Re: NOW(-ish): Education

PKat (pkat@home.com)
Sat, 27 Mar 1999 17:39:29 -0800

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O. Razor wrote:

> >School like that require you to be a self starter and capable of
> >learning directly from a book....Young, smart people should never be
> >subjected to absolutely no structure.  We blow things up.
>
> Although I have blown up my fair share of stuff, I wouldn't say that is
> was for lack of structure.  I often find myself focusing more on
> strategies for passing my classes, getting the grades I want (and need),
> and just generally how to navigate through the all bureaucracy. I think
> that for some a structure-less environment would facilitate learning and
> productivity.  Anyone who must be forced to learn doesn't really belong
> in school.  Self starters of the world unite!
>

Each to their own. Though when I said structure I didn't quite mean being forced to learn. I don't think that's possible. From my own experience I've found that it's certainly easy enough to ignore assignments and mess around when there are no teachers teaching, no goals to be met, and no rewards for staying on task. I don't many people who will do something they don't want to do if they don't have to.

I don't think my experiences come from lack of desire to gain knowledge. I'm rather fond of learning, but given a choice, the topics that I would chose to learn aren't necessarily the ones I need. I'd learn an obsolete math trick over Government anyday <which is probably why I'm the only one of my classmates that knows how to find a sqare root without a calculator.> I agree school bureaucracy can often get in the way of learning. I feel that I've learned a great deal in my local, public high school. Unfortunately, I never paid much attention to my grades and as such am having difficultly entering college, despite very high test scores.

If you can function in a no structure learning environment, more power to you. To me, it felt like a year was ripped out of my education. Chalk it up to intelligence if you wish; I'm above average, but no genius. These are only my experiences with such a school as Bryan Moss originally described.

PKat

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O. Razor wrote:

>School like that require you to be a self starter and capable of
>learning directly from a book....Young, smart people should never be
>subjected to absolutely no structure.  We blow things up.

Although I have blown up my fair share of stuff, I wouldn't say that is
was for lack of structure.  I often find myself focusing more on
strategies for passing my classes, getting the grades I want (and need),
and just generally how to navigate through the all bureaucracy. I think
that for some a structure-less environment would facilitate learning and
productivity.  Anyone who must be forced to learn doesn't really belong
in school.  Self starters of the world unite!
 

Each to their own.  Though when I said structure I didn't quite mean being forced to learn.  I don't think that's possible.  From my own experience I've found that it's certainly easy enough to ignore assignments and mess around when there are no teachers teaching, no goals to be met, and no rewards for staying on task.  I don't many people who will do something they don't want to do if they don't have to.

I don't think my experiences come from lack of desire to gain knowledge.  I'm rather fond of learning, but given a choice, the topics that I would chose to learn aren't necessarily the ones I need.  I'd learn an obsolete math trick over Government anyday <which is probably why I'm the only one of my classmates that knows how to find a sqare root without a calculator.>  I agree school bureaucracy can often get in the way of learning.  I feel that I've learned a great deal in my local, public high school.  Unfortunately, I never paid much attention to my grades and as such am having difficultly entering college, despite very high test scores.  

If you can function in a no structure learning environment, more power to you.  To me, it felt like a year was ripped out of my education.  Chalk it up to intelligence if you wish; I'm above average, but no genius.  These are only my experiences with such a school as Bryan Moss originally described.

                                                                                                        PKat  --------------C4ABBEE6022DAB2C8DC4BE57--