First of all, I can’t believe my laptop died on me out of nowhere and took down with it my awesome 90% done reply. :’( I hate you laptop. But love you so much at the same time.
@JERK:
It is. I know exactly what you're talking about.
There's this disturbing trend of rote memorization being emphasized for the sake of testing, for the sake of recording "results" for various usually shallow reasons.
Many so called upstanding students are just memorization machines who can take in info like robots, regurgitate them on tests, then gets A's and promptly forget the info as there's no actual cement put in to keep it there, and little to no reason given to the actual importance of these things. And what reason there is, generally is also packaged in lifeless fact form to be regurgitated.
There's not an emphasis on comprehension and understanding, people who can know info are worthless if they don't really understand the significance of the info and how to discuss it.
Yes!! Thank you! This is exactly how I feel about memorization. And it’s one of the main reasons I am disgusted with the educational system in Greece and Cyprus. There has been some improvement the past few years but it sure as hell does not impress me since it was mainly at the Pre-School age and early childhood age Education and it’s basically being cancelled out by most of the classes in Middle School and the Final Year of High School. I was so enraged at this system that basically murders classes like literature which I absolutely adore, that I rebelled in my Final Year against my Literature professor and kept analyzing and stating my quite different opinion from the textbook in class, with negative results on my grades (tho it wasn’t really that bad since I wasn’t wrong and she couldn’t prove me so and she kept blaming other stuff for lowering my grades from 20 to 18, like not paying attention to class which is bullshit. That was my fucking strong point!). I made her hate me and thus personally attacking me about a family matter of mine just to ridicule me in front of my fellow students and it was just hilarious. She offended me of course but at least it was clear to all who was superior at least in character. Lame tool. I was at least glad about my History Professor who while followed the memorizing techniques in tests (Boo!), during class she let us discuss the Historical Events we studied and state our opinions on them. She has my respect for that.
Eh. I suppose when they don’t need critically thinking people and just need government following machines, they don’t have a reason to teach people the ability to learn. :getlost:
This is fine in maths and to a large extent in sciences. It's apocalyptically damaging in history/social studies and literature classes.
What's worse is that on the surface people assume it's not only fitting for history/social studies but central. Which is so amazingly wrong it's not even funny. Memorization is an incredibly helpful tool here, but it just lays down the foundation from where all the real work springs.
Any idiot can know the facts and figures of Egypt in 2010, it's the understanding of these is what predicts, explains, and precipitates the Egypt of 2011.
I understand how important memorization is for maths (which I am terrible at most of the time :P) and I can see how it can be useful for History to an extend, but literature? Unacceptable. If I manage to get my ass in Education Politics like I am planning on doing, I am viciously attacking memorization in certain subjects. That bitch is going down if I manage to get my hands on it and God help me I will.
We're a legitimate form of student (this goes beyond ADD and into general right brainism) that is obscenely neglected by establishments globe round in favor of the left brained assembly line learning. I'm just glad I live in the west as I hear it's even worse in East Asia.
We need more respect dammit! Can’t they see how awesome we are? :(
What is one thing I am pleased with in Cyprus’ educational system is that a person’s amount of taking part in class is 30% of that person’s grade. That is what saved my ass and gave me good grades over the years. Because I was able to show to my teachers that I could understand very well what they are talking about and could use knowledge from previous lessons in my answers. If you picked a test of mine though, you would see a person who when encountering a theory question, her thoughts were all over the place and were quite lacking which wasn’t true. I was simply unable to concentrate on the one specific thing they were asking or just copying the textbook. My grades suffered from that but not as bad as they would if I wasn’t well known amongst my Professors for my strong presence in class.
It seems as though the average person gets excited over multiple choice questions on tests, but they always fuck me over. It's essay questions I want.
