Book Smarts vs Street Smarts

[Moron]

Ok, I've been pondering this question for some time now. Me as an ordinary student see many brilliant kids that get good grades and awesome test scores, but they are so dumb in real life situations, as if they had no common sense.


I mean is it the educational system that makes students this dumb in real life? I remember not long ago that Rhizome posted a thread dealing with how the American Education system is like a "factory" that sorta produce future businessmen and lawyers and future exploiatators.

Why can't the education system be different. I've heard that there was an experiment in England, where they took low-average students into a school where they wanted to do anything they wanted. They could learn by themselves and pursue other interesting things without an instructor forcing the child to learn the material.

Look, thats the problem with schools. It's bland, repetitive and can be very frustrating if you don't get anything out of it. I've seen many good minds go to waste because they couldn't be bothered. If kids were encouraged from a very young age to go out and read the kinds of books that interest them, they'd have a much better education. They'd get a) common sense, b) writing/spelling skills c) knowledge about the real world.



Or is it all a conspiracy from the government to keep us dumb?

 

[shokz]

I blame the government.

Change yer avatar son.

 

[Moron]

Originally posted by shokz


Change yer avatar son.

why?

 

[ManU2000]

Re: Book Smarts vs Street Smarts

Originally posted by Moron
Me as an ordinary student see many brilliant kids that get good grades and awesome test scores, but they are so dumb in real life situations, as if they had no common sense.

Wow, that pretty much describes me.

 

[shokz]

Originally posted by Moron
why?

I dunno.

 

[Rob]

lol at the Simpsons

"Wallet Inspector"

 

[ShiftyPowers]

The factories are not in America, because we encourage a liberal education. The trade school like way that England and other nations educate people is far worse. They teach a person how to be a doctor, but not how to think because the humanities aren't required. Which is why I believe our nation rules many aspects in terms of international business.

 

[Moron]

Originally posted by ShiftyPowers
The factories are not in America, because we encourage a liberal education. The trade school like way that England and other nations educate people is far worse. They teach a person how to be a doctor, but not how to think because the humanities aren't required. Which is why I believe our nation rules many aspects in terms of international business.

Do you mean "liberal" like in universities ?


Because High School ain't that Liberal for me

 

[Alex]

I think that both things are important...

But for different things...IRL, it definitely helps to be "worldly", and understand people, but then again you can be the most worldy person in the world, but to get some jobs these days all you need is a piece of paper, saying that you passed some degree...

I dont thikn the education system is to blame...I just think that as some people are born with higher IQ's some people are born with higher worldlyness (is that a word? )...They had a test for it a while ago, called an "EQ" if im not mistaken....Probably made up by somebody with a really high IQ and no EQ tho

 

[Joe]

Liberal as in an overall education.

 

[rhizome17]

Originally posted by ShiftyPowers
The factories are not in America, because we encourage a liberal education. The trade school like way that England and other nations educate people is far worse. They teach a person how to be a doctor, but not how to think because the humanities aren't required. Which is why I believe our nation rules many aspects in terms of international business.

All schools designed for mass education are factories. Their purpose is to discipline the general populace into 'good citizens' by inculcating particular values into them. Those that are unable to be disciplined (note: I am not using the word discipline in the sense of punishment) in this way end up in the Prison system. The rest become useful workers, or part of the reserve army of labour. The schools do the sifting via examinations, which then in many ways determine your next step after leaving school. The higher your grades, the more likely you end up in tertiary education, the lower and it is off to blue collar labouring jobs. There are some opportunities to rise above the class position when you are in the system, but realistically this does not happen too often. The rags to riches dream just isn't that common. I know it seems harsh and simplistic, but at the end of the day thats how mass education works - lowest common denominator education that attempts to make as many of the participants as possible good, law-abiding citizens. Ask a few questions, but not too many. You know, just like the Radiohead song.... Fitter, happier, more productive, comfortable, not drinking too much, etc. etc.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

No, that's not true. Schools for the upper class and private institutions are not for demoralizing the populace and keeping them in their role by teaching discipline. Upper class schools are a pretty encouraging environment, although very overwhelming for kids who just don't want to be doctors. I'm glad I lived in a rich suburb basically.

 

[bjmenge]

I think Shifty is right on this one. I didn't go to a rich school, but I certainly didn't get a "lowest common denominator education" in high school.

 

[pennington10]

Originally posted by Alex
I think that both things are important...


I dont thikn the education system is to blame...I just think that as some people are born with higher IQ's some people are born with higher worldlyness (is that a word?

