Do you personally think school is something you need?

[Euphoriet]

I mean.. do you think you would do better in the subjects covered in school... or at least some of them, if you didnt have to go to school and attend all the classes and do all that hw?
Do you think you are capable of learning topics covered in school better if you wre all on your own without all the stress?
this post is mainly directed towards those with IB and Ap/honor classes...

I myself.. sometimes wonder if I could .. .but I do admit that school provides some things that I wouldn't have been able to experience without it.

 

[cookiemonster]

School is not just about academics.

cookiemonster

 

[chroot]

It's very difficult to learn anything via self-study alone. Not impossible, though -- and the more you work at it, the better your ability will be. However, no textbook can ever teach as well as another human.

- Warren

 

[manikandan_physics]

hi euphoiet,
my humble opinion is that school is the place which seasons our mind to read.otherwise its not possible sit and concentrate in the subjects continuossly so be at school is better.

 

[recon]

I think that being taught in the classroom inhibits learning. After all, not all students are of equal ability, and the teacher always goes at the pace of the slowest students. However, not attending school will result in less socialising with other people, which isn't very healthy either.

 

[Chi Meson]

I really doubt that people are truly aware of all they actually did learn in school. Most people just assume that they would have "gotten" all that "larnin" on their own. But if school was optional, and your parents were not well educated, it would take an exceptional person to get to the stage that they could read.

You, (us, the people in this forum who are rather intelligent) would probably do well on your own, so go ahead and pull out. Be "home schooled," don't go to college, use the college money to start you enterprise right now. You will be successful. I have faith in anyone who can teach themselves everything.

 

[recon]

I am not able to teach myself everything. I'm 14 and I'm managing Grade 12 Physics and Calculus quite well on my own. However, progressing from there to university level stuff is quite difficult to do without guidance.

School is NOT the answer for me. They do not have the resources and will not make exceptions to tutor students like me in single classes (my school only caters to students from Grades 7 to 10). I cannot enrol to another school because there are no other schools here that are better than my school.

[EDIT: Homeschooling is not allowed in my country. ]

 

[Njorl]

Well, back in the dark ages when I was in school...

Teachers always assumed I was stupid because I never paid attention. They didn't bother trying to teach me. I did poorly until forth grade, when there was a very long teacher strike. My mother taught me at home at that time. Putting in just about 2 hours a day for 3 months, I learned most of what you are supposed to learn in the first 6 years of school. Elementary school, unfortunately, is more a place to store kids than anything else.

On the other hand. I didn't really learn to think critically until my sophomore year of high school. Analytically, I was a whiz, but I wasn't prepared to puncture the bubble I lived in from the inside. A few very good teachers prepared us to question our beliefs with as much of a detached perspective as possible. One particularly good and ruthless history teacher would insist upon taking the most outrageous viewpoints and arguing them until we objected and debated him. He prepared me for life on this board

In short - for the nuts and bolts of learning, school is not important. For expanding your mind, school is probably a good place, if it is a good school.


Njorl

 

[Chi Meson]

...if it is a good school.

I guess this is key.

 

[Artman]

I think that being taught in the classroom inhibits learning. After all, not all students are of equal ability, and the teacher always goes at the pace of the slowest students.

This is an excellent point. When I moved in the fourth grade, I was placed in the middle reading group, instead of a higher group because they hadn't had a chance to evaluate my reading capability. A friend of mine in that group and I would race each other, reading ahead of others. We would be so far ahead that when the teacher would call on us to read outloud, we had no idea where the others were. It just looked like we weren't comprehending what we were reading. It wasn't until the 8th grade that a teacher noticed what we were doing and moved us into the higher reading group.

School never seemed fast enough for me. I'm currently taking distance learning courses to get my degree and doing quite well.

 

[ShawnD]

I've read ahead like that before and it messed me up. My class was reading Lord Of The Flies and we were supposed to read to about half-way by a certain date; at the half-way point in that book, things are still going good. That semester, I didn't know any of the people in any of my classes, so I just read that book whenever I had time in class. I was done the entire book way before the date the teacher wanted half the book done by. On the due date for reading half the book, the teacher wanted us to do an in-class essay about what we thought of the society the boys have created. I couldn't remember where we were supposed to read up to, so my entire essay was about how everything is turning into anarchy.
The teacher assumed I had just watched the movie and she gave me a low mark; something in the 40s.

 

[Michael2003]

For most of my education I went to a terrible school. I think the teacher's had something against me. I could be consistently top of my class and when the came to regrouping us, I'd get put down a group and never have this explained to me. If things went wrong because I was put under pressure, which I don't react well to, they'd pile on more pressure making my grades go further down. I just couldn't work there and ended up getting useless grades at the end of it all. Now however, I am at a different school and I am getting on a lot better. My teachers seem to be a lot more willing to let me try to do things my way and go to them whenever I need help.

I was once told about a private school where they implemented a policy whereby you didn't have to actually go to the lessons. They'd put up a list of lessons and you could go if you wanted or just stay in a central place. At first the attendance levels were low, but then most people decided that they actually wanted to go to the lessons and they all got good grades because they wanted to do the stuff, and weren't just told what to do. That is the sort of environment I like. Doing what you love to do for yourself.

As for learning by yourself, I think that some guidance is needed. If you just tried to learn something with absolutely no guidance you may miss something important and could end up misunderstanding what you are learning. With a bit of light guidance you can get really effective learning, testing yourself a lot by teaching yourself but have that help if you need it. I like that sort of thing because if is more rewarding when you get somewhere than just having something explained to you.

 

[pace]

I absolutely think school and education is what we need. The problem, if there is, lies in the way we're getting it. I've always believed 1 year of work after first school or middle school would be the thing, at least for boys today. So that we're not alienating our study away from the work. In essence I don't think it's the best way to study for 10 years, and then suddenly start to work. Also we need to get the picture of work as it is, see how we really respond to work, see the other side of the picture.