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You're missing one crucial thing: interest. Being interested and getting enjoyment out of learning is crucial. E.g. there are people who are good at math, but

by zerr 9y ago

You're missing one crucial thing: interest. Being interested and getting enjoyment out of learning is crucial. E.g. there are people who are good at math, but terrible at humanities subjects, or vice versa.

Larrikin 9y ago
Highly specialized interest classes are for graduate school, after you've shown an ability to take in information from a variety of domains.
- timthorn 9y ago
  That's not the university model everywhere. In the UK, for instance, deep specialisms start at 16, and university undergrad courses all focus on your area of interest or directly relevant subjects.
- DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
  That’s a very callous attitude, and an incorrect one, I believe. Not everyone has the same ability to learn about different subjects equally - even amongst groups with the same intellignece levels. It sounds like you’re arguing that one’s entire future career, even in post-secondary and undergraduate level, is decided entirely by their grade-average across all their subjects. This will disqualify many talented individuals from studying (and consequently working in) areas that strongly interest them simply for having an inability to adequately perform in completely unrelated areas. How is that a meritocracy? Take myself, for example: I have ASD, I have “special interests” and my brain is incredibly stubborn and demotivated to do anything outside certain narrow interest areas. I did exceptionally well in my UK A-Level electives (maths/physics/compsci, etc, getting mostly top grades) compared to my GCSEs that we’re far more broader (English Lit, Biology, Chemistry, Theology, etc) where I got mostly B-grades. After getting my degree I landed a job at a high-profile software company in the US, launching me into a career and a very high tax bracket. Hopefully this means my net societal impact is positive. But under your proposal, my hardwired unwillingness to memorise Shakespeare and compare Dickens with Steinbeck should condemn me to never entering academia to study what I enjoy.
  - threatofrain 9y ago
    But in general, professionals, including those who would study autism, would believe that acutely uneven school performance is the suspicious and peculiar phenomena, as opposed to general all-around performance. Rather, children who do well in school do well across subjects, and children who do mediocre in school do mediocre across subjects, and children who do poorly do poorly all around.
userbinator 9y ago
I suppose your reply comes from the fact that I missed saying I wasn't teaching in grade school --- I was teaching CS courses to paying students, so presumably they have some interest in learning; yet the amount of "I didn't bother trying to learn anything, but please let me pass" was still incredibly high.

by zerr 9y ago

Larrikin 9y ago

Highly specialized interest classes are for graduate school, after you've shown an ability to take in information from a variety of domains.

timthorn 9y ago
That's not the university model everywhere. In the UK, for instance, deep specialisms start at 16, and university undergrad courses all focus on your area of interest or directly relevant subjects.
DaiPlusPlus 9y ago
That’s a very callous attitude, and an incorrect one, I believe. Not everyone has the same ability to learn about different subjects equally - even amongst groups with the same intellignece levels. It sounds like you’re arguing that one’s entire future career, even in post-secondary and undergraduate level, is decided entirely by their grade-average across all their subjects. This will disqualify many talented individuals from studying (and consequently working in) areas that strongly interest them simply for having an inability to adequately perform in completely unrelated areas. How is that a meritocracy? Take myself, for example: I have ASD, I have “special interests” and my brain is incredibly stubborn and demotivated to do anything outside certain narrow interest areas. I did exceptionally well in my UK A-Level electives (maths/physics/compsci, etc, getting mostly top grades) compared to my GCSEs that we’re far more broader (English Lit, Biology, Chemistry, Theology, etc) where I got mostly B-grades. After getting my degree I landed a job at a high-profile software company in the US, launching me into a career and a very high tax bracket. Hopefully this means my net societal impact is positive. But under your proposal, my hardwired unwillingness to memorise Shakespeare and compare Dickens with Steinbeck should condemn me to never entering academia to study what I enjoy.
- threatofrain 9y ago
  But in general, professionals, including those who would study autism, would believe that acutely uneven school performance is the suspicious and peculiar phenomena, as opposed to general all-around performance. Rather, children who do well in school do well across subjects, and children who do mediocre in school do mediocre across subjects, and children who do poorly do poorly all around.

userbinator 9y ago

I suppose your reply comes from the fact that I missed saying I wasn't teaching in grade school --- I was teaching CS courses to paying students, so presumably they have some interest in learning; yet the amount of "I didn't bother trying to learn anything, but please let me pass" was still incredibly high.