#education rant

[featherless-bird0]

I like learning for educational purposes, personally. But then I begin to wonder why school is more focused on getting kids to prioritize their grades rather than their cognitive development and learning skills for each subject.

Like, I know school is important for our education that prepares us for life after we finish school. But, it’s always about the grades that are needed to graduate instead of helping the students ACHIEVE the necessary requirements of basic literacy and learning to do that.

As for example, Math. Throughout my years of elementary and middle school, my teachers never particularly cared about me actually learning the basics of mathematics; before I got diagnosed with ADHD, I was SUPER hyperactive than the other kids, I could never seem to sit still, asked too many questions, and got bored learning the subject, I turned to another thing to distract myself whether it be an object or a window I can look outside, always preferred reading over learning math, never heeded their concerns about my grades, ect.

You know, normal kid with ADHD stuff.

And oh, my god did my teachers hate me for doing that. And while I do I agree that maybe I could’ve handle things better, I didn’t know any know how to act at my age. Most kids whether with the spectrum or not. When to act appropriately in elementary, at least that’s what I’ve experienced.

There was only three teachers who were patient enough for my hyperactive mind, (I’ll just use fake names for this) it was Ms. Hawkins, Ms. Brady, and the other, call her Mrs. Graham, they taught me about how to properly interact with things/people and originally got me into reading books and how to write stuff by gripping the pencil correctly.

Ms. Brady was mostly a speech teacher, I vaguely remember her but she helped me with sound my R’s and S’s and other word skills. With the help of games and all that I took a liking too with the other kids.

By then I realized just how much I improved by not worrying about the grades and focusing just how fun the three of them made learning.

They let me think on my own and sometimes hinted an answer to ta question that I mainly managed to solve on my own.

I feel like that’s what school SHOULD’VE been about. Because it works when teachers actually care about the students learning and cognitive skills than caring about getting us out into the world underprepared with just out grade performance to dictate us worthy of intelligence.

But then again, the education system is a mess, people treat it like a joke when that’s not what people back then wanted to fight for. The people back then protected education because the world needed to be educated on subjects they need to thrive in the world.

Not all the useless algebra majority of high school graduates don’t give a damn about, or they don’t remember because it’s never been used in their lives.

Presently, people take school for granted; which is understandable because schools care more about our grades than teaching us stuff we actually need; but still kinda sad.

And while some of you are likely to argue that Algebra IS important to learn for the reality that we are in. Research states that algebra is essential specifically for jobs in healthcare, plumbing, accounting, finance, HVAC repairers, and anything that involves advanced math.

I don’t think many people realize just how hard it is to ingrain the a+b=c square stuff that don’t have numbers involved in it entirely. You’re the gifted smart kid that passes math and every other class like a champ? Good for you, keep going (gender neutral) man!

Especially with graduation hanging over your heads, my algebra teachers basically pressure the class to succeed their classes in order to gain credits for the end of senior semester. And while I am grateful for her concern, it also makes everyone and me very stressed.

Oh? You failed the exam miserably? And got D’s and E’s for each quarter in said class?

Well too bad, you’re not graduating anymore! You’ll have to redo another year until you pass it with at least a C!

That’s literally not helping. Unless you mean well, and that said student doesn’t put much effort into actually doing anything about learning the subject.

And what if you just want to do creative projects on your own terms? School just teaches you to be an unthinking mindless machine even if you try to break the habit. Most students are just passionate people with their own creativity and knowledge that pour into the things they create.

It’s even worse if your school is strict enough to hold you back for a year all because you failed to get enough credits and grades for math (or any other subject someone’s not good at)

Thank you for coming to my rant.

[raincheckow]

We're losing knowledge

This week's millennial technology take: we're closer than ever to becoming the Adeptus Mechanicus. Maybe the world of Horizon Zero Dawn, if we're lucky.

Not to be all "Kids these days..." but

Kids aren't learning how to use actual computers anymore... just Apps(tm). I'm not quite 30, and yet my generation is already stuck telling older AND younger people how to save as PDF. Concepts are taught at such a high level that kids know how to code, with no idea of what the code is actually *doing*.

