8 ms·

Looking back at my education, Precalc and English were me 2 most useful classes. "Science" "engineering" and "history" were actually useless. If you were goin

by 2019ideas 8y ago

Looking back at my education, Precalc and English were me 2 most useful classes. "Science" "engineering" and "history" were actually useless. If you were going to get further education, college science eclipses HS science in 1 semester. My Engineering class was the most absurd, it wasn't engineering. History was basically propaganda. High school needs to end sooner. AP classes are the sign of this.

Verdex 8y ago
For a long time I have had the opinion that science classes are really history classes and not conducive to actually performing science, unless the students are really paying attention AND highly motivated. Here is a thing someone discovered at one point in time. Here is the conclusion. Now do this experiment. You didn't get the right answer? Do it again until you do. Or make up an answer that you think is right enough that you'll get credit. Sure, some people probably figure out what you're supposed to be learning, but I suspect most people just figure out that you should listen to authority and parrot what they expect you to say.
- hinkley 8y ago
  I was in the circle of friends that contained our high school valedictorian. She gave her real commencement speech in the lunch room, to us, because she wanted to say things fairly close to what you just did, and the school wasn't having it.
danbolt 8y ago
What do you feel made your history course propaganda? Looking back at my Canadian (BC) high school history curriculum, it was well-sourced and written, but I think it could have been structured in such a way to encourage youth to understand modern politics better.
- soperj 8y ago
  Where did you go to school? Mine (Victoria - Social Studies) was a joke. Literally the same Canadian history lessons over and over, they didn't even get into anything recent, nothing past the second world war.
  - danbolt 8y ago
    Victoria as well! I agree that the Canadian history post-1945 wasn’t emphasized enough; it should have been the center-focus. I had a good teacher in the eleventh grade that vocationally extended the curriculum to include things like economic and social issues, but they were a rare one. Honestly, if they spent as much time on The Quiet Revolution or Western Alienation as WWI, I think young British Columbians would be much better off.
    - soperj 8y ago
      I definitely don't blame my gr.11 teacher, he was an awesome, abet very strange dude. I don't know when you graded, but the curriculum that I had was bad. At least they could have gone into what the BNA acts meant.
    - stereographic 8y ago
      In Nova Scotia, surprisingly our Canadian History classes did focus mainly on post-1945 Canada in the later years of our education (Highschool). Pre-highschool Canadian history was extensively focused on pre-1945 events and pretty focused around Eastern/Acadian history
- dagw 8y ago
  The curriculum doesn't have to be a problem, if the teacher wants to bias the lesson. For example looking back at it my history teacher, whom on the whole was one of my favorite teachers, was super pro-Israel. However I didn't realize this until years later and as result I was probably in my mid 20s before I started to get even a slightly nuanced picture of the whole situation in the Middle East. Now there was nothing in the curriculum that said "Students must learn that Israel can do no wrong" it was just the way he chose to bias his presentation.
irrational 8y ago
The problem is, you have no idea what you will pursue after HS. I didn't have any interest in history in HS. I ended up getting a BA in history in college because I fell in love with it. I never would have guessed I'd end up there while in HS, but in retrospect I'm grateful for the history classes I had to take.
- dorchadas 8y ago
  Yep! I changed my major three (or was it four?) times, and my minor countless others. I wanted to learn it all, and, 5 years later still don't really know what I'm super interested in and want to do as a career (actually, I do, but I don't want to enter academia with its current model).
- wwweston 8y ago
  Which suggests that college is a better place to suss out an academic field you love or value than high school. (I take the point, though -- I briefly taught HS math and one of my responses to the perennial "when are we going to use this" question was "most of you have no idea all the things you'll need or want to do yet, and we want to open doors for you.")
- 2019ideas 8y ago
  > I didn't have any interest in history in HS. I blame your teachers.
  - wkearney99 8y ago
    Well, parents certainly come in ahead of teachers for failing to encourage interest in history. It's not just teachers that have to magically light the spark.
saalweachter 8y ago
My message to my younger self re: high school would be to ignore all of the "advanced"/"college-track" classes and take all of the shop, welding, automotive repair, and drafting classes. There's a host of skills I'd love to have now, don't have the time/energy to learn now, and could have acquired very easily in my rural high school, instead of taking a calculus class I'd already learned on my own the year before, because it was the highest-level math class offered and the one that all the "smart" people were taking.

