h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

[Amy] - I wasted the day taking my eyes to Accident and Emergency .

I'm sorry, Amy

I just realized that today is my three year anniversary on the Guide. What a fortuitous day to play hooky from work!

*sips in quiet celebration*

We have autumn at last, but we're not expecting our usual blaze of color. The summer was too dry.

Sending a *brandy* to Titania for warmth. I'll envy you this winter when ski season rolls around. We have the hills, but not the snow.

Amy, sorry your eyes are no better.

*Fully agrees with the points made by MR in post 477 regarding options. Also supplements her kids' educations. Patiently waits for GL's next rant. *

Why thank you, Witty. And I, too, am anticipating GL's next piece with much interest.


A for Amy.

I'm having trouble posting.

There actually is a good reason to teach kids trigonometry, or any other fundamental yet specialized subject. Basically it boils down to how does anyone know which kids will need it? If you let the kids self-select, they may not realize the importance of a subject to what they eventually want to do with their lives. And dare we allow the teachers to decide which children are "worthy" of being taught certain subjects? A bad decision could spoil someone's chances at a wonderful career, whereas if you err on the side of teaching something to people who will never use it, the worst that happens is that they never use it and get bored in the process. The problem is more in the grading process and failing students who do poorly in subjects that they have no aptitude for, no reason to study, and no interest in, and little or no choice about studying.

Which reminds me that I never use the skills I learned to avoid dangling participles.


The other reason for learning something that you have no use for is that it changes how you view things in general. I have absolutely no use for calculus, but having learned it I can un

derstand how the world can be viewed as a mathematical model, and how the mathematical model has limits. I think it makes me less susceptible to raging lunatics throwing numbers around as "proof" of absurd principles (like the scientific study that proved that left-handed people die at a younger age than right-handed people. Totally flawed, but widely reported.) More precisely, I have no *practical* use for calculus (or trigonometry, or history) but the consequences of me having learned it are (I hope) profound.

The same goes for all that useless stuff you learned GL. Sometimes it's not the actual facts you learn, but the learning process and problem solving. The really good teachers, the ones who connect with their students most, know that.

Lil, it is with great relief that I realize that the bomb was not triggered by the sound of your voice.

Sorry, it just wouldn't post in one message.

d'E, I take it you don't like what GL had to say, then?

About taking subjects that you aren't interested in. By high school, some of us have a vague idea of what we want to do. I knew that anything involving math was not my . Not that it isn't important, but there has to be a line somewhere that says, "enough, this person doesn't have to do any more of this." While I see your point, I still don't know what slogging away thru calculus did for me. I hated it then, hate it now, and avoid all mental exertion in that direction. Surprisingly, I did fine on the GREs, merely by deduction. Why force it on a kid who obviously hates it? If someone hates a subject that much, then even more obvious is that they will probably avoid an occupation that deals with that subject. You are not a historian, and I am. You didn't like history, I did. Do you see where I'm going with this?

GL, lightbulb moment for me here....perhaps the problem is that they don't offer enough variety? I mean, electives in grade school are nil, slim to none in junior high, and high school, it's maybe art, shop, and home ec. If they offered more options, would it make you feel better?

Also, how does your daughter socialize? Does she have activities that she does with other kids, etc? Do the kids who go to school think she's odd for not going with them? Practicalities, man!

*monitors go on showing Lil curled up on a chintz sofa near the hearth*

I heard that, d'E, and it never occurred to me that the bomb might be voice-activated! But then, surely no speaker could accurately convey my voice print as well as if I were actually there... could it?

Must ask the landlords...

Anyway, I'm keeping the incoming speakers on all the time except when I go to bed, so feel free to address me as if I'm there. Here. Whatever.

Hypatia, it's been so long since I was abducted that I don't believe I actually met you personally. So sorry that the pleasure is delayed, but apparently my kidnappers have booby-trapped the atelier to explode if I enter the building.

Listen y'all, there's a party of webjellos due to arrive at any time at the atelier. One is called Floradora Debjello and you all will I hope be especially nice to her because she helped me get away. She will be on the arm of her fiance, James Arthur Bottomley-Webjello III. He is soooo aristocratic that the very air around him has probably been knighted. Monocle, valet, accent, the works.

And then there's Lord Lucan. Bottomley knows him from school and he's going to be best man at the wedding. I have no idea how he came to be among the rescue posse!

Floradora has been through some very hard times which it's better that Bottomley doesn't know about... And he wouldn't understand. I have said they can have a wedding at the atelier, for her sake.

Anyway, Chloe should have three suites ready plus a guest room for Bottomley's valet. And Matina needs to think about a cake and light refreshments for a wedding.

I'm turning in now -- probably for my first real sound sleep in several months. See you all in the morning!

