Does anyone here basically feel as though they learned nothing in school?

[Spectralist]

@CutterJohn

I learned a great deal in HS. Everyone did.

Not everyone did. Certainly not a great deal. I sure as hell didn’t. There’s really only three classes I learnt anything in: Biology11, Psychology12, and Animation 11.

In Bio I learnt a bit about taxonomy, though it largely seems to be outdated or wrong by now. At least if Wikipedia is accurate. And a bit on mollusks and protists most of which I’ve forgotten. But at least I learned something there.

In Psych12 I learnt quite a bit. Especially on how to look for flaws in research.

In Animation I learnt, well, animation. Though that was out of class time. The only use for the actual course was in getting me a copy of 3d Studio Max. The school started an animation program before having an animation teacher and the drafting teacher they got to do it knew virtually nothing. Within a couple of months me and a couple of the other students who picked it up quickly ended up teaching the class for him. By the time the second year rolled around we were all but officially teaching the class for him. He’d take roll and tell the class if they had any questions to ask me or one of the other students who were good with Max and then leave the class. Half the class would then start playing Quake. While me or one of the others would help the few students were cared.

But that’s about all I learnt throughout highschool. A few tidbits here and there but my school was terrible. I assumed at the time that it was normal but after talking to some people who went to other schools it has become quite obvious my school was unusually bad.

Math was terrible. Most of the coursework was “Here’s the formula to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. Now convert these 50 Fahrenheit temperatures to Celsius”. Or for the volume of a cylinder. Or something else like that. There was no learning how to figure these things out, or why or how they worked, it was just punching numbers into a calculator. We didn’t even have to memorize the formulas as we were allowed to bring a cheat sheet into the tests.

Social studies was as bad as math. Though they actually seemed to try a bit the course seemed to attract the worst teachers in the school. I had one social studies class that had a decent teacher but I wound up in a class full of trouble makers and he’d spend all class disciplining them rather than teaching.

English was useless for reasons I already mentioned. Movies and fucking books on tape. Damn near all we did throughout all of highschool. Well that’s not entirely true in grade 12 the teacher read aloud to us instead.

Most of the elective courses were as bad or worse. And it didn’t help any that we constantly had mandatory pep-rallies, anti drug/alcohol/life planning assemblies, and other time wasting jackassery. A pep-rally would eat up an hour and a half and its time would be evenly divided between the classes for that day. Most teachers considered the shortened classes to be too short to do anything with so they’d just show the first 40 minutes of a movie, usually A Beautiful Mind or Good Will Hunting. And then the next class the students would bitch that we didn’t get to finish the movie and much of the time the teacher would cave and show the rest of it. Hell I probably spent more time watching movies throughout highschool than I did doing classwork. English, Japanese, Psych11, Social Studies we were constantly watching movies in these classes. And often enough in other classes. At least in Social Studies they were usually about the course material.

No it’s certainly not accurate to say that everyone learned a great deal in highschool. I did learn that A Beautiful Mind is a really annoying movie to have to watch 15-20 times over the course of a few years. Though I’m pretty sure I coulda guessed that ahead of time.

[Balthisar]

@billfish678

So you think the stuff they want her to learn in high school was actually totally useless stuff and that she learned it well was a waste of time? But all that OTHER stuff you learned on your own (rather than getting better grades) was time well spent? So, in high school, you had a way better idea of what needed to be learned than a whole educational system?

Yeah, there is chance that you are that rare genius for which that is true, but for every one of “you” that thinks like that, there are hundreds that are dead wrong IMO.

I don’t credit myself with being a genius. I do credit myself with learning beyond what my particular, mediocre high-school taught me. Remember the context here: this was an outcome-based-instruction school, where the whole goal was to teach to the lowest common denominator. I had come from a better school district, where there was such a thing as “advanced placement” and “college preparatory” classes.

So in regard to the valedictorian, if all she learned was the curriculum, then it was a waste of her time to dedicate herself to only the curriculum. What I learned on my own was definitely time well-spent. I could begin with my 99th-percentile ACT scores (maybe she did as well), but personal fulfillment was equally important (and still is – who stops learning?).

As for whether my way was better than “a whole educational system,” well, yeah, better than my school’s implementation of OBE. Like I said, I came from a better system, and I wasn’t better than the better system, just better adapted to a better system.

Look, I’m not trying to be a snob and say that I’m a genius; I’m not one. But OBE severely handicaps talented people, and while not a genius, I am an excellent learner when not handicapped by stupid regimens.

I’m not well-versed in educational science. I chose engineering. I do know, though, that my school’s implementation of “outcome based education” is a complete and utter failure for people who can easily surpass the limited outcomes that are expected. “All kids can learn” is a complete and utter farce.