How to ask questions should be taught in school.

[Bronium 512]

Sometimes, the worst bits about school is that they don't make you ask questions.

i.e. they just give you questions instead of making you think about the possible questions.

 

In my time at school, I have never learnt how to ask questions. And I don't mean asking questions that help you understand the topic in which the question was asked in (such as "How do you do short division of polynomials?") but questions that make you understand the topic in a deeper sense (such as "What does kgms^-1 really describing? And don't just say momentum").

 

I mean, take English class, where you analyse a book. How many times do you go read a book, outside school, to analyse it? You read books to have fun. And a great way of deepening that fun is by understand the deeper issues that come with the book you read. For example, with Mass Effect 2, the decision between killing or brainwashing the Geth was made so much harder (and thereby better) when I stopped to think...what am I really doing? It was so grueling. I actually replayed the ending level several times because I had to change my decision. My enjoyment was increased by a great deal because I considered the issue. And I think the same applies to all things, especially books.

 

The thing is...it's hard to actually find the deepness (at least it is for me) without asking myself these questions. And school doesn't teach what questions to ask or how to ask them. That's a vital aspect that school misses.

 

I mean in school, you don't think about the book. You think about the question given to you and the answer you will give. I barely read the books I analyze. It's not that their bad, many of them are amazing classics that I read over and over again.It's just that they aren't vital to me answering the question. I just need to know the basic story, a few quotes and I'm on my way to writing a 2000 word essay. I have no interest of just analyzing the book. It gives me no joy to do so. And many of my fellow English goers agree. They feel that English is pointless. They feel they aren't learning as much as memorizing. I mean, I can barely remember what I discussed in class.

 

I'm not sure what's the point of English class (especially since it's mandatory and isn't about teaching grammar or syntax or anything) but they have such an opportunity in their hands. They can help me try to think critically and it helps us be more cultured and actually absorb more of the media we consume rather than just let it pass as metaphorical poop (gotta have a poop joke).

 

The best part is, it might just make English fun to learn.

 

So what do you guys think?

[Strife 455]

School systems in general, specifically the United States' system, are awful. Some are better than others, with a rare few being rather good, but seeing as how I really only the US system, I'll be talking about that.

 

Public school is little more than a government run daycare system where children go while parents are at their job or busy with house work. The system of learning is using possibly the worst possibly method known to educators, but it's become standard. These days, it's all about testing. Pass this test, pass that test, do this exam and this quiz. And in all honesty, that equates to "cram for this test, hastily study for this exam". While the person can pass the test within the next two days, the knowledge retained is extremely low ... test them for the same exact material in a few weeks. Then, in most cases, the next subject is broached and the one previous hardly touched upon again. In short, our society values tests over knowledge.

 

How about yet another amazing shortfall? Our school system grants the students a break that lasts several months. That means any information that the student may have actually retained degrades over that time until it disappears from not being used (this is a scientifically proven fact that our brain will cannibalize parts of the brain's memory to make room for more recent information). When finally returning to school, the student then spends the first couple of months refreshing their memory about what they covered in the year previous ... an extremely ineffective use of time.

 

Not to mention how teachers are severely limited in how they can teach their students. A sort of 'blanket' method is used, which may work for teaching some people, but normally doesn't work very well with many. Each person has their own way of learning, so it only makes sense to figure out what a person's effective way of learning is at an early age (this is what the first few years of elementary should be geared towards).

 

And then of course our educators. Some are just terrible, others are brilliant. There really isn't a dependable and established system to detect when a teacher is no longer a positive source of learning ... some just give up and the students suffer. Either way, teachers are an integral and important part of our nation; the future of the next generation is literally dependent upon them. Yet, they have some of the worst pay and benefits. Oftentimes, they must buy the proper teaching materials with their own money.

 

I really could go on about all the crimes our nation imposes upon the education system ...

[Bronium 512]

@@Strife,

 

I think many people feel the same way you feel.

Fun fact:

Like, I have this excel file, with all the topics of what I have learnt. And I tick/cross them based if I know them. I do a check every week.

I mentioned this to my friends and almost all of them said that's stupid. What's the point when you don't have any more tests to do on them. I was like "What? Why do you care if you don't have tests, if fun to know stuff, right? I mean, what's the point in learning things just to forget them?"

 

Really, this test attitude is probably found throughout the school system. I have a great friend who is amazing at maths, but his marks are low, mostly because he just makes stupid mistakes and is over confident so he doesn't check over. But the teacher can clearly see that he's enthusiastic about maths and that he's amazing at it. I mean, he used matrices (something that we don't get tested on) in calculus. That's at least thinking outside the box. And yet, he didn't recommended for the advanced class. Just because he does bad on tests.

 

It's sad really. My friends love science and maths (and 5/6 subjects they choose are maths and science) yet they hate school. It's just so annoying.

 

I must have got a good hand though. I love school and I love my teachers and they're fantastic and just make me want to go further. Or maybe I'm one of those students that the blanket system was designed for.

 

P.S: I hate/love breaks. I mean, it's nice to be on the forums more but there's just no intellectual stimulation other than youtube channels like numberphile and sixtysymbols or periodic videos. It just makes my brain go blarg.