School (Page 3 of 6)

I too am reading John Taylor Gatto's book. Its an excelant read I recomend that everyone read it.

I too am on a re-education program of my own. My program consists of me re-teaching myself what school has failed to do, yet it also focuses on a more classical curricula.

Independant study of mathematics. Right now I'm failing the class in school but on my own I excel at it.

Independant study of sciences (particually physics and chemistry)

History. My focus right now is on WWII

Literature (Right now I'm reading Underground History of American Education)

Language. Right now I'm studing German. I have also studied French, though I barely speak anything at all. And of course the only real thing I learned in school was how to speak spanish.

Hey all,

I thought school was pretty much a waste of time. I made a promise to save my own kids the experience if I could. Lo and behold I marry a lady that was home schooled, so I am well on my way to saving my kids the traumatizing experience. My kids are 7, 5 and 2.5 yrs.

Much like Vuyiswa I was damaged by my math teachers. My math teachers were so concrete and linear thinkers (I'm not even close) that they couldn't teach me concepts. I did fine for basic concepts and such but once getting into the dreaded "C" math rhymes with alculus,(about the same with finite, algebra and geometry, though I faired better with these ones.) I was done in. So I will be intrigued to hear Ayla's process with math too.

It's amazing how "programming" most home school curricula are too. That is one area I'm starting to identify but have to find a way to substitute.

I am also trying to find out what is 'necessary' for elementary age kids and what can be learned later. I have felt history is a wasted subject except for those interested in it as such should be saved until they are older.

Reading, math, languages/writing/creative writing (not every day), environmental/ sciences(made to their interaction with the world) I think are important for this age too. Beyond that I don't know what else could be important( I'm seeking other opinions).  We have them in dance, and other athletics and if they show interest in music we'll persue that with them too. School lasts about 2 hrs a day.

I think I'll have to grab Gatto's book.

Great to hear the comments.

Just saw this today over on Rense.  Thought I would pass it along!

http://www.rense.com/general68/8th.htm

------------

"An 8th Grade Education in 1895"
10-17-5

Note - It should be pointed out that snopes.com, though admitting the test is genuine, calls this matter "false," passing a value judgment instead of sticking to the veracity or incredulity of a matter. In a rather lengthy, overblown defense of today's educational system, snopes goes out of its way to render this material essentially meaningless, even casting doubt on the 'dumbing down of America.' Sorry, snopes, but that dog won't hunt! There was a time when someone with a mere high school education could determine the meanings of words they'd never heard simply because they were schooled in latin, and could ascertain the meaning from the latin root. Snopes would have us believe knowing such drivel is pointless and has no value.

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm
 
-----
 
Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they "only" had an 8th grade education?
 
Well, check this out.
 
Look what it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895; this is what you were expected to KNOW.
 
Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?
 
Can You Pass This Test Now?
 
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.
 
 
8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895
Grammar (Time, one hour)
 
 
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts
of"lie,""play," and "run."
5. Define case; Illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you
understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
 
Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
 
 
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many
bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at
50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary
levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104
for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20
per meter?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of
which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.
 
 
U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
 
 
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn,
and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800,
1849, 1865.
 
 
Orthography (Time, one hour) Do we even know what this is??
 
 
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography,
etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph,
subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions
under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi,
dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name
the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell,
rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane,
fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation
by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.
 
 
Geography (Time, one hour)
 
 
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba,
Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same
latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the
sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the
earth.
 
Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

------------

WOW!

I swear, I knew less than half of this stuff by the time I left 8th grade. 

What's weird is that by 8th grade, I still didn't understand most stuff regarding the rules of grammar, but I tested highly on it and could recognize what was an incorrect sentence, no problem.    We learn grammar through speech and reading first, then they make us memorize the rules of why stuff is the way it is later....but by then, I didn't care!      In all fairness I was an ace at spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, comprehension, etc., but that was because I read read read all the time. 

