I don’t know what age of kids you are talking about but Shakespeare did not live in a world with computers, lasers and hydrogen bombs. A vampire bunny that sucks juice out of vegetables? ROFLMAO
I would have thought that was silly when I was 9. I was reading this:
After that I was learning more about science as a result of SF books then from my grade school teachers. Of course we didn’t have carry around computers then. Science fiction has gotten more literary since then. Plenty of SF readers complain about hard SF.
The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P. Hogan is far better then **Neuromancer **by William Gibson but it is the latter that you will hear about the most.
I had to come up with the money to buy what I couldn’t find in the library and I was upset when the price of books went from 50 to 60 cents. :smack: Now they are $8.
and Project Gutenberg can bring those 1960s prices back. LOL
One gigabyte can store more than 1000 books. That review does not suggest using the device as an e-book reader and audio book player, but those functions alone could make it more than worth the money.
I’m afraid, psik, that unless your point is that Shakespeare is outdated, silly books shouldn’t be silly, and you’re really smart because you read hard science fiction, then your point escapes me.
NONE of them learn it quickly. It doesn’t magically stick. You have to keep reinforcing these skills everyday for all of them.
The best kid in the world will start backsliding on things like tooth brushing and room cleaning if the parent stops mentioning it. Playing nice and following classroom conventions work the exact same way.
Manda Jo, you make it sound as though all kids need an equal level of instruction in classroom skills by the teacher–and I just don’t think that’s so. Donna might come from a home in which mom and dad have emphasized school social skills from infancy, so Donna knows to raise her hand and wait politely and share and say please and thank you and excuse me. Steve might come from a home with six older siblings and parents in and out of jail, and he’s learned that if you want attention, you need to come on loud, fast, and angry. If I have a classroom full of Donnas, I’ll spend most of my time teaching the subject. If I have a classroom full of Steves, I’ll spend much more of my time teaching those school social skills.
Sure, none of them learn it quickly–but some of them learn it at home.
No, it’s just that acceptable behavior at home with maybe four or five people is different than acceptable behavior in a classroom with twenty to twenty-five people. Even the best parents don’t always teach classroom behavior.
For example, waiting in line. Few parents teach their children how to wait in line simply because there’s never an occasion at home to do it.
I agree, but Sateryn76 seems to think that most kids could learn all those things in the first hour of the first day, and in my experience it just isn’t like that. It’s the subtle, steady reinforcement that keeps a class in order, and while you don’t have to spend a lot of time on it any day, you have to spend some time on it every day. Socialization isn’t simply “teaching a lesson”–it’s establishing a culture. I mean, I teach junior and senior AP classes and I still have to give kids looks to get them to quiet down, I still have to occasionally pull an otherwise good kid aside and tell him he’s being a jerk, I still have to tell them not to call people “gay”, I still have to point out candy wrappers they drop on the floor–non-educators seem to think that it’s a matter of One Big Talk, and IME those are pretty useless. It’s a thousand little nudges, and it’s not just a handful of “bad kids”–it’s basically good kids who forget themselves.
Not at all - I’m aware that teachers have to fight the good fight everyday, just as good parents do.
I was attempting to compare it to something like good grammar or basic critical thinking skills, which are something that gets practiced every day in all contexts - some kids need extra help with those, and often get after school help. Same idea with manners and acceptable social behavior - some kids need extra help, and if they can get it outside the classroom, then that saves in class time for more appropriate (IMO) educational work.