If you're a freshly graduated software engineer, it shouldn't be a big ask for you to know where files get saved. Copy/Paste shouldn't require using a mouse+menu each time. Efficiency shouldn't be left to the IDE or compiler. You're an engineer, you should be hungry to understand how things work... don't just sit around and wait to be told. Core skills are not being passed on anymore. "The system/library/pipeline takes care of it" and suddenly nobody is looking under the hood.

Convenience is killing our ability to create.

Break things. Figure out how to fix them. Repair your stuff, even when corporations tell you that's not allowed. Be proud of your knowledge, chase it down and find more.

A lot of the wonder and amazement around technology seems to be fading. Everything we do is stuck inside data-harvesting apps and nobody is learning the pieces that make the whole thing work.

One day things will break and we'll have nobody around who can fix it. We'll follow old guides, telling us these obscure steps to follow, having no clue what we are fundamentally doing. One day the ritual of "OffAndOnAgain" won't restore the Tech. Troubleshooting will become the job of the lorekeepers. Fixes will rely on auras more than logic until the system falls apart.

Generations of genius created the world we live in. Keep their knowledge. Be amazed that anyone could come up with what is now the mundane. Keep asking "but how could it possibly do that?" because they poured their very lives into these precious ones and zeroes.

I want to be wrong. I want the next generations to create wonders beyond the limits of my imagination. I want to be amazed by what was never possible before. I want my proudest creations to look like child's play compared to what the future holds.

I desperately want to have someone complain about teaching me how to save as a PDF

[jessiebanethedragon]

smol rant (sorry)

In my four years of high school I had approximately 32 different teachers. And even though the majority of them were smart people. The fact that only four of them I look up to and trusted tells me there is something wrong with the system. I have had teachers I’ve been afraid of, teachers who fall asleep in class and teachers who will get up and walk out of the classroom without explanation.

out of the four teachers I really trusted, only one of them saw and helped me work towards the future I wanted. One of them was the only teacher who would give me moments to myself when having an anxiety attack. The third was the first teacher ever, to remark on my talents outside of STEM classes to my parents and the last was and still is, the only teacher who curbed my social anxiety in the classroom. 

4/32 teachers would equal 12.5% which means that only 12% of the adults who educated the ‘most important years of my life’ were ones I felt did a good job. That would register as an i on a report card because the number is so low they wouldn't bother writing it down. 

think about that for a second, then think about the fact that the teaching system works based on seniority, not talent.   

[girlcanteach]

a possibly unpopular gripe

you know what bugs me so much? people who don’t work in education saying something like this:

School should teach life skills, like paying taxes or paying bills or how to balance a checkbook, and spend less time on stuff kids are never going to use, like algebra and history.

here’s why i hate it. those tasks, while very useful, require the ability to read basic directions and utilize tools like the internet to define basic terms. also, there are many resources that the average person can access to guide them through these processes. also, i actually do expect that when my students graduate, they can read and follow directions and access resources to learn new things. these learning skills are part of the capacity building that many schools employ when teaching their students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.

also, like, you know who else complains that students never learn anything useful? STUDENTS. and students aren’t always the best judge of whether they are learning at all...have you ever heard a student say “we never do anything in here” even though you are building beautifully scaffolded lessons and your students are demonstrating growth and learning your content? yeah, me too.

meanwhile, we live in a country where lots of people think that the mainstream media just MAKES UP the news and that memes on Facebook are reliable sources of information, adults in charge of making decisions for the nation literally refuse to collaborate with one another, and people who sit in the highest offices demonstrate an utter disdain for critical thinking. we need close readers and critical thinkers. we need scientists and historians and people in all fields who value numbers and data, who aren’t afraid to ask tough questions, and who are willing to listen to voices vastly different from their own.

one might say that it’s the value of budgeting one’s money, or the cold hard reality of how taxes really affect ones earnings that really needs teaching, but to that i would say, they do learn those things. the republicans just passed a ridiculous tax bill. do you think kids across the country aren’t reading about this in their econ and government classes? do you think that in the push to provide access to college for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds that educators aren’t prepping students to understand the difficulties of taking care of one’s self?

this, to me, is just more of the disrespect and misunderstanding that plagues educators and the education systems, and it’s a lot of white noise that jams up the frequency when people who actually know what they are talking about...like people who work in schools...can speak about what their students are actually doing and what types of changes would make schools better.

if your highest aspiration for our young people is that they learn how to do something that a website will do for them for free, then i would say it’s not teachers who are failing kids.