As far as math goes, we were learning "Pre-Algebra" and I mostly didn't have a clue what was going on there.   I was out with the chicken pox in May of my 8th grade year, so when I came back I had to "catch up", and just cheated off my friend's Algebra homework and tests.     I was lost, seriously.

History.....it was all memorization and regurgitation.  I didn't truly understand what I was memorizing.   There wasn't any "connect the dots" happening, and the subject didn't feel real to me.  There was no connection happening about how those events of history impacted everything in my world in the present.    But I got A+ 's on my tests.   Yay for rote memorization of names, dates and places.

Science.....forget it.   That's all I have to say about that!   I STILL don't understand what happens when you flick a light switch on.   oh well.

But somehow, someway.......I managed to graduate the 8th grade.

It's not that I was "stupid".  It's the way that stuff is taught, as outlined earlier in this thread.   It's a confusing jumbled mess.   School was torture for me, even though I supposedly did well.   (well, I did "well" until 9th grade...then it was all down hill.  I threw in the towel and didn't care anymore!!  Total burnout.)   I stumbled my way blindly through it, like a person who doesn't know how to swim but is tossed in deep water and somehow manages to keep afloat by manically kicking their feet and arms all around.   Blind luck.   In retrospect, I feel bad for the kids in my classes who struggled and got C's, at best.   I now understand better why that was.

I couldn't even answer most of those questions now!!  Shows how times have changed.  In addition to the useless school system, there are all those distractions nowadays.  Kids can't go anywhere without cell phones, then there is superficial drama's like Big Brother, crazy porn-like magazines...which are full of pictures and no content.  Female magazines like "Cosmopolitan" which promote style of substance - and exude low self-esteem and highlight sex as the be all and end all.

A few weeks ago, I saw a young girl (maybe 15 or 16) in school uniform pushing a buggy with a 2 year old boy in it.  She had just come out of school.  The local schools here now have crèches in them - where the kids can leave their kids whilst they are learning.  Of course the schools don't teach any parenting or life skills.  And these young parents just get to palm their children onto others.  After all - why should they claim responsibility?

My niece dropped out of school at 14 (school isn't a legal requirement in the UK - but education is...so she learnt at home), anyway she got caught up in all the superficial stuff I mention above.  So she didn't really turn out to be a programmed school robot.  Instead she became a superficial robot.  Society "educates" in more than one way I guess.

A while ago I was talking to my Dad about this very issue, and he agreed about the school system.  I mentioned that home education if done properly would be far better.  He totally disagreed, and went into a rant about how a parent educating their children would pass their own biases onto the kids...and this would be a very very bad thing.  I guess this is just his fear of claiming responsibility for anything.

On the whole our society presents this as a very complicated issue.  But in reality it is quite simple; the education system sucks - people become robotic.  If we don't want a part of it, then we need to find a way to step out of it.  Easier said than done, but certainly not as hard as many people would make out.  Maybe it is a lot to do with the fear thing that society is always so intent on indoctrinating people into.  Those little thought rituals that always end in a victim or negative thought form.  Funnily enough, those little rituals are the lessons people mostly remember from school...

But then it seems that everyone here has found another route in life - so maybe that "education" served a purpose after all; showing us how not to be...

Hey Lyra.   I have similar feelings related to school, although I attended various ones for a very long time.  I was looking for a book I read a long time ago - I thought it was called Diary of an Autodidact, but it seems the title is The Day I became an Autodidact - and I came across this book I thought you might find interesting:  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de … mp;s=books

It's called The Teenage Liberation Manual: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education.  It made me think of you.

Oh no.  I know you're not a teenager.  I just thought you might find it interesting because it's a guide to educating yourself outside of the system... and I kind of thought that was what this thread was about.  I thought it looked like a cool book.   For me, school was mostly a huge waste of time, and dropping out and educating myself probably would have been much more efficient and effective.

(Oh, and it made me think of you because that's what you said you did... I think.)