I think that is right on the money. I have never have failed a test since 8th grade and never study for them. I just sort of absorb what I need to know in class. The problem is I have never been fond of homework so I have heard most of my life you have potential. But I pretty just goof in class making teacher's have to work harder. I have realized that homework is almost from chumps. It is such of waste of time for people like me who are able to grasp concepts in school. Then I see kids who have to study and work their ass off just to get a C-. They get good grades because they work on non sense homework. Homework nor grades should be the measuring stick in the U.S. School is more of a barometer of how hard you work and not how smart you are. The things is that these two types should be seperate. We end up hindering each other from learning. There is no real attempt to see how smart a student is. That is what makes it like a factory. I do really think one kid can get sacrificed for the whole of a school. If you look at it these kids who work hard get to go to better schools then the kids who have figured out how the beat the system end up getting the shaft after high school for beating the system. I did almost little to no homework in my four years in high school did all my projects last minute and graduated as an underachiver. I am smarter then alot of these kids who didn't get the fact that you don't have to work hard to get out of high school. The only pressure as far as work goes in high school is pressure you make. I guess the whole education system does need an overhaul but it should be done by us. Not by old people. They have no clue what high school is about btu seem to make changes that always piss off students.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Originally posted by pennington10
I think that is right on the money. I have never have failed a test since 8th grade and never study for them. I just sort of absorb what I need to know in class.

That'll change when you have to take finals in college. No I'm not bitter or anything

 

[rhizome17]

Originally posted by ShiftyPowers
No, that's not true. Schools for the upper class and private institutions are not for demoralizing the populace and keeping them in their role by teaching discipline. Upper class schools are a pretty encouraging environment, although very overwhelming for kids who just don't want to be doctors. I'm glad I lived in a rich suburb basically.

....which is why I said schools for mass education... private schools are NOT for mass education, they are for the elite only...

 

[rhizome17]

Originally posted by bjmenge
I think Shifty is right on this one. I didn't go to a rich school, but I certainly didn't get a "lowest common denominator education" in high school.

did you receive an education based on a standardised carriculum? were the courses you took each year determined by the courses you took the previous year? do your grades affect what courses you are able to do once you leave college? were you taught in a class of 20 or more students, or did you receive an education tailored to your needs and wants as an individual? how much say did you get in what was taught? anyway, I stand by my comment that any standardised education system is lcd... it can't be anything else. the bell curve exists for a reason, and it is to make sure people fit the curve, not make the curve fit the people.

and ShiftyPowers... I don't mean that schools exist to
teach discipline... and demoralise people etc... in fact the very opposite - if you were demoralised, there would be no way you could progress through the system. the schools make use of some capacities of people whilst obscuring others. if you get a chance to read Foucault's Discipline and Punish, you might see where I am coming from, which is basically that the architecture, use of space, standardised procedures, examinations etc. we are familiar with in the school system have their foundations in the birth of the prison system... very interesting book indeed, as Ewan will testify...

 

[pennington10]

Originally posted by ShiftyPowers
That'll change when you have to take finals in college. No I'm not bitter or anything

As long as they are test. Essay are my one down fall because I always seem to write a paper on something random. One time I wrote an essay on Death of a Salesmen but I just compared Biff's dad to Drew Carey. I wrote three pages on Drew freaking Carey. Or staying with Athur Miller books I wrote my mid term paper on Hopkins the guard with one line from The Cruicble. It was suppose to be on a character who has changed english lit. Oh well it was worth it for the the laugh it got from the other students.

 

[Moron]

Originally posted by rhizome17
did you receive an education based on a standardised carriculum? were the courses you took each year determined by the courses you took the previous year? do your grades affect what courses you are able to do once you leave college? were you taught in a class of 20 or more students, or did you receive an education tailored to your needs and wants as an individual? how much say did you get in what was taught? anyway, I stand by my comment that any standardised education system is lcd... it can't be anything else. the bell curve exists for a reason, and it is to make sure people fit the curve, not make the curve fit the people.

I really want to read that book Rhizome, but i get too much homework that stresses me out just to get a damn C+ in U.S History.


These things that Rhizome pointed out are things that i would like to learn in my free time, but since the Public Education rather stresses the importance of the Civil war and trigonometric identites that i have no clue about, then the free time goes away.

And i just want to sleep basically.


I'm in a public high school, which is mass education i guess.


Just because i forgot two homework assignments made me drop my grade from a C+ to a C


IS THIS LEARNING???????

 

[Haukur Gudnason]

Originally posted by rhizome17
and ShiftyPowers... I don't mean that schools exist to
teach discipline... and demoralise people etc... in fact the very opposite - if you were demoralised, there would be no way you could progress through the system. the schools make use of some capacities of people whilst obscuring others. if you get a chance to read Foucault's Discipline and Punish, you might see where I am coming from, which is basically that the architecture, use of space, standardised procedures, examinations etc. we are familiar with in the school system have their foundations in the birth of the prison system... very interesting book indeed, as Ewan will testify...

therein lies the carrot and stick doesnt it? but dont we have to take into account that some do indeed react more proactively to the 'stick' rather than the 'carrot'?

Originally posted by rhizome17
if you get a chance to read Foucault's Discipline and Punish, you might see where I am coming from, which is basically that the architecture, use of space, standardised procedures, examinations etc. we are familiar with in the school system have their foundations in the birth of the prison system... very interesting book indeed, as Ewan will testify...

aye aye