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Have you never had the experience of only really getting a deep understanding of something that you are learning, when you take the time to try and teach it to

Have you never had the experience of only really getting a deep understanding of something that you are learning, when you take the time to try and teach it to someone else?

matte_black 9y ago
I’m talking about the experience where you are trying to learn but other kids are distracting you with hyperactive nonsense or disruptive behavior.
- OrganicMSG 9y ago
  Streaming by ability wouldn't solve that. To illustrate why, I am reminded of a quote by Stephen Hawking; “The prevailing attitude at Oxford at that time was very anti-work. You were supposed to either be brilliant without effort or accept your limitations and get a fourth-class degree. To work hard to get a better class of degree was the mark of a ‘grey man’, the worst epithet in the Oxford vocabulary.” You could stream by behavioural attributes to achieve that if you wanted, but then you would have to accept that the classes would be very wide in ability, unless you stream by both behaviour and ability and then end up with a massive logistical nightmare.
  - matte_black 9y ago
    It’s not a nightmare, kids that don’t behave can be kicked out of a school to one with less strict standards. Then, simply have every school stream their children based on intelligence.
    - OrganicMSG 9y ago
      My local high-school was also the wider area's sink-school that kids got expelled into from other schools, though there wasn't any way of particularly escaping, should you just happen to be going there anyway. Anyway, the transport arrangements for some of the kids was a nightmare. edit - also, from my observation, concentrating all the nutters under one roof does not really help, if your aim is educational. It just takes a lot of little problems across a lot of schools and turns them into one big unmanageable problem that can be politely ignored.
      - matte_black 9y ago
        Education is not a team sport. If kids want to be nutters that’s their problem, not the responsibility of well behaved kids to reform them by proximity.
        OrganicMSG 9y ago
        No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. ---- John Donne - Devotions upon Emergent Occasions - Excerpt from Meditation 17
  - j4mes_w 9y ago
    This is very apropos, OrganicMSG. Stephen Hawking recently passed away, in case you missed it. I'm sure you didn't, given your obvious respect for him. How fitting that quote about the culture at an elite university is in a discussion of elementary and high school children. I too remember the flush of embarrassment when my 8-year-old peers thought I was "trying". Stepehen Hawking really was wise beyond his ears.

Have you never had the experience of only really getting a deep understanding of something that you are learning, when you take the time to try and teach it to someone else?

matte_black 9y ago

I’m talking about the experience where you are trying to learn but other kids are distracting you with hyperactive nonsense or disruptive behavior.

OrganicMSG 9y ago
Streaming by ability wouldn't solve that. To illustrate why, I am reminded of a quote by Stephen Hawking; “The prevailing attitude at Oxford at that time was very anti-work. You were supposed to either be brilliant without effort or accept your limitations and get a fourth-class degree. To work hard to get a better class of degree was the mark of a ‘grey man’, the worst epithet in the Oxford vocabulary.” You could stream by behavioural attributes to achieve that if you wanted, but then you would have to accept that the classes would be very wide in ability, unless you stream by both behaviour and ability and then end up with a massive logistical nightmare.
- matte_black 9y ago
  It’s not a nightmare, kids that don’t behave can be kicked out of a school to one with less strict standards. Then, simply have every school stream their children based on intelligence.
  - OrganicMSG 9y ago
    My local high-school was also the wider area's sink-school that kids got expelled into from other schools, though there wasn't any way of particularly escaping, should you just happen to be going there anyway. Anyway, the transport arrangements for some of the kids was a nightmare. edit - also, from my observation, concentrating all the nutters under one roof does not really help, if your aim is educational. It just takes a lot of little problems across a lot of schools and turns them into one big unmanageable problem that can be politely ignored.
    - matte_black 9y ago
      Education is not a team sport. If kids want to be nutters that’s their problem, not the responsibility of well behaved kids to reform them by proximity.
      - OrganicMSG 9y ago
        No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. ---- John Donne - Devotions upon Emergent Occasions - Excerpt from Meditation 17
- j4mes_w 9y ago
  This is very apropos, OrganicMSG. Stephen Hawking recently passed away, in case you missed it. I'm sure you didn't, given your obvious respect for him. How fitting that quote about the culture at an elite university is in a discussion of elementary and high school children. I too remember the flush of embarrassment when my 8-year-old peers thought I was "trying". Stepehen Hawking really was wise beyond his ears.