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> Being smart and understanding the material are the important endpoints. This statement contains a serious misapprehension and requires revision. My grandfat

> Being smart and understanding the material are the important endpoints. This statement contains a serious misapprehension and requires revision. My grandfather would often say that "understanding" swimming won't help you when you're drowning. You need to be able to swim. You can't get to a point where you can swim through mathematics without solving a lot of math problems. You don't become good at something by stopping when you obtain superficial understanding. You become good through practice. I can go read a tutorial on Rust and "understand" the words on the page, and I may even be able to explain the borrow checker to you in my own words. But I won't be able to program in Rust until I spend a lot of time practicing it. The important endpoint is not what you can understand, but what you can do.

mcv 4y ago
Exactly. Being smart is not the end point, it's the starting point. Being able to apply it effectively is the end point.
toast0 4y ago
It's really hard to practice and develop study skills with material that the student is proficient in without effort. You can understand what study skills are, but not really apply them and experience them working. Study skills can be super important, and it's nicer to develop them early rather than just in time in your third year of undergrad, but access to challenging subjects at a challenging pace in high school or earlier is hard to come by for some. In some cases, there's a hoop jumping requirement to get more challenging work, and hoop jumping is an important life skill, so there's that; but sometimes, there's no way to get more challenging work in the school system.
- philipov 4y ago
  That is how the school system fails, but it does not justify the mistaken belief common to so many victims of talent that understanding and intellect are the end goal, rather than a starting point. It does not justify avoiding practice. In deciding how the school system should better serve its function, one must first have a proper apprehension of what that function is. It is harmful to believe this myth that "understanding the material" is the fulfillment of education. It does not identify the correct measure of success.
- digisign 4y ago
  If you're bored, move forward in the material on your own. I can't remember a school ever trying to stop me from starting the next chapter. Go far enough and you may be moved up a year.

mcv 4y ago

Exactly. Being smart is not the end point, it's the starting point. Being able to apply it effectively is the end point.

toast0 4y ago

It's really hard to practice and develop study skills with material that the student is proficient in without effort. You can understand what study skills are, but not really apply them and experience them working. Study skills can be super important, and it's nicer to develop them early rather than just in time in your third year of undergrad, but access to challenging subjects at a challenging pace in high school or earlier is hard to come by for some. In some cases, there's a hoop jumping requirement to get more challenging work, and hoop jumping is an important life skill, so there's that; but sometimes, there's no way to get more challenging work in the school system.

philipov 4y ago
That is how the school system fails, but it does not justify the mistaken belief common to so many victims of talent that understanding and intellect are the end goal, rather than a starting point. It does not justify avoiding practice. In deciding how the school system should better serve its function, one must first have a proper apprehension of what that function is. It is harmful to believe this myth that "understanding the material" is the fulfillment of education. It does not identify the correct measure of success.
digisign 4y ago
If you're bored, move forward in the material on your own. I can't remember a school ever trying to stop me from starting the next chapter. Go far enough and you may be moved up a year.