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My students are know nothings
- throwawaysleep 3y agoPhysics, chemistry, and biology are far greater gifts than the fictional tales and speeches from people long dead, if simply that something of use might be made from them.
- dennis_jeeves2 3y ago>Physics, chemistry, and biology The last I heard ( meaning it's hearsay) they were not well grounded in the practical aspects ( as opposed to theoretical) of these subjects either.
- danielschonfeld 3y agoThis has always been the problem with folks in all levels of education. They view the world with glasses looking backward applying them to the present and future. (A form of if all you have is a hammer) If yesteryear the rote learning curriculum was about knowing Who was X and what did Y do then they’ll expect that everybody coming in today should know that verbatim and convince you it’s in your future’s best interest to commit your memory to it too. Rarely does life work that way. More so in real (western) life, it’s all a game and you score high if you can find how to cheat the game or carve a niche for yourself. A society that punishes heavily for failure can’t expect that people would emerge well rounded. It can absolutely expect that people would be professional gamers.
- rini17 3y agoAuthor wants them to be able of an informed argument about things. And if it's cultural things these all came from history. Even in STEM fields history is equally as important as first principles.
- ragestorm 3y agoI agree, however, time is zero sum. In school, it's all a numbers game to A) pass and B) pass ahead of your peers. This is the similar to the work environment A) not get fired and B) appear better than your coworkers. So while in an ideal situation, students would be learning the context of a historical event, dive deeper in a topic, to create a better, more informed knowledge, what's the point? Does knowing more about Plato help with Java 101 by a statistically significant margin?
- rini17 3y agoThat is what colleges are supposed to? To churn Java coders?
- TheCoelacanth 3y agoAncient Greece and Guy Fawkes are the most important things for teenagers to learn about? Seems like a very limited view of what knowledge is important.
- ZeroGravitas 3y agoThis guy sounds like a bit of a grumpy old man, but apart from that, this appears to be an ad for his company's product: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Learning_Test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Learning_Test
- credit_guy 3y agoGreat finding. I didn't occur to me to question his motives. Maybe there's a lesson for me to learn here. I'm a know-nothing when it comes to these things.
- fred_is_fred 3y agoPerhaps knowing how Socrates died and who fought in the Peloponnesian war just isn't as important as this guy thinks it is anymore?
- MarkusWandel 3y agoIf they're superb test takers (his assessment) then they'd have all those answers if they had been drilled into them in the context of "traditional" high school history classes. But memorizing facts about ancient history doesn't teach critical thinking either.