[hyzensflowershop]

Nobody except for maybe two people are going to understand this but my school recently adopted a new grading system, cool, awesome, wow, and because of this new grading system, the website that's used to show grades has been SUPER finnicky and I can no longer see my grades on specific classes (save for like two classes but those classes are easy and the only reason my grades would tank in those classes is if I simply didn't show up) and now I have two Ds, Two Bs, and a C, which, while I'm still passing, I would rather get those fixed before the end of the semester.

Anyways, where I was going with this- The reason I'm tanking is because I can't see where specifically I went wrong. I used to be able to, but because of the new system, the entire website doesn't work anymore. People have tried work arounds and those work arounds simply do not work. The end of the semester is coming up in, what, three weeks, and my grades are at an all time low because I do not know how to fix my mistakes because I can't see where I went wrong. This is not okay. I'm not a bad student. I've actually consistently been a good student, with my current GPA being about a 3.7 I believe? This is going to fuck me over right when I'm trying to apply for universities and it pisses me off beyond belief.

Anyway hey guys.

[lliyrapohl]

A friend sent me a tiktok about education yesterday (I’m a teacher so everyone loves to send me education-related media and share their Opinions). Anyway, this tiktok had some good points but it’s opening bit was all about how we don’t teach children useful things like how to do their taxes or basic first aid. And yes, yes. Those are good things that should be taught (and are taught, depending on country and school).

BUT

If we taught were only basic skills, how small and limited would our lives be? How thin and dull?

Have I ever used my knowledge of cell structure in “real” life? Not particularly. Did learning about cells inspire someone to become-I don’t know-a biochemist and do amazing work in the world? Yes.

Do I need poetry for any concrete tasks in my daily life? No. Is my life richer and more fulfilling because I was introduced to it? FUCK, YES.

Was learning a second and third language in high school in a city where everyone speaks English necessary? No. Did my relatives mock me? Absolutely. Am I now paid to use those languages and married to someone who speaks one of them? Yes. Have they brought, in less concrete but arguably more important ways, unending amounts of joy and richness to my life? YES. A thousand times yes.

“Unnecessary” knowledge is some of the most beautiful and I wish everyone had the chance to learn it.

[tiny-red-ghost]

I just, uhg. I can’t stand people who act like education owes them anything. It’s a privilege for us to get an education no matter gender, race, economic standing, mental illness/learning difficulties, whatever. You are not owed a degree or the right to walk the stage at graduation. That you have to earn. And there’s equal opportunity for every student to earn those things. It requires showing up, and putting in at least minimal effort. That’s it. That’s all you have to do.

So when you get dropped from a class because you aren’t showing up, shut the fuck up and stop blaming the class/teacher/school. They didn’t fuck up your opportunity to get an education. You did. Grow a pair and go to class like the rest of us. You aren’t the only depressed/anxious/mentally ill/exhausted person out there. A lot of us are too, but we actually put in an effort so we can have a future we look forward to. It’s a shame you don’t.

[demolitionmuses]

school system bitchery

placed under the cut for length: 

the american school system, in my experience and limited to my experience and general knowledge, systematically implements the principles and thought processes that directly correlate to students living an unbalanced life, despite the time period in which you are a student running through the period of adolescence and typically ending before your brain even develops properly (which, learning does help your brain, i do recognize that, but in terms of just. the emotional impact here).

bottom text.

okay but if you think about it the standard portrayal of the adult workaholic who lives in a miserable job, shown to students as undesirable, is living a life directly connected to how the school system shows a student’s ‘priorities’. students are taught to prioritize learning and getting good grades over personal life outside of school (which is ESPECIALLY emphasized in the “gifted program” sphere, but is generally applicable to all). getting good grades means access to a good college which means access to a good future, which is almost advertised as something deeply competitive, where you have to get the best score out of your peers.

