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Historically many, many children have sat still at school and behaved themselves. That doesn't mean that others should be stigmatized, but it's not like this i
by pekk 13y ago
Historically many, many children have sat still at school and behaved themselves.
That doesn't mean that others should be stigmatized, but it's not like this is impossible and unprecedented.
- pessimizer 13y agoAlso historically, many, many children have been thrown out of school or deemed ineducable because they couldn't sit still in school and behave themselves.
- derleth 13y agoOr they never went to school in the first place. Similarly, the average high schooler was better back then because the average person stopped their education at the eighth grade, if not sooner. (Note to non-Americans: In the US, high school runs from ninth to twelfth grade, usually named freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years.)
- learc83 13y agoFirst, historically mass education of the type we now employ is only about a century old, and designed to produce factory workers not to promote creativity. Learning to handle monotonous boredom and obey orders was of primary importance to a factory worker. Second, much of this is unprecedented. When my parents were children, they didn't attend Kindergarten, and first grade was a half day. When my parents younger siblings were children, Kindergarten was a half day. When I was a child, I didn't attend preschool. In 3 generations we've added more than 2 years of education for every child, and that education is qualitatively quite different, even from what I experienced (Kindergarten 23 years ago) When I was in kindergarten the majority of the day was playtime, we had 30 minutes of recess, 45 minutes of mostly freeform PE, 30 minutes of naptime, and a few hours of structured playtime (drawing, making crafts etc...). From friends of mine who are teachers, since no child left behind, all of that has been removed or severely restricted. Recess is now 15 minutes, PE is more structured and not every day, no more naptime, and they don't have time for freeform activities because the curriculum is so dense. In Kindergarten we spent almost the whole year learning the Alphabet. Now the curriculum assumes that children already know it. Teachers know this doesn't work, but schools are obsessed with testing and metrics to the determinant of real education.
- cafard 13y ago"First, historically mass education of the type we now employ is only about a century old, and designed to produce factory workers..." Or else until about 100 years ago there was no economic benefit to educating the great mass of humanity, and industrialization created a type of work for which literacy and numeracy helped. "Learning to handle monotonous boredom and obey orders was of primary importance to a factory worker." The education of the children--sons, mostly--of the well off always involved a lot of monotonous boredom. Orders were enforced with a stick. But indeed kindergarten was a half day in my day. The extension of schooling to younger ages is at least partly a result of the need for day care, with more and more mothers in the work force. "Teachers know this doesn't work, but schools are obsessed with testing and metrics to the determinant of real education." Quite so.
- selimthegrim 13y ago
- webwanderings 13y agoBecause most likely those schools were in the business of producing zombies, or scared shitless kids due to teacher's punishment techniques. Those days are gone for good unless you are in the third world countries.
- icebraining 13y agoThey used to behave here 30-40 years ago as well. Getting your hands beaten with a wooden ruler is a hell of an incentive.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y agoYeah, with the aid of a paddle.
- Taranis 13y agoCorrection officers in prisons work to achieve this same effect. I absolutely think it should be stigmatized.
- darkarmani 13y ago> Historically many, many children have sat still at school and behaved themselves. I'm not sure I understand your point. Please quantify this. Historically many, many people haven't been felons, but we still have a criminal justice system.