Verdex 8y ago

For a long time I have had the opinion that science classes are really history classes and not conducive to actually performing science, unless the students are really paying attention AND highly motivated. Here is a thing someone discovered at one point in time. Here is the conclusion. Now do this experiment. You didn't get the right answer? Do it again until you do. Or make up an answer that you think is right enough that you'll get credit. Sure, some people probably figure out what you're supposed to be learning, but I suspect most people just figure out that you should listen to authority and parrot what they expect you to say.

hinkley 8y ago
I was in the circle of friends that contained our high school valedictorian. She gave her real commencement speech in the lunch room, to us, because she wanted to say things fairly close to what you just did, and the school wasn't having it.

danbolt 8y ago

What do you feel made your history course propaganda? Looking back at my Canadian (BC) high school history curriculum, it was well-sourced and written, but I think it could have been structured in such a way to encourage youth to understand modern politics better.

soperj 8y ago
Where did you go to school? Mine (Victoria - Social Studies) was a joke. Literally the same Canadian history lessons over and over, they didn't even get into anything recent, nothing past the second world war.
- danbolt 8y ago
  Victoria as well! I agree that the Canadian history post-1945 wasn’t emphasized enough; it should have been the center-focus. I had a good teacher in the eleventh grade that vocationally extended the curriculum to include things like economic and social issues, but they were a rare one. Honestly, if they spent as much time on The Quiet Revolution or Western Alienation as WWI, I think young British Columbians would be much better off.
  - soperj 8y ago
    I definitely don't blame my gr.11 teacher, he was an awesome, abet very strange dude. I don't know when you graded, but the curriculum that I had was bad. At least they could have gone into what the BNA acts meant.
  - stereographic 8y ago
    In Nova Scotia, surprisingly our Canadian History classes did focus mainly on post-1945 Canada in the later years of our education (Highschool). Pre-highschool Canadian history was extensively focused on pre-1945 events and pretty focused around Eastern/Acadian history
dagw 8y ago
The curriculum doesn't have to be a problem, if the teacher wants to bias the lesson. For example looking back at it my history teacher, whom on the whole was one of my favorite teachers, was super pro-Israel. However I didn't realize this until years later and as result I was probably in my mid 20s before I started to get even a slightly nuanced picture of the whole situation in the Middle East. Now there was nothing in the curriculum that said "Students must learn that Israel can do no wrong" it was just the way he chose to bias his presentation.

irrational 8y ago

The problem is, you have no idea what you will pursue after HS. I didn't have any interest in history in HS. I ended up getting a BA in history in college because I fell in love with it. I never would have guessed I'd end up there while in HS, but in retrospect I'm grateful for the history classes I had to take.

dorchadas 8y ago
Yep! I changed my major three (or was it four?) times, and my minor countless others. I wanted to learn it all, and, 5 years later still don't really know what I'm super interested in and want to do as a career (actually, I do, but I don't want to enter academia with its current model).
wwweston 8y ago
Which suggests that college is a better place to suss out an academic field you love or value than high school. (I take the point, though -- I briefly taught HS math and one of my responses to the perennial "when are we going to use this" question was "most of you have no idea all the things you'll need or want to do yet, and we want to open doors for you.")
2019ideas 8y ago
> I didn't have any interest in history in HS. I blame your teachers.
- wkearney99 8y ago
  Well, parents certainly come in ahead of teachers for failing to encourage interest in history. It's not just teachers that have to magically light the spark.

saalweachter 8y ago

My message to my younger self re: high school would be to ignore all of the "advanced"/"college-track" classes and take all of the shop, welding, automotive repair, and drafting classes. There's a host of skills I'd love to have now, don't have the time/energy to learn now, and could have acquired very easily in my rural high school, instead of taking a calculus class I'd already learned on my own the year before, because it was the highest-level math class offered and the one that all the "smart" people were taking.