Random Thoughts....

MacGuffin said:
[...]
Click to expand...
While she got a lot of criticism for her comments, she also got a lot of applause for them. You should not look past that.

And I partially agree with her. And with you too. A lot of stuff you just have to learn by yourself or with your parents. Especially since in the time of the Internet you can always learn that yourself quite quickly. There is no need for school to teach how to tie shoe-laces. But on the other hand, in my old job we would get people straight from school who could do some really complicated "math-stuff", but failed miserably adding up some numbers in their head. Or they were able to write a great essay about some book ... and could not write a simple, formal letter. Not because they were idiots ... but because their education sort of "skipped" over teaching these skills and went straight to complicated stuff. And even at the time when I was at University, a lot of my friends and people I knew just weren?t fit "for life" on their own at 20. Not saying that?s all schools fault, but they are part of the problem.
IMO, School (especially at the Gymnasium in Germany, the "highest" form of school for those who want to go to university and stuff) could really use some more "real world" teaching.
 
Interrobang said:
While she got a lot of criticism for her comments, she also got a lot of applause for them. You should not look past that.
Click to expand...

Well, she almost only got applause from people of her own age, it seems...

And while I think that some of the stuff they teach in schools should be dedusted for sure, it's not that school can do the job parents should do. School is for teaching you things your parents can't, because they don't have the time or the qualification. But some things you need for your daily life, must in my eyes still be taught by parents. And if not, well, Wikipedia is your friend.

Basically I believe that everybody is the master of their own education level. Learning stuff is not so much about how intelligent you are but how much you actually want to learn things. It's just a matter if you prefer it over other things, like texting, shopping or playing on a playstation.

Any way you turn it around, though, makes you wonder how someone intelligent can post that on Twitter and then wonder when she earns a shitstorm for it. Hello, real world?
 
Last edited:
MacGuffin said:
Not everything has to be chewed for them, you know.
Click to expand...
Yes, yes it does. Otherwise they would start chewing by themselves and find out that things don't taste the way they are supposed to taste. And we can't have that, now can we?

MacGuffin said:
A prime example of a generation of bitchy teens.
Click to expand...
Slow down, you're being a grumpy old fart again! ;-)
 
MacGuffin said:
Well, she almost only got applause from people of her own age, it seems...

....

Basically I believe that everybody is the master of their own education level. Learning stuff is not so much about how intelligent you are but how much you actually want to learn things. It's just a matter if you prefer it over other things, like texting, shopping or playing on a playstation.
''''
Click to expand...
I could not agree more - tell Shirley Williams that.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/9055241/shirley-williams-by-mark-peel-review/

and there my friends was the end of the English (and Welsh) education system, it has failed terribly ever since. They mucked up the exam system whilst they were at it and the total upshot of all the activities (including charging for University) has been that Posh kids get in and 'normal' state educated kids are at a terrible disadvantage. Oh the humanity.
 
Last edited:
People should be glad that school teaches stuff that doesn't have a direct application in the adult world. That's the part where being an educated person comes from.
 
MacGuffin said:
Learning stuff is not so much about how intelligent you are but how much you actually want to learn things. It's just a matter if you prefer it over other things, like texting, shopping or playing on a playstation. [...]
Click to expand...
Well, no. And yes. You?ve chosen your words badly.

I?m taking a wild guess here from my own experience, but 90% of the stuff you learn in school, you don?t want to learn, but do learn it because you have to. They basically make you learn all that stuff you couldn?t give a rats arse about anyway, so why not make sure it?s a bit more preparing for real life? I think that is valid criticism of what?s taught at school. I mean, we?re not talking about throwing away all that they learn today and them teaching them to wipe their ass all over again. We?re talking about adding a tiny bit here over 9 years and there and dropping a tiny bit over 9 years.

And you know the funny bit? In my old company, the low level employees who?s been to one of the lower schools (Haupt or Realschule), they were much better at basic stuff and generally more "fit for life" at 16 than the ones with A-levels (Abitur) at 19. Why? Because they were taught stuff like "what does it mean to sign a cell-phone contract" in School. They actually learn that sort of stuff in School in "Sozialwissenschaft". And the higher educated students don?t and then they are fucked once they leave school and their parents haven?t taught them because they were busy having a career and stuff ...
 
MacGuffin said:
17-year-old German student complained on Twitter that she learns the wrong stuff in school... She said "I know nothing about taxes, rent or insurances. But I can analyze a poem in 4 languages." She earned quite a shitstorm for that and I think not undeserved.

I mean seriously: Generations and generations didn't need to be taught in school about rent and taxes. Some knowledge you simply have to aquire on your own or by your parents. I needed to aquire that knowledge by myself and was successful with it. My friends and family and parents needed that, too. And mastered it.

I have another suggestion: Teach teenagers about common sense and independence. Not everything has to be chewed for them, you know. Not everything can be taught in school. Sometimes life has to step in. I have hever heard about anybody having any problems finding a home and find out how to pay rent or pay taxes. The more I think of it, the more ridiculous that girl seems to me. A prime example of a generation of bitchy teens.

Listen, honey: If you really need to know something you haven't been told in school, how about using Google or Wikipedia instead of embarrassing yourself on social networks? Just an idea.
Click to expand...


