tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post268778278260128817..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: The (Not Very) Good Old Days of Education – Part IIAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-34004262640769660562012-06-15T22:09:05.795-04:002012-06-15T22:09:05.795-04:00I was infamous for my bad handwriting. Great stude...I was infamous for my bad handwriting. Great student, lousy handwriting was what all my teachers said.<br /><br />In looking at some of my old papers, I think that part of the problem was that I kept erasing what wasn't done right: no flow. <br /><br />As an adult, it doesn't matter to me- as long as I can understand it. I write what I will. Ironically, as an adult I have occasionally gotten compliments for my handwriting. <br /><br />Even as someone who had a bad experience with penmanship drills, I can see two points of value in them : 1) practicing hand-eye coordination and 2) a break in the school day where one doesn't have to concentrate one's attention and can daydream. You can't go full tilt all day. You need lulls, such as handwriting drills and recess.<br /><br />A lot of the problems with schools nowadays comes from trying to keep in school students who are not academically inclined. My school principal told guy who graduated from 8th grade at age 16 that he would be better off going to work instead of going to high school. He went work on the town road crew, and had a productive if not intellectually stimulating life.Gringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-90686417697296019232012-06-12T08:55:17.305-04:002012-06-12T08:55:17.305-04:00I admit that they wasted a whole lot of my time, w...I admit that they wasted a whole lot of my time, which I spent sitting bored or secretly reading on my own, but on the other hand, I can't remember that a class was ever seriously disrupted by violence or kids that the teachers couldn't control, and there was no threat to life or limb in the hallways, either. Most of my best instruction came in accelerated classes, where the low-achieving students were simply excluded and the level of respect and engagement was very high.<br /><br />It's hard for me to imagine how kids can learn much in a classroom with other kids who aren't much interested in learning and would rather not be there at all. It was a shock to me in law school that attendance was required. In college, no one would have dreamed of imposing such a requirement. If you didn't want the class, why pay the tuition? On the other hand, if you didn't need a particular lecture, why sit through it? But that was a private school, while my law school was a public one, which depended for funding on "bums on seats," just as most K-12 public schools do today.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-29781783612525543682012-06-12T00:26:54.725-04:002012-06-12T00:26:54.725-04:00One reason children sat still for hours was the th...One reason children sat still for hours was the threat of physical punishment if they didn't. <br /><br />I'm not sure TV, video games, and computers have destroyed ability for sustained concentration. I'm more inclined to think that they've replaced or drastically changed daydreaming.Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-79895285818516908442012-06-11T23:22:31.965-04:002012-06-11T23:22:31.965-04:00I wonder if responsibility plays a role. Children...I wonder if responsibility plays a role. Children had more responsibility earlier, and I suspect that middle class or higher adults had more scope in some senses than they do now.<br /><br />For example, our mayor (half-time job) presides over a city of 16,000. The chance that I can become mayor is pretty slim. Put me in a city of 400, and the chances rise a bit, though not to the level where you'd want to bet the mortgage. A US Representative represents more people now than a hundred years ago, and the job is correspondingly harder to get. We can leverage tools like phones and cars and radios to spread goods and services farther (and cheaper) but one side effect is that there's not so much opportunity for small-scale or not-quite-first tier operations.<br /><br />And of course we don't even _let_ young kids work(*), so schoolwork doesn't exist in a framework of work anymore, but in a framework of mostly entertainment.<br /><br />When we talk about the schools I think we have to think about the setting those gems were set in.<br />(Twain said never let schooling get in the way of education.)<br /><br />(*)There has to be a happy medium somewhere, graduated by age or something, that can let a youth feel like he's making a real contribution without being endangered or exploited.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.com