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244 comments

  • Dude, School was the worst f'ing psyop.

    Give me a straight question and answer on the material, and I'll 100% it. No, we can't do that... Here's four answers that are all technically correct, choose the MOST correct one.

    Ohh so it's pros and cons of a situation and you need to pick the one with the most upsides or least downsides? No, they're all just mostly ok, but we were REALLY thinking about answer B when we wrote the question.

    • School is like slavery in many aspects to be honest. Though it‘s really not a physical one, but a mental one.

      You can not do much without getting permission from an authority figure first, including relieving basic biological needs such as eating or using the bathroom. You are not allowed to leave the facilities without permission. You are classified into different groups based on your performance on tests, and eventually seperated based on that (usually at high school/university level). You are trained for at least 12 years in this way to obey arbitrary rules and procedures, which are designed to get you ready for the capitalist hellscape that awaits you. Some countries even use this period of time to push another agenda on you, usually one related to religion &\ nationalism. At last, you come out of it (while probably having forgotten many of the things ”taught” to you) and you are immediately put into mandatory military service, or you come to the point of needing a service job just to survive.

      Autodidacticism definitely rocks, and homeschooling would be a better idea if one was qualified for it and the child's social needs could be met elsewhere.

      Kinda unrelated to your example, but I just wanted to expand on your psyop comment.

      • That's a solid take. The difference I’ve noticed, though everyone’s experience is different, is with homeschooling. From what I’ve seen, quite a few parents take it on despite not really being suited for it. Some seem to have their own forms of indoctrination, the kind that even public schools won’t entertain, so they choose to keep their kids out entirely.

        My son has a handful of friends who are homeschooled. (We kept him home a bit longer during Covid while he did remote learning, and he kept a lot of those friends.) His friends span the full spectrum: a couple are pretty middle-of-the-road, you’d never guess they were homeschooled. One lives under really strict, almost militant control, and another seems to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

        I hate the crap that goes on when the establishment runs the game, but I also hate what happens when nutjobs run their own game. It's like we need some kind of framework to keep everyone on the same page, where kids just learn and excel. We should get nominal discipline, learn self-control, but also not be pigeonholeed with a lot of redtape used to protect schools from legal action. Some kind of common sense brigade :)

  • The worst part is that he was grounded by the parents. When I was younger a teacher told me I was wrong for saying that Portrush was in County Antrim, not Londonderry like she told the class. My mum brought it up at the parent teacher conference.

    Same teacher also marked me wrong when asked to list loughs in Northern Ireland and Iisted Lough Beg. I was right, but it wasn't on the list that SHE gave us.

    • I really don't get this attitude. I've taught many classes, and making mistakes is just part of teaching. Unless you're just reading from a textbook (and even those can be wrong), you're going to make some mistakes. I'm a human being; sometimes I'm going to get stuff wrong. I try to minimize the errors, and it's not like I'm teaching subjects I'm unqualified to teach. But to err is human. Maybe it's different because I've taught undergrad students rather than K12, but IDK. I just really don't get the attitude of an educator that feels they need to conjure up an aura of unerring perfection.

      if I make a mistake in some derivation, I'll just admit it, usually with some self-deprecating humor. A few things I've said to address it when it happens:

      "Whoops! Guess the coffee hasn't kicked in yet!"

      "Whelp, contrary to popular opinion, I am not infallible!"

      "Well, I'm clearly not infallible, guess I'll never be pope!"

      <Delivered with obvious sarcasm.>

      "No, you see, that was intentional! i was just testing you to see if you would notice my error! Obviously it can't be that I made a mistake!'

      "Whelp, as you can plainly see, I am clearly drunk!"

      I've said all these and other things in front of entire classrooms of students. I don't make mistakes often. But if you teach enough, it does happen. And it's always a bit annoying to the students, as they have to back up, maybe correct their notes, etc. And I try to lighten that annoyance with some levity. So I try to make my lectures as correct as possible. But when mistakes do happen, i just try not to make a big deal about them, I dismiss them with some light humor.

      Honestly, I'm glad I make mistakes. I wouldn't want to teach if I didn't. Part of teaching is making students feel confident that they have the ability to wrap their heads around concepts that may be very challenging. And if even the instructor can make mistakes? Well then students hopefully won't feel so frustrated and demoralized about the ones they make.

      It's a fine line to walk while teaching. On the one hand, you want to be an authoritative source of knowledge on whatever topic you're teaching. On the other, you need to be human. And part of that is not trying to portray yourself as some infallible god. Because ultimately that's not what you are. And kids are clever and perceptive; they can see through your bullshit. If you make a mistake and try to cover it up, they will see through it, and they will lose respect for you. Aside from a few reprobates, most kids have enough emotional intelligence to realize that ultimately you're just a human being trying to do your best, and that some errors are inevitable. Students are perfectly willing to forgive imperfection. They're far less willing to forgive dishonesty.

  • I'm pretty sure a currently 4yo nephew of mine will suffer some sort of bullshit like that in the coming years. Little bud is already able to read big numbers like 368 (also in english no less!) and full words despite the preschool not teaching either.

244 comments