Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site burl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!lkw From: lkw@burl.UUCP (lkw) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: High school education Message-ID: <1154@burl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Mar-86 09:03:18 EST Article-I.D.: burl.1154 Posted: Mon Mar 24 09:03:18 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 25-Mar-86 04:45:08 EST References: <162@pyuxc.UUCP> <588@hoptoad.uucp> <1119@burl.UUCP> Reply-To: lkw@burl.UUCP (lkw) Distribution: na Organization: AT&T Technologies, Burlington NC Lines: 116 Keywords: gifted, educational philosophy, society, bad schooling Mr. Eric Robert Jablow said: > >You don't understand my point. I have had problems because of my >precociousness, ... > I know exactly the sort of problems you are talking about. Like when you catch the teacher in an error and she hates you forever after and looks for excuses to get back at you? You thought she would have been glad to have had the error pointed out. Right? I'll bet she even tried to cut you off when you were explaining. It's even worse when you try to help a coworker at work and they resent you having a better idea than they do right? You get accused of trying to second guess another person's job. And really, you were only trying to help. You were trying to be a team member. The fact is, somewhere between 60 and 90 percent of the population are like this. They act like a kicked puppy when you make them feel stupid. Sometimes they bite you for kicking them. > > >... I am not claiming that the school system mistreats the gifted; >I claim that the school system mistreats everyone. ... >The problems of the American educational system are not particular to >the gifted; they are universal. ... > You are RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT! I never skipped any grades. I have always envied those fortunate people who did get a head start on life that way. When I was in high school, I nearly died of boredom. High school was the worst time of my life. It was very depressing. I spent a lot of time depressed. I would give anything, in retrospect, to have somehow shortened the wasted time I spent in that psychological torture chamber. I had some friends and got involved in the high-schoolish activities (played in the band, went to football games, joined various clubs, went to the Prom) and I felt accepted by my peers, but even the social activities were totally boring. The people themselves were boring and never had any original ideas. In fact, they seemed to resent any original ideas of any kind. Even the teachers were not interested in anything interesting. The main thing was that the cirriculum was not educationaly stimulating to me, and probably not to anybody else. The school was basically geared for taking up the students' time. If a course could be taught such that it took a whole year to cover material that could have been learned in 2 weeks, it would be a fantastically successful course; all of the students would sign up for it and that teacher would be very popular. Of course it did not help that I grew up in a small-minded small town. Sometimes I felt like an alien from another planet. I would not define myself as having been "reclusive" during that time of my life, but I did read a lot of books then. > > >What happens in a bad school? Few students learn more than the >minimum, and few students strive for anything great. What then makes a >student respect another student? ... >learning that knowledge and intellectual ability seem irrelevant to >him. Appearance and athletic ability become the criteria. (Not that >this is not an unnatural impulse--I am a baseball fan; I should know >about hero-worship.) > > Let's face it, the educational system is sorry! It's no wonder that kids can graduate from high school without being able to read these days! The only way I can see of improving it is to change the system so that kids can move ahead at what would be a comfortable rate for each individual child. Maybe there could be some some fast paced classes and some slow paced classes and some in-between speed classes for every subject taught. I know a man who is in his late 50's and he says that when he went to a one-room school house in the boondocks where he grew up, his "schoolmarm" gave him more advanced work than the other kids. He was way ahead of them. He doesn't talk like there was any stigma attached to his being more advanced in this way. Maybe we should go back to one-room schoolhouses! The students got more individual attention. I heard a man on TV say "If we paid teachers what we pay rock stars, think what the next generation would be like!" (This may not be an exact quote) > >...But I do not think schools should be improved just for the sake of >the gifted; they should be improved for all our sakes. > > Eric Robert Jablow > The real problem is that the school system is entrenched in bureaucracy. The government does not care about educating young people; their real purpose is to keep kids off the street, keep them from making trouble. The bureaucrats are dumb enough to think that they can CONTROL the population. This situation is a sad commentary on our society. BTW, do you think that being a 12-year-old (or younger) in a class of 14-15 year olds could be somewhat analogous to being a woman professional in an all-male department? I think there might be parallels. You don't fit in naturally and have to go to great lengths and exercise tremendous social skill to be accepted and sort of fit in. (You never can really fit in totally.) What's more, you can't become a reclusive asocial person if you expect to attain any sort of career advancement. It can be done, I know, because I do it myself. It's hard though, and sometimes painful. I feel like the effort and occasional pain are worth the rewards, though. There is a saying: NO PAIN, NO GAIN. Yes, maybe you suffered some pain and social stigma from skipping grades, but don't you feel like it was worth it? If I ever meet somebody I want to marry and get married and have kids, I am planning to do all I can to help them get the best start on life they can, whatever that takes. Laura Watson ...![ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd allegra]!burl!lkw Advice is like kissing: it costs nothing and is a pleasant thing to do.