When I come face to face with multiple choice questions, I get butt raped. Repeatedly. I’ve ended up crying during exams like this from frustration on not knowing which answer to pick because they all look the fucking same to me. I’ve failed subjects I would’ve otherwise excelled at, like my beloved History of Art. Seriously, this is a subject I would happily die for yet I ended up failing it 3 times because the test was a multiple choice one. Essay questions though? Now there is a special chemistry between me and essay questions. A special chemistry that gives birth to over 3 pages at a time and makes my professors cry instead. sigh~
I have a feeling this is a global problem because it's certainly an American one, and I see no reason to believe any difference exists in the rest of the world
Yes, it is. And I don’t understand why they don’t treat it already. Well, I do see why they don’t actually. I just don’t understand why no one complains about it since it’s so obviously destructive for students’ learning abilities. =/
It was very crippling and kind of stunted me. I'm still finding myself picking debris off the ground occasionally.
It's frustrating to look back on so much life where I could have been enjoying myself more due to higher levels of interaction with people, but the white noise kept me on the low end and created problems down the line that made fighting it even harder. It created bad self esteem (after all if I couldn't figure out what was wrong with why I couldn't easily mingle then clearly "I sucked", general sense of being outcasted), it lead to vast inexperience relative to others my age, and the fact that I had never really learned to enjoy genuine conversation because of it.
Overcoming it took most of college and was incredibly painful since I basically had to push against extremely strong currents of both the white noise and the problems it had caused.
It was worth it though.
I tell you what, the debacle with my family I mentioned earlier has been the best thing for my health. I've been so fundamentally focused mentally that the white noise is all but gone.
Oh I certainly see where you are coming from. Especially the incredibly bad self esteem and the wasted opportunities and time I lost because of my inability to be like the other kids and join them in their fun wholeheartedly. I especially recall a school trip in friggin’ Greece with only some of our Professors as supervisors, where while the others were actually enjoying the fuck out of it, I was the lame kid in the corner doodling in my sketchbook and taking notes and pictures of the archaeological places we visited at the time. I have more pictures of some random seagulls than I do of me too! I really wonder what different experiences I would’ve created if I went as the ‘me’ now in that trip and not as that socially awkward child who wasn’t even that connected with her group of friends because she was too engrossed in her inner thoughts which…were usually about random pointless things a 15 year old should not have been thinking about. Meuh. I am more childish and wild now than I was back at 11 till 16. Makes me wonder sometimes how things would’ve been, if it was the other way around. Then I remember how much fun I am currently having and say fuck it!! ;P
And I am very glad you feel that way.
Also I am sorry if I get off topic at times. I can’t help myself and my thoughts are pretty much, always all over the place if you haven’t realized it till now! Let's just blame the chocolate or something.
@JERK:
We didn't fail the system, the system failed us.
Fuck. Yes.
And we aren't trash to be thrown on the side, or zombies who need to adapt to a left brain world or drown in it. We're as intelligent and capable as the rest, and by god, we may even be better in some circumstances.
Like say…..teaching.
And this is more than true. I laugh when I learn how all the left brainies build up a 'perfect' by the textbook program, yet they fail in applying it in class, while a person like me who might struggle in building it (and struggle I do because I have to follow their rules <_<), I succeed perfectly in applying it and can spot in seconds the problems that show up and fix them. I don't even follow -my- writings and rules at the end of the day basically, but that's what makes me a potentially good teacher. That I am flexible in my teachings according to the student I am facing at the time. I let the kids themselves control the flow of the lesson and only walk in when I absolutely have to. I guide them to find knowledge. I don't feed them some random pointless for them bullshit, then think I 'taught' them just because a stupid set teaching program says that's what I should do.
I'm going back to school for a History degree, and I know I'll run into a thousand annoying left brain style bullshits, but I'll fuck their shit up because I'm coming in with my already achieved personally earned knowledge that I gained learning MY WAY not theirs. And I'll shake them down for those credits, and those grades, and those diplomas and make them say who their daddy is.
And when I'm done I'll become a high school teacher and save kids from dealing with that exact same bullshit.
Good luck. Please frame some of their own'd asses, 'kay?
And you will be a fine teacher I can tell.
This is our generation. Lets kick this shitty system in the balls!!