5 ms·

The fine arts are great, after you've put food on the table and a roof over your head. Most people are much happier to have stable employment than esoteric know

by B-Con 8y ago

The fine arts are great, after you've put food on the table and a roof over your head. Most people are much happier to have stable employment than esoteric knowledge. The economy and society are better for it too. School's primary purpose is to prepare people to be functioning members of society.

Jtsummers 8y ago
Define "functioning"? I can prepare almost anyone to be a functioning member of society so long as you don't want them to be capable of thought or creativity. They won't be a functioning member (or a well-functioning member) of a society ruled by a democratic system of government, though.
holy_city 8y ago
It's sad that people equate employment to being "functioning members of society." Your job is just one thing you do in society. Education is about teaching children how to think, communicate, and act as much as giving them specific tools for future careers. Never mind the plethora of studies that have found links between arts education and performance in other educational/vocational areas. It's hardly esoteric.
- laretluval 8y ago
  Correlation or causation?
- jesssse 8y ago
  I agree, never mind those studies. Art is masturbatory. Learn a trade.
- dwild 8y ago
  > Education is about teaching children how to think, communicate, and act CS is incredible to teach how to think. Algorithms, using logic to solve problems, decomposing a problem, etc... Theses are all skills that make you think, that push you to UNDERSTANDS better. Personally I never seen my college classes as nothing else than learning to learn, because that's computer science. More often than not, the lack of information given by the teacher wasn't a proof of incompetence but a way to test our capacity to search and discover by our self. Sure I learned a bit in my french classes, sure I learned a bit in my history classes, but I never ever learned to think in any of theses classes except CS. I only learned to apply theses skills.
- saghm 8y ago
  > Never mind the plethora of studies that have found links between arts education and performance in other educational/vocational areas. It seems at least possible that this might be due to schools that are better funded tend to offer more arts education, and the better funding would also presumably increase the quality of the education in other areas. Without seeing the studies, it seems hard to conclude that the arts education is the cause of the better performance in other areas.
sushisushisushi 8y ago
History, language, civics, etc. are not esoteric. They have been considered fundamental to basic education for centuries. They're also pretty necessary if you want to have a functioning democracy.
nategri 8y ago
> School's primary purpose is to prepare people to be functioning members of society. read: "productive economic units."
Lasokki 8y ago
At least here in Finland high school (or more precisely, upper secondary school) is regarded to provide students with "general knowledge" and a least exposure to various different fields of study. How are you supposed to know what you want to do in life, if you do not know what possibilities there are?

by B-Con 8y ago

Jtsummers 8y ago

Define "functioning"? I can prepare almost anyone to be a functioning member of society so long as you don't want them to be capable of thought or creativity. They won't be a functioning member (or a well-functioning member) of a society ruled by a democratic system of government, though.

holy_city 8y ago

It's sad that people equate employment to being "functioning members of society." Your job is just one thing you do in society. Education is about teaching children how to think, communicate, and act as much as giving them specific tools for future careers. Never mind the plethora of studies that have found links between arts education and performance in other educational/vocational areas. It's hardly esoteric.

laretluval 8y ago
Correlation or causation?
jesssse 8y ago
I agree, never mind those studies. Art is masturbatory. Learn a trade.
dwild 8y ago
> Education is about teaching children how to think, communicate, and act CS is incredible to teach how to think. Algorithms, using logic to solve problems, decomposing a problem, etc... Theses are all skills that make you think, that push you to UNDERSTANDS better. Personally I never seen my college classes as nothing else than learning to learn, because that's computer science. More often than not, the lack of information given by the teacher wasn't a proof of incompetence but a way to test our capacity to search and discover by our self. Sure I learned a bit in my french classes, sure I learned a bit in my history classes, but I never ever learned to think in any of theses classes except CS. I only learned to apply theses skills.
saghm 8y ago
> Never mind the plethora of studies that have found links between arts education and performance in other educational/vocational areas. It seems at least possible that this might be due to schools that are better funded tend to offer more arts education, and the better funding would also presumably increase the quality of the education in other areas. Without seeing the studies, it seems hard to conclude that the arts education is the cause of the better performance in other areas.

sushisushisushi 8y ago

History, language, civics, etc. are not esoteric. They have been considered fundamental to basic education for centuries. They're also pretty necessary if you want to have a functioning democracy.

nategri 8y ago

> School's primary purpose is to prepare people to be functioning members of society. read: "productive economic units."

Lasokki 8y ago

At least here in Finland high school (or more precisely, upper secondary school) is regarded to provide students with "general knowledge" and a least exposure to various different fields of study. How are you supposed to know what you want to do in life, if you do not know what possibilities there are?