Kids in High School:
"I don't understand why I have to take biology, chemistry, and other basic science classes. When am I ever going to use this stuff in my life?!"
As Adults:
"Vaccines cause autism, GMOs are unsafe, climate change is a lie, the earth is flat, and chemtrails!! l've done my research. If you disagree with me, you're a sheep!!"
@dgar It would help if teachers were better prepared to answer this question. I once worked with someone who's student asked why he needed to learn math and she replied that he probably would never need this info but he just had to learn it. 🤦🏽♀️
@guncelawits@rejinl@dgar "You learn math and science so you don't become a useful idiot to awful people".
School needs to be completely reimagined as having a single primary mission: to equip children not to be exploited through ignorance of the tools they could otherwise be exploited through. Everything else is secondary to that.
@guncelawits@dgar It's important to link education to life & not just to a job. Whether someone becomes a rocket scientist or a dish washer, math & science (also reading, history, art etc.) help us understand the world around us (as the original post suggested).
@rejinl to add to this: telling kids they have to learn "because I said so" (which "you will need it in unspecified applications as an adult" is tantamount to) is a bad idea. The original post in this thread blames the kids, but it is the teachers and educational system that failed, not the kids.
@kazarnowicz@guncelawits@dgar I don't think the original post blames the kids necessarily. By the time a student asks that question, their teachers have already failed them. It should be a signal to the adults that they need to correct their approach but too many aren't prepared to do so.
@rejinl@dgar I had a school counselor actively discourage kids from attending further education after high school. She was actively pushing kids away from college, professional training, tech school, etc.
I was too polite and willing to put up with the migraines. I suspect that not stirring people up contributes a lot to teachers avoiding potential conflicts sometimes. Imagining upsetting some kid and what their parents or counselor would do.
It’s easier to follow the plan even if you disagree.
@robertnorlyn@dgar Yikes, why?? Too many seem to think college is just unsuccessful job training, but then they should be encouraging other kinds of training programs. What alternatives are they suggesting for their students?
@dgar The problem is that those that did actually care in school don't get to make decisions.but the ones that have the most power through money.amd/or violence get.
@ghast And that's why we don't even bother. We've dealt with your kind of nonsense so many times, for decades, and people like you just bury their hand in the sand and declare themselves correct based on evidence you don't really understand. It's pointless. You're not interested in an honest conversation where you might learn something, you're just here to troll and waste our time. I know this because you're not the first person of this type I've met on the internet. I've been here for decades, and trolls have been here for decades. You don't own my time.
Go read some real information if you're honestly interested in these issues.
@dgar Maybe it's because I'm middle aged, but it was often "when will I use math?" The sciences were some of the most interesting classes, and I'm not sure I heard anyone rally against learning sciences. At least, with the exception of ultra-fundamentalist groups, and even then, only for very specific subjects.
@NormanDunbar@johnnyd_cm@dgar a few years ago I heard about a flat earther that wanted to go up in a steam powered balloon to prove the earth was flat. He never left the ground!
@skyfire101@NormanDunbar@dgar I heard he lifted off then was killed when he plummeted back to Earth. If they can't accept all the evidence, measurements and empirical data from the last 2500 years, that's a they problem, and this shows what can happen.
The trouble is that critical thinking is the core of science, and nobody wants to teach kids critical thinking. After all, what if they apply it to politics or economics? They could very well start asking some awkward questions, and be unhappy enough about the answers to take action. It's far safer for those in charge if most people aren't capable of coherent reasoning; it makes them much easier to manipulate.
@dgar I told my son this week that any time he was learning something he didn't know what use it was, that it would eventually be a building block to a more complicated concept.
I used the example of Penicillin, that a scientist studied mold not because he knew it would be useful, but to explore it. In the end, the research was the basis of an important medical breakthrough.
I think their actual question is "why is this curriculum so bad?"
Or maybe "why is this teacher so bad?"
It's not the material. It's never the material. The solution is paying teachers more not crafting the right response to students who are accurately assessing the situation.
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