Article: Against School Gardens (The Atlantic)

[Andy R]

More sage wisdom from billonions!
bill - i do the same thing with my lawn - there are patches of grape hyacinth which come up every spring - those patches don't get cut until early June when they've finished blooming.
Beautiful!

[billonions]

Thanks and cool, I like Grape Hyacinth.

  When I go out on walks, if I see an interesting plant I'll scoop some seeds or a cutting or even the plant itself and try to establish it/them in my yard.

  I used to be impressed as heck when I was a kid when I'd go walking with an adult that knew the names of plants.  I never thought I'd learn, be able to learn to do this.  Somebody would go that there is a 'whatsit', and ten minutes later I'd have forgotten the name.  Yet now I can do that, walk through a garden or a patch of bush and be able to identify at least some of the things growing there.  I'm no whiz by any means, somewhere along the way my brain picked up the information.  Now I'm one of those guys who would have impressed me then.

  The way I see it the greatest barrier to learning is the fear some feel when confronted with new information.  I've trained enough operators over the years and have watched the progression from, 'I'll never get this.' to 'This is cake!'.  Some fella's take a while ti figure it out and once in a blue moon a guy can't learn it.  Still, pretty much the first thing I do when I start training a guy and I can see the stress on the guys face, is to say with great confidence, "In a month you'll be wondering what the big deal is."  and "Don't worry about mistakes, I've made them all, that's how I learned."

[onthemovenow08]

 
  To keep it within the realm of this thread, when we separate learning from our lives we allow inertia to make decisions for us.  If school is not valued and only endured, then later in life we will apply that lesson to what we do.

School can also be an obstruction to learning. School is like the internet, there is too much useless data to sort through. I mean do really need to know how to do matrixes and know what kind of tank the russians drove in ww2?

I say we show them how to read and write immediately and with strong emphasis, and then the world must be explained to them truthfully so that they can make the best choices.And choice is what they should have after they understand the real world. So they should be able to focus on whatever they want. they should not be given a bunch of general gameshow knowledge.  

The focus should be on focus.  If we would let the children focus on one science or discipline the students would accomplish higher states of well being and generally be better off in all different aspects of life. this is because their gathering more information rather than receiving irrelevant data, which increases the effectiveness learning.

[onthemovenow08]

I'll start with a hard one, MATH. How can you teach math without boring the shit of children? Teach math through life situations imaginary or real. To teach math effectively a teacher should put students in situations where the students' interest is compromised to a point that that student would require math for that students' interests to be met. everything has to be a Great Challenge.

Funny you should mention that...I'm currently working part time as a mathematics professor at a fairly low-level community college.  Getting people to give a shit about algebra is freaking hard!

One thing that always gets me interested is a smile. I struggled with clg alg for a while but one positive and bright professor made the difference. Its enthusiasm that gets people to pay attention.

[faraway]

A Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212383-Valedictorian-Speaks-Out-Against-Schooling-in-Graduation-Speech

[Innocent Byproduct]

A Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/212383-Valedictorian-Speaks-Out-Against-Schooling-in-Graduation-Speech

Wow.

I thik Vital Speeches magazine should likewise print this one.