*the monitors catch her reaching for the switch just before they go out*

*waves at Lil, before remembering she isn't here*

*settles for waving at the birthday boy and girl instead*

I think we do get to chose in Britain, MT. Or at least drop a few subjects age 14 (I shucked Geography. Bliss). You have to keep doing maths, though. But that's ok, we didn't get to calculus until A level, or in fact, progress beyond adding 2 and 2 to make four. And you can drop it then, too.

Am a teacher, not in a public school, but in a private language school, which makes life easier in lots and lots of ways. Not compusory, for a start. Though try telling that to my teens whose parents are making them come... No, but actuyally, Russian kids seem fairly phlegmatic about having their post school hours entirely consumed by either homework or extra stuff (music, art, copmputers, dancing, languages, maths, chess, etc etc), so...

But as I teach adults as well, I can make a comparison: to teacch adults, you have to be good. To teach teens, you have to be better, as you cannot relly on self motivation. Therefore, lessons have to be more interesting, faster more tightly paced, and clearer, as they ain't gonna plug away till they got it. Plus, and there are very few teachers who appreciate this, I think, a lot of eeffort has to go in on the side of... well, my very experienced and totally fantastic teacher freind calls it 'taming'. People think it's enough to walk into a classroom and deliver a good lesson

On the desiribility of a fixed sylllabus etc etc. Well. Good point. Really, but to be honest,m any teacher who isn't making a concerted effort to teach the class, not the material isn't doing as terribly good job. I imagine there's more pressure to follow the syllabus in a school than there is in my context, but still.

And I haven't finished, but I have to go and attempt to sort out a teacher who gave what was quite frankly the worst exhibition of teaching I have ever seen or ever wish to see yesterday. To the point where I am quite depressed about it. Not least because I'm buggered if I can think of a way of saying 'that sucked' without, like, actually saying it.

[Amy]

[]

It amazes me how some people are put to teach something they are good at - they might be experts in their field, but just crap at teaching...

...I remember this oriental dance teacher I had once - she was a good dancer, but lousy teacher, having difficulties understanding that she had to simplify the exercises to beginner's level - after showing us a couple of movements, she fully expected us to be able to improvise and put together a whole dance ourselves! *shakes head in disbelief*

{[caer csd] I shall be ing around like a headless chicken today. Got to stock the cupboards and freezers so that if sons forget to shop there will be at least soemthing they can eat.

Also have to give them strict instructions on liquidising Sadie's food and when to, or not, microwave it to take the fridge chill off it.

Various contact numbers have to be printed off and stuck to the fridge door. I know they will ignore them entirely, but at least it makes me feel a little less guilty at abandoning them. Those of you new to the Atelier, I hastily reassure you that the sons are 22 and 19!

Until the age of 10 when I was packed off to boarding school (which is called a public school, but is infact very much private ), my education was entirely confused having moved with Dad every time he was posted with HM's Forces, same for my brothers, although they started boarding school at 8.

My sons went to State schools, their final one a huge Comprehensive is now a beacon school, as it has excellent standards.

I can see pros and cons for both systems, I needed the hot house approach if I had any chance of catching up. I never did with regards to Maths, but a calculator solves most of my problems, if not then I ask H who is quite simply brilliant at the subject like so many dyslexics. The sons had a more rounded education and are far more confident than I was when I left school.

Crikey, look a the time! }

[Amy] - back from second visit to the hospital. There's nothing seriously wrong with my eyes.

I've just noticed that my picture of Ronaldo is on the front page

I'm glad it's nothing serious Amy, but how do they feel?

I actually do agree with much of what GL says, but not all of it. OK, I'm stuck on this "selfish gene" thing (almost done with the book, so this bothersome metaphore should fade soon) but the way I'm looking at it right now is that the current school system may not be the "best" but it is the most easily reproduced, and therefore currently the "fittest" for educating large numbers of people effectively. Home schooling is a great alternative for individualized education but would fail on the large scale for reasons already pointed out.

My own experience with calculus was hideous, which is the reason I chose it as an example. Usually an "A" student, I was taught calculus by a dotty old woman who had no

concept of explaining things, and I struggled to reach a "C" grade. Then a few days before the end of the year and the big exam that would determine my final grade I had an "Aha!" moment. It completely changed the way I thought about mathematics, changed my world view to a large extent, and I would have missed it if I had any choice in dropping the study of calculus. Natural curiosity only brings you so far, and sometimes to find the gems you need to trudge through the sludge.

Caer, the leaves haven't started changing color where I am yet, but the acorns have started dropping furiously and the leaves usually are not far behind. You'll be north of me so you may have timed this trip perfectly. Have you checked any of the leaf-tracking web sites?

<-- extra playful and this morning

Is anybody else having trouble posting long-ish messages?