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One of my children is in 5th grade in a school that is well known for a rigorous education. She does well, probably the top student or at least one of the top i

by conorh 5y ago

One of my children is in 5th grade in a school that is well known for a rigorous education. She does well, probably the top student or at least one of the top in her year, but I find that her lack of understanding of what she is studying is a bit worrying. She learns the material well for the tests but really has very little depth of knowledge, as the author describes for his daughter in this article. I sometimes ask her questions about what she is studying and if it is outside the narrow confines of what she needs to know she will not have thought about it - she doesn’t have time! I think the idea is to set down a base of knowledge that will then be there for the kids when they need go more in depth later, or at least I hope so. She really enjoys school and it is better for her than her previous school where she was very bored, but I’m not yet convinced of the long term benefits of this type of education.

culopatin 5y ago
That’s school all the way through bachelors. The emphasis of school is the deadline and the test score, not the application. Until that is turned around, no one is going to miss a deadline because they spent more time trying to get a deeper understanding of something. Personal story below: I failed my first round of Calc II because of trying to get a deeper understanding of something. The professor wrote the theory of limit on the board, talked about it for 1 minute and moved on. I went to the library and tried to teach myself theory of limit to get to the point of saying “ah yeah it’s true because X”. Well, the class moved on past me and I was still stuck in theory of limit, I was never able to catch up. This has been a big big problem for me. I was doing school wrong. My friends were able to just move on without understanding anything as long as they knew the mechanics to solve the test problems. I wanted to LEARN the content. I dropped out. This was not in the US, my classes were 4h long, no breaks and 200 people in the classroom at a much higher pace. I now go to school in the US and I hold a 4.0 GPA while working full time and I don’t think I’ve felt 1/100 of the stress I felt back then, the difference? Well I just submit what I need to at the deadline and be done. I only want the degree for the resume cred and my job pays for it. Masters are different though, at least the ones that require research. I see it through helping my girlfriend in MoCell Bio

by conorh 5y ago

culopatin 5y ago

That’s school all the way through bachelors. The emphasis of school is the deadline and the test score, not the application. Until that is turned around, no one is going to miss a deadline because they spent more time trying to get a deeper understanding of something. Personal story below: I failed my first round of Calc II because of trying to get a deeper understanding of something. The professor wrote the theory of limit on the board, talked about it for 1 minute and moved on. I went to the library and tried to teach myself theory of limit to get to the point of saying “ah yeah it’s true because X”. Well, the class moved on past me and I was still stuck in theory of limit, I was never able to catch up. This has been a big big problem for me. I was doing school wrong. My friends were able to just move on without understanding anything as long as they knew the mechanics to solve the test problems. I wanted to LEARN the content. I dropped out. This was not in the US, my classes were 4h long, no breaks and 200 people in the classroom at a much higher pace. I now go to school in the US and I hold a 4.0 GPA while working full time and I don’t think I’ve felt 1/100 of the stress I felt back then, the difference? Well I just submit what I need to at the deadline and be done. I only want the degree for the resume cred and my job pays for it. Masters are different though, at least the ones that require research. I see it through helping my girlfriend in MoCell Bio