(gifted programs, from personal experience, absolutely feed into this competitiveness and does not try to hide it. at some point, it is the students saying it themselves. someone got an 100% on a difficult test? someone will ask who. someone didn’t show up to class? multiple people will wonder. someone got into an ivy league school and their closest friend didn’t? some point, it tastes like betrayal.

of course, i’ve fed into this. it is remarkably difficult, in this atmosphere, to understand my sister who is upset at getting a lower A than she wanted on an exam she thought she would ace, when i actively got a C on some of my tests.)

this unbalanced life and the difficulty seen in school courses is met with-- especially in high school gifted programs, i’ve noticed-- burn out. personal experience, hello, i am burned the fuck out. looking at quick statistics from the CDC, last reviewed in july 2020, a 2016 study says 9.4% of students age 2-17 in america have diagnosed ADHD. study that looks like it’s from 2018 says that 7.1% of students age 3-17 have diagnosed anxiety, 3.2% have diagnosed depression, and approximately 3/4 children diagnosed with depression also have anxiety.

you may noticed i bolded diagnose. it is really goddamn hard to get a diagnosis. getting a diagnosis requires seeing a professional who can diagnose you, which operates under the presumption that the student is in the place to access a professional, or that the student can financially afford it (insurance is not always the most helpful with these things, my family is luckily enough to pay for shit out of pocket, but i know people held back by both these constraints). so, these percentages likely increase when that is factored.

(the cdc does say that around 80% of students with depression got treatment, and around 60% with anxiety got treatment. i haven’t looked into the actual study itself so i am not 100% sure, but again. this is operating under who is diagnosed).

these aren’t negligible statistics, and this does not even FACTOR IN the plethora of other mental illnesses, disabilities, general barriers, trauma, and general life occurrences that can affect students physically, emotionally, and yes, in how they work. 

so we have mentally ill students with burnout facing difficult classes and dealing with comparison, and how is this handled? well, the counselor crisis is so goddamn complicated that i don’t know how to tackle that shit, but lets focus on mental health education. 

to put it simply, the information is outdated, skims over a vast majority of mental illnesses or other things that impact student mental health, offer unrealistic solutions (the inequity in implying that every student can seek help seems to go unrecognized, at least on surface level, though i know personally that there is work, at least in my state, to be better at addressing this), and, what really gets me is, it offers NO MENTION of how this affects PRODUCTIVITY.

when you think of the random student that has missing assignments and failing grades, what is the first thought? someone who is lazy, who sleeps in class, who doesn’t care enough, right? if we want to tackle systematic racism, too, what are the odds that we are made to believe that this hypothetical student is white? those odds are sure as hell lower than being told that they are a person of color. right?

well, look at it like this. common symptom of depression, for example? missing assignments, hypersomnia, et cetera. oh okay. so student A is lazy, right. gotcha. 

okay, well. if student B can get the assignments done, why can’t student A? well, the adversity a student experiences isn’t comparable. but also, draw this back to the standards naturally set? lets take a close look at what i myself did yesterday for one of my classes, and what my friend did (also i would like to note here, since this is a real life example, that not all this fault falls to teachers. this teacher was actually incredibly accommodating. this is more systematic.)

well, we had this long assignment for a java 2 programming course. we had a few weeks to do it, but of course, studying for 3 other tests and trying to do projects, amidst extracurriculurs and personal life, can make this difficult. so, we put it off.

yesterday, student C had dinner at 11 and stayed up a good majority of the night trying to get this done. they did not do excellent on all of it or get every answer right. the teacher was fortunately accommodating (and if they weren’t? what then.) student D spent 6 hours straight, also neglecting food and mental health, to attempt all the problems, got a C on the final test for it, and eventually gave up and went to bed extremely exhausted.

i am student D, by the way. student C is another person, but they’re remaining anonymous. no shit, of course i;m gonna keep them anonymous.

okay, i’ve been typing this for like, 10+ minutes, so i should wrap this shit up at some point. i will bitch about this more later. 

main points: the education system of america systematically sets up students to fail the impossible ‘standard’, the topic of mental health is not tackled effectively, students are directly placed against each other and this is used as a ‘motivator’, and there are a plethora of other issues i did not tackle.

remember to drink water, have some food, get some rest, and compliment yourself. you are not a failure for struggling to succeed. i’m proud of you. remember that.

edit one: i did read over this later and i did want to say that i am not explicitly saying student A has depression definitively. that sort of claim actually does have ties to the mental health education in schools too, go figure. i am mainly trying to prove the point that labeling these students as lazy is incredibly damaging. i have recently broken down over the fact that i may be labeled as ‘lazy’ for not being on time with all my assignments and scoring low scores. i am not lazy. i am burnt out, mentally ill, and taking college level classes as a high school sophomore. just some food for thought.