22 ms·

My teacher in seventh grade was a tenured paranoid schizophrenic who had it in for me as soon as I corrected her on the first day of class. This was combined wi

My teacher in seventh grade was a tenured paranoid schizophrenic who had it in for me as soon as I corrected her on the first day of class. This was combined with an altogether toxic social environment. For me, school seems pointless -- a failed exercise in education cited within in a social disaster zone. I'm glad I got out. But the general inefficiency of the educational process has spread as memes to most corners of western society, so I am never truly away.

vecter 16y ago
Can you describe toxic? I'm not trying to be a jerk, just genuinely curious. I remember social life in junior high and high school as being pretty stressful, and there were bullies (a handful I suppose), but I wouldn't describe it as toxic. I wasn't particularly popular or unpopular, just kind of did my thing with some like-minded friends. Kept to my academic clubs, played some sports here or there. It sounds like the social aspect was what really killed it for you, not necessarily the education you got.
- thaumaturgy 16y ago
  You asked this 3 days ago, so probably you'll never see my reply. But: I read, and understood most of, Cosmos while I was in elementary school. For me, the educational process of school certainly was toxic. I can see that it works for plenty of other people, but for many -- some like me -- it is extremely adversarial. It took me years after graduation to relearn learning, and re-discover focused curiosity, and to recall again how to intelligently consider the accepted notions that many other people have. To be more specific, public schools lack (among other things) any focus at all on critical thinking and problem-solving. There are simply not classes for those at most schools. At best, a few teachers try to work them in to their class here and there, but it's not taught the way that, say, mathematics is. Science classrooms are another specific example: they tend to concentrate on printed material and multimedia, and the few "experiments" that students do are little more than facades for re-confirming whatever thing is being taught that week. There is very little there to teach investigation, or to drive intellectual curiosity. I say this as someone that was fortunate enough to attend some of the best schools in the Bay Area at the time; I imagine that my experiences, mediocre and toxic as they were, were still quite a bit better than what the vast majority of students are exposed to. This is not to say that I didn't have some brilliant and dedicated teachers, however. I remember several of them quite fondly, all the time.

vecter 16y ago

Can you describe toxic? I'm not trying to be a jerk, just genuinely curious. I remember social life in junior high and high school as being pretty stressful, and there were bullies (a handful I suppose), but I wouldn't describe it as toxic. I wasn't particularly popular or unpopular, just kind of did my thing with some like-minded friends. Kept to my academic clubs, played some sports here or there. It sounds like the social aspect was what really killed it for you, not necessarily the education you got.

thaumaturgy 16y ago
You asked this 3 days ago, so probably you'll never see my reply. But: I read, and understood most of, Cosmos while I was in elementary school. For me, the educational process of school certainly was toxic. I can see that it works for plenty of other people, but for many -- some like me -- it is extremely adversarial. It took me years after graduation to relearn learning, and re-discover focused curiosity, and to recall again how to intelligently consider the accepted notions that many other people have. To be more specific, public schools lack (among other things) any focus at all on critical thinking and problem-solving. There are simply not classes for those at most schools. At best, a few teachers try to work them in to their class here and there, but it's not taught the way that, say, mathematics is. Science classrooms are another specific example: they tend to concentrate on printed material and multimedia, and the few "experiments" that students do are little more than facades for re-confirming whatever thing is being taught that week. There is very little there to teach investigation, or to drive intellectual curiosity. I say this as someone that was fortunate enough to attend some of the best schools in the Bay Area at the time; I imagine that my experiences, mediocre and toxic as they were, were still quite a bit better than what the vast majority of students are exposed to. This is not to say that I didn't have some brilliant and dedicated teachers, however. I remember several of them quite fondly, all the time.