4 ms·

Just based on your post, you seem like a pretty competent writer. That's not a natural skill; a lot of people can't do it well. Do you think you would have lear

Just based on your post, you seem like a pretty competent writer. That's not a natural skill; a lot of people can't do it well. Do you think you would have learned that sitting at home? Like, maybe school wasn't perfect and access to a team of private tutors would have put you in a better place today. But I'd hazard a guess your school assignments were more useful than you think. Process, not product.

benignslime 3y ago
Absolutely. After pondering over this website myself for 20 minutes, I felt similarly to OP regarding the long slog through elementary and secondary schooling to finally feel like there was "progress". It's clear filtering by grades in the sheets, the tempo of the exercises is painfully slow. I remember as a kindergartner being able to produce and memorize multiplication tables after being taught the process. It took at least 3 to 4 more years until school ever began expect it. The thing is many of these concepts and ideas and facts _are_ simple and straightforward. In seventh grade I literally stopped doing my work altogether, and was offered by the teaching staff to move onward to eighth grade instead. I felt then that I still understand now, that forcing yourself through the paces is important too. If I skipped a grade who knows what little things I may have missed. It's like lifting weights, you're better off being gradual about your increases and pushing your rep counts -- instead of doing two reps of something you shouldn't even be attempting. The truth is any good teacher and school would be able to provide projects and exercises that would help apply the types of rote work the sheets present. Even if you only ever did the sheets on the site, it'd still take some kids the whole year to get through them. If teachers are creative enough, there should be enough flexibility to cater to both student types.
quacked 3y ago
Thank you for your compliment. To clarify, I'm not saying that it's possible to learn to write without writing a great deal. I certainly wouldn't have learned to write well without writing often. However, I didn't learn to write particularly well until I was out of college and had begun writing for myself. In school I was rarely interested in ensuring that what I was writing was interesting, well-phrased, or enjoyable to read. Those qualities simply weren't prioritized, which is weird, because those are the qualities by which writing is judged in "the real world". I certainly relied on basic writing practice I received in completion-based classes, but my claim isn't that I didn't learn anything useful in school, it's that the time I did spend in school was poorly allocated and resulted in an underdeveloped product. "If children started school at six months old and their teachers gave them walking lessons, within a single generation people would come to believe that humans couldn't learn to walk without going to school."
RationalDino 3y ago
Most people who go through school don't learn to become competent writers. This is shows that school does not teach people to be competent writers. So competent writers generally did not learn that skill in school. At best they learned some foundational skills. But the competent writers that I've known, often think that there were betters ways in which they could have learned those skills. I have sometimes been accused of writing competently. And so it should be no surprise that I agree with them. School was a terrible way for me to learn. And I credit most of my skills to things that I did outside of school. This goes doubly for homework assignments. As https://www.alfiekohn.org/homework-myth/ https://www.alfiekohn.org/homework-myth/ explains, research shows that homework is useless overall. It can help, or it can hurt. And on average it balances out to no net benefit. I have ADHD. This reduces the odds that homework helps and increases the odds that it hurts. Growing up, homework was a constant burden on my life. I would have been far better off if I'd been given less homework. Particularly homework which looks like a practice drill.

benignslime 3y ago

Absolutely. After pondering over this website myself for 20 minutes, I felt similarly to OP regarding the long slog through elementary and secondary schooling to finally feel like there was "progress". It's clear filtering by grades in the sheets, the tempo of the exercises is painfully slow. I remember as a kindergartner being able to produce and memorize multiplication tables after being taught the process. It took at least 3 to 4 more years until school ever began expect it. The thing is many of these concepts and ideas and facts _are_ simple and straightforward. In seventh grade I literally stopped doing my work altogether, and was offered by the teaching staff to move onward to eighth grade instead. I felt then that I still understand now, that forcing yourself through the paces is important too. If I skipped a grade who knows what little things I may have missed. It's like lifting weights, you're better off being gradual about your increases and pushing your rep counts -- instead of doing two reps of something you shouldn't even be attempting. The truth is any good teacher and school would be able to provide projects and exercises that would help apply the types of rote work the sheets present. Even if you only ever did the sheets on the site, it'd still take some kids the whole year to get through them. If teachers are creative enough, there should be enough flexibility to cater to both student types.

quacked 3y ago

Thank you for your compliment. To clarify, I'm not saying that it's possible to learn to write without writing a great deal. I certainly wouldn't have learned to write well without writing often. However, I didn't learn to write particularly well until I was out of college and had begun writing for myself. In school I was rarely interested in ensuring that what I was writing was interesting, well-phrased, or enjoyable to read. Those qualities simply weren't prioritized, which is weird, because those are the qualities by which writing is judged in "the real world". I certainly relied on basic writing practice I received in completion-based classes, but my claim isn't that I didn't learn anything useful in school, it's that the time I did spend in school was poorly allocated and resulted in an underdeveloped product. "If children started school at six months old and their teachers gave them walking lessons, within a single generation people would come to believe that humans couldn't learn to walk without going to school."

RationalDino 3y ago

Most people who go through school don't learn to become competent writers. This is shows that school does not teach people to be competent writers. So competent writers generally did not learn that skill in school. At best they learned some foundational skills. But the competent writers that I've known, often think that there were betters ways in which they could have learned those skills. I have sometimes been accused of writing competently. And so it should be no surprise that I agree with them. School was a terrible way for me to learn. And I credit most of my skills to things that I did outside of school. This goes doubly for homework assignments. As https://www.alfiekohn.org/homework-myth/ https://www.alfiekohn.org/homework-myth/ explains, research shows that homework is useless overall. It can help, or it can hurt. And on average it balances out to no net benefit. I have ADHD. This reduces the odds that homework helps and increases the odds that it hurts. Growing up, homework was a constant burden on my life. I would have been far better off if I'd been given less homework. Particularly homework which looks like a practice drill.