It occurs to me that I have never really expressed my views regarding how "unnecessary" school seems to me after a certain point. A somewhat heated conversation regarding educational funding at the Halloween party got me thinking about this again. The argument someone had was, in a nut shell, beyond the early years of learning to read, write, and do basic math, what did you really learn in middle and high school? Not much, or at least not much of relevance to "real life" is my guess.
"Well roundedness", it seems to me is the reason behind some of the classes you are required to take in later years. Foreign Language comes to mind, specifically. Aside from the fact that I have high doubts (and even did at the time) that I will ever use Spanish in my life, from my perspective, taking the class was a waste of 4 years time, given the fact that I barely remember how to say "hello", let alone anything else. While I enjoyed my American History class, aside from maybe being able to answer a few Trivial Pursuit questions that I otherwise might not have, I don't see it's relevance in my day to day life.
What do you think? Just how necessary is school after, say 5th grade?
All I Ever Really Needed to Know
I Learned in Kindergarten"
Robert Fulgham
Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.
These are the things I learned..
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life.
Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup? The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and sane living.
Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
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2 comments:
I wish to God that Taking things that arent yours was a class in 10th grade.
I totally agree. I hated hated hated history and to this day i do. I could care less what happened in the past. if i want to know i'll look up on the internet.
And for foreign language, hello, it's a filler. I mean serieously, well let me rethink that (post for another day) all the immigrants coming in maybe SPANISH should be a requirement.
What i am most pissed about other than the MCAS itself, is the fact if you DONT pass MCAS you get a certificate of attendance. YOU MEAN TO TELL ME I SPENT 12 GRUELING(if you lived in this house every mornign i hate school house) you'd know that after 12 years to get a certificate of attendance.....Deval you can shove that right up your ass.
My kid goes to school for 12 years she's gotta get a F'ing diploma oh i'll fight that one all the way to the supreme court.
For now i'll calm down, take a breath and hope we get through this week of 3rd grade.
I guess I'm on the other side of this. I got a lot out of middle and high school. The science and math I learned was the basis of my career today (in fact, my 6-8th grade science teacher was one of the most important mentors in my life). Even the foreign language (German in my case) has come in handy - at the very least it enabled me to travel more confidently in central and northern europe as a young adult.
And friends I made and the extra-curiculars I was involved in (gymnastics and theater-tech (props, lighting etc)), have been really important to the person I've become. In fact, I wouldn't have met my wife in college if I hadn't had those experiences in high school.
the dew's sounds really bitter. That's a shame. I think MCAS sucks too, but the current governor had *nothing* to do with making them a graduation requirement - that happened on Mitt's watch. And there's already an alternative/appeals process if a student doesn't pass.
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