I think your maths classes fall short. I clearly remember that being in story problems when I was a kid(middle school, 6-8th grades). The problem would often be laid out with how much the person makes an hour, how many hours worked each day, and then laid out the bills for a month. It was basically laid out as part of a short book keeping section that also taught how to keep track of your checking account.
 
The problem is not how to do the math but how to do things in an administrative or bureaucratic way. I think most students here were told enough math to make them able to economize. The point that girl made was that she has no idea how fpr example to rent an apartment - what does she need to do? How will she find one? What kind of contract does she need to sign? How does paying for electricity and heating work? Stuff like that.

In short: Practical knowledge you either ask your parents about or get familiar with learning by doing and gather experience. Same goes for how to make a tax declaration or what kind of insurance is necessary. It's stuff nobody tells you in a class but if you want to know about it, you can look it up and learn. Emphasis on "want".

It's no use to complain on Twitter that nobody teaches you the things you think you need to know. If you can read, nobody can stop you from claiming the necessary knowledge these days. The youth of today has the internet. Asolutely everything is explained on the internet today. I didn't have the internet, still I made my way and learned how to do stuff. No witchcraft involved in that, only determination. And that's why it's hard for me to accept the whining of modern kids sometimes. They live in the best time period humanity ever had and still complain that they're not being prepared for life in the right way.
 
Last edited:
The problem with saying "oh just ask your parents" is that it doesn't work for everyone, especially when you get to low-income families who might not be educated overall, and the parents with a third-grade reading level work three jobs so their kid can stay in school rather than having to work. I understand this might not be as much of an issue in Europe, but it's a real problem in inner-city America. How do you tell someone whose parents don't make enough to even pay taxes and who live in government housing to ask them how to do these things when the parents either don't know or don't have the time to teach them?

I don't think a "life skills" class would go amiss in the public schooling system. And this is coming from someone who is working on a degree in English, which teaches more abstract concepts that can be applied across the board rather than "real life" stuff.
 
Interrobang said:
While she got a lot of criticism for her comments, she also got a lot of applause for them. You should not look past that.

And I partially agree with her. And with you too. A lot of stuff you just have to learn by yourself or with your parents. Especially since in the time of the Internet you can always learn that yourself quite quickly. There is no need for school to teach how to tie shoe-laces. But on the other hand, in my old job we would get people straight from school who could do some really complicated "math-stuff", but failed miserably adding up some numbers in their head. Or they were able to write a great essay about some book ... and could not write a simple, formal letter. Not because they were idiots ... but because their education sort of "skipped" over teaching these skills and went straight to complicated stuff. And even at the time when I was at University, a lot of my friends and people I knew just weren?t fit "for life" on their own at 20. Not saying that?s all schools fault, but they are part of the problem.
IMO, School (especially at the Gymnasium in Germany, the "highest" form of school for those who want to go to university and stuff) could really use some more "real world" teaching.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. However, if you've been on your own, away at school and you were able to take care of yourself then, what's causing you to not do so now?
 
Teaching someone how to deal with taxes rent and insurance would take 3 hours tops, what are you going to do the rest of the school year? All you need are the current version of Wiso taxes, you need to know how to create a monthly money transfer order and a short article about which insurances you should have as an adult.
 
Emarline said:
I don't think a "life skills" class would go amiss in the public schooling system. And this is coming from someone who is working on a degree in English, which teaches more abstract concepts that can be applied across the board rather than "real life" stuff.
Click to expand...

Public schools in my area used to have classes like this, even the poor inner-city schools. We called it "home education", and we went over everything from writing checks, to reading and following recipes, to the differences between credit, charge, and debit cars, to sewing, hemming pants, making simple patches, writing effective complaint/praise letters, car maintenance, etc. Most of these things came with practical examples, so we would sew things, write dummy checks, do simple cost calculations like what you'd need at the grocery store, and so on. It was very useful.

They cut the classes due to a combination of reduced funding to schools and an increase in standardized tests, so in the really poor schools there is no longer the money to do this, and in not so wealthy schools there is no longer the time to have this class and all the ones that have state-mandated testing. The wealthier schools still tend to have the classes as an elective.
 
My school district that I graduated from has this class still. IMO it should be mandatory.

There's plenty of material that could fill a semester/2 marking periods.


In other news: holy crap is IKEA amazing. If I had more time or a larger car I would have come back with more stuff. A great store that.

The lingonberry soda/juice (it was in the soda fountain and I mixed it with sprite so idk) was kickass. The pizza and cinnamon roll was great too.
 
Last edited:
I'm annoyed that I like "Truffle Butter."

It's about PIITB. It's cheesy. But it's catchy.

But but...PIITB aftermath. Wat. Why. Why. Why.

- - - Updated - - -

also hai guise

- - - Updated - - -

smells like srsbsnss in here
 
ugh, have a second interview at a firm i'd love to work at to talk money... never done that before, so no idea what i'm doing. got a sort of strategy and some numbers floating around my head, will see what they say... now of course, nervous as all hell. i'll be perfectly fine once i'm there, but the last half an hour sitting around, waiting, has not been fun :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top