4 ms·
The author is spot on. School, as it exists, heavily rewards a certain type of learner. Intelligence is far less important than your ability to sit still, regu
by schwartzworld 6y ago
The author is spot on.
School, as it exists, heavily rewards a certain type of learner. Intelligence is far less important than your ability to sit still, regurgitate answers, and conform. If you're smart, but can't learn in that environment, you are out of luck.
I struggled throughout my entire career as a student. Some classes were too easy, some not interesting. I was a voracious reader, and could teach myself almost any subject, but sitting still and listening to lectures is not my forte. Neither is grinding at homework.
I spent a lot of my life thinking I was broken, until I eventually found myself a job where ability to self teach was more important than ability to sit still and conform.
I really hope that Covid would push the school system to adapt and change, introducing forms of asynchronous learning that really work well for people like me, but to push to go back to in-class learning doesn't leave me to believe that that will happen.
I do think the author misses one point though. He's right that if you don't go to work, your boss doesn't come and get you and make you go. If I stop going to work, nobody is going to come get me. But unless you are already rich, you probably have to figure out some way to make money. You may end up having choice in what that looks like, or you may not. Believe me when I tell you that I've had bosses who were way more abusive than any of the teachers described in the article.
There is something to be said for just learning to deal with it, especially given that the author is only like 3 years away from anybody caring what he does anymore.
- musicale 6y agoIndependent thinking, creativity, and self-directed learning are generally punished in school – until you reach graduate school, when they become superpowers! So, hang in there! ;-) [Not just grad school actually - really any creative project that you are in charge of yourself, from a research project to an app you are writing to a startup company to a play that you are directing or a book you are writing.]
- experilearning 6y agoWhat a shame that we condemn brilliant minds to two decades of meaningless grinding before we allow them to unleash their creativity.
- eyelidlessness 6y ago> Intelligence is far less important than your ability to sit still, regurgitate answers, and conform. If you're smart, but can't learn in that environment, you are out of luck. It has nothing or very little to do with intelligence. As a person who’s very intelligent and was underserved by school (with both recognized by my teachers and administrators), I saw a lot of people with loads of intelligence thrive. They, yes, had a better capacity to sit still and participate on the terms set for them. Not being able to do so isn’t a measure of intelligence, but it might be (like it has been for me) a sign of chemical imbalance and/or a conflict of values.