonometry, but Linear Algebra has the same sort of "teaches these critical thinking skills" effect and, more importantly to me, was much more visual and easier to get excited about. Especially when our class started futzing about with OpenGL and particle fountains towards the end of the class.