4 ms·

As a counterpoint: For my social circle it's not remotely in the obscure category. I suspect that none of my friends or coworkers would have to look it up on G

by nmcfarl 13y ago

As a counterpoint: For my social circle it's not remotely in the obscure category. I suspect that none of my friends or coworkers would have to look it up on Google... This is what a liberal arts education is for. -- Of course I realize that not everybody is lucky enough/even wants to get a liberal arts education, but the social/educational structure of America is not something I'm looking to attack this comment.

doktrin 13y ago
I thought this was part of a standard HS education? That is at least where I first encountered it. I also have a liberal arts education, but those fruitful years were reserved for prevaricating on and dissecting various obscure and convoluted logical arguments related to phenomenology.
- coldtea 13y ago
  >I thought this was part of a standard HS education? That is at least where I first encountered it. If you assume everybody on HN is an American, maybe.
  - doktrin 13y ago
    > If you assume everybody on HN is an American, maybe. I also attended a French school, where it was covered, and I've had at least one conversation with my Norwegian family in which it came up.
  - nemetroid 13y ago
    I got to read it in Swedish upper secondary school.
- rdouble 13y ago
  US education is inconsistent. At my school, we never had to read Swift, or many of the other books that seem to be considered canonical "high school" literature.
- thufry 13y ago
  In the United States, most public education is administered at the town level. Because towns are so small compared to counties/states/nations, the variance among towns in parameters is very high -- two towns only 15 minutes apart can easily vary twentyfold along parameters like average income and percentage of adults with graduate degrees. Thus, what passes for a "standard high school education" in the United States varies wildly -- in some schools, you can graduate without even being able to read and comprehend a magazine article. In others, the top graduates often find Harvard less intellectually rigorous than their high school (because Harvard has to help their students from worse high schools catch up).
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by nmcfarl 13y ago

doktrin 13y ago

I thought this was part of a standard HS education? That is at least where I first encountered it. I also have a liberal arts education, but those fruitful years were reserved for prevaricating on and dissecting various obscure and convoluted logical arguments related to phenomenology.

coldtea 13y ago
>I thought this was part of a standard HS education? That is at least where I first encountered it. If you assume everybody on HN is an American, maybe.
- doktrin 13y ago
  > If you assume everybody on HN is an American, maybe. I also attended a French school, where it was covered, and I've had at least one conversation with my Norwegian family in which it came up.
- nemetroid 13y ago
  I got to read it in Swedish upper secondary school.
rdouble 13y ago
US education is inconsistent. At my school, we never had to read Swift, or many of the other books that seem to be considered canonical "high school" literature.
thufry 13y ago
In the United States, most public education is administered at the town level. Because towns are so small compared to counties/states/nations, the variance among towns in parameters is very high -- two towns only 15 minutes apart can easily vary twentyfold along parameters like average income and percentage of adults with graduate degrees. Thus, what passes for a "standard high school education" in the United States varies wildly -- in some schools, you can graduate without even being able to read and comprehend a magazine article. In others, the top graduates often find Harvard less intellectually rigorous than their high school (because Harvard has to help their students from worse high schools catch up).

deleted 13y ago

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