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The Bulbagarden Conversational Chat Thread Vol 4

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Goodbye Blue Monday

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I remember somebody on a forum once saying "Fun fact about the BNP: all their members that I have seen are rather ugly."

Anyway, holy shit, this thread has moved quite a bit in my absence. All I had was lunch and a therapist appointment!
 

DerMißingno

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Haha, no idea :p Sometimes you pick up more out of school than in :p
Things I've learnt about on the internet include feminism, anti-racisim, equality, not to be homophobic, why we should care for people, etc. Things I've learnt inside school? What the product of x=738-345 is.

I still feel that the maths that is taught in secondary school is, as a whole, pointless. In day to day real life I will never need to know how fast a fictional train travels and meets a second fictional train.

Oh, so you use parts of speech, classic literature, history and the plethora of other non-math topics that they teach in schools in day to day life then?
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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Are we really going into the "usefulness in life" as a marker of whether a subject should be taught?

Because as an academic, I should warn you all that this topic makes me rather...stabby.
 

DerMißingno

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Are we really going into the "usefulness in life" as a marker of whether a subject should be taught?

Because as an academic, I should warn you all that this topic makes me rather...stabby.
I was trying to demonstrate how tired of an argument it is (especially with regards to math since people seem to be proud of being bad at math for some reason), but I'll do anything to make you stabby ;)
 

reorio

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DON'T STAB ME MY DEAREST. Make me apple pie with that knife instead ^^
 

pokemoll

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Are we really going into the "usefulness in life" as a marker of whether a subject should be taught?

Because as an academic, I should warn you all that this topic makes me rather...stabby.
I'm just saying they could include more useful subjects along with the ones we already have, even though I realise that's kind of ridiculous of me to say.
 

DerMißingno

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Are we really going into the "usefulness in life" as a marker of whether a subject should be taught?

Because as an academic, I should warn you all that this topic makes me rather...stabby.
I'm just saying they could include more useful subjects along with the ones we already have, even though I realise that's kind of ridiculous of me to say.

Such as?
 

dig

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Oh, so you use parts of speech, classic literature, history and the plethora of other non-math topics that they teach in schools in day to day life then?
The Great Gatsby has came up in everyday life exactly two times more than parabolas.
Are we really going into the "usefulness in life" as a marker of whether a subject should be taught?

Because as an academic, I should warn you all that this topic makes me rather...stabby.
I'm just saying they could include more useful subjects along with the ones we already have, even though I realise that's kind of ridiculous of me to say.

I think a lot of children leave school with unrealistic aims and few skills. I'd personally make cooking compulsory, as well as a general health class learning how to treat common injuries or noticing signs of illness. Teaching kids on symptoms of say heart disease and how to prevent it is of more value than analysing the storm in King Lear.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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Are we really going into the "usefulness in life" as a marker of whether a subject should be taught?

Because as an academic, I should warn you all that this topic makes me rather...stabby.
I'm just saying they could include more useful subjects along with the ones we already have, even though I realise that's kind of ridiculous of me to say.

The problem is that usefulness varies for everyone.

Like, as someone in the humanities, I've used next to none of the math I learned in high school (except when I took the GRE, in which I had to review it all because I took no math in university, but fuck if musicology programs gave a shit about my quantitative score anyway). But for people in a lot of math and science fields, that stuff is invaluable.

Likewise, I think writing skills are pretty essential no matter what you're doing. But a lot of people would be more served by a class in vocational writing skills than in research and academic writing. Yet, as someone in academia, that research and citation business that started in late middle school for me built a foundation that I would be nothing without now.

(And I think writing classes could do more to stress the general importance of citation and going back to the original source - especially in science writing - because a lot of people who don't necessarily have to do Chicago-style footnotes seem to forget this. Like, say, a lot of journalists writing about science/academic studies in general.

And since we've brought up The Great Gatsby, don't get me started on high school English and how 90% of them completely miss the boat in terms of why we teach literary analysis as a compulsory subject.)
 

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I know almost nothing of the economy, getting a job and money, and my school doesn't have a class for that. Unless university does, I guess.

We got taught a little, like we had a job experience week. Didn't learn anything about personal finance, like what an ISA is or what bankruptcy means in real terms. My college did have people there to help you find work, prepare CV and such.
 

DerMißingno

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Oh, so you use parts of speech, classic literature, history and the plethora of other non-math topics that they teach in schools in day to day life then?
The Great Gatsby has came up in everyday life exactly two times more than parabolas.

That's weird, because when I was filing my tax return there were no questions about Shakespeare's sonnets.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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@TheMissingno.; Don't even try to compare history to esoteric math subjects a lot of people are, honestly, never going to use beyond high school. (I'm not talking algebra, I'm talking advanced trig and statistics. Yes, most of us who aren't in math and science don't use that very much.)

Every political debate on this website is proof enough for how most people don't know enough history, and why that's a shame.

This whole conversation is silly ,though, because again, usefulness is relative. At the end of the day, shouldn't learning be good for its own sake? Don't people like being smart and have a natural intellectual curiosity? I might never use most of the math I learned in high school in a "practical" way, but I'm not upset that I learned it. In fact, I'm glad. I wish more people in STEM fields could see the same is true for the stuff I do.
 

pokemoll

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Every political debate on this website is proof enough for how most people don't know enough history, and why that's a shame.
I know history, I just know the useless stuff that gives me childish views on politics and unjustified reasons for my opinions. I know the kinda history that's pretty much redundant in every aspect.

Meh, then I'm sorry for starting the discussion. I'm just saying that from a student's point of view the stuff they're currently teaching me is pointless.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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Every political debate on this website is proof enough for how most people don't know enough history, and why that's a shame.
I know history, I just know the useless stuff that gives me childish views on politics and unjustified reasons for my opinions. I know the kinda history that's pretty much redundant in every aspect.

But aren't you 13 or 14? History only really gets fun in the later parts of secondary school and university, when you start analyzing accounts of history themselves and, yes, how much of what we learn in the earlier grades is propaganda one way or the other.
 

pokemoll

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But aren't you 13 or 14? History only really gets fun in the later parts of secondary school and university, when you start analyzing accounts of history themselves and, yes, how much of what we learn in the earlier grades is propaganda one way or the other.
13. Mm, I've heard from my sister that the actual good stuff in both history and R.E comes in later on. But that's only if we take it as one of our options, isn't it?
 

reorio

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Lol 13 year olds.

I personally get most of my learning done reading Wikipedia and internet articles, maybe the occasional debate. a lot of stuff they teach in school is subject to even more bias anyway. Screw those people who claim ignorance is bliss...
 
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