6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss of Formal Schooling

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/6_year_old_stares_down_bottomless

by Eliezer • 18 years ago

46 22 18 years ago

theonion.com

MaysonL• 18 years ago

It is a rather horrifying prospect, isn't it?

davidw• 18 years ago

Yes, but it was a lot better than the alternatives when mandatory schooling was instituted in most countries.

Prrometheus• 18 years ago

The problem with government is that it will take a policy that was a good idea in the 1800's and continue that policy until the country collapses.

babyshake• 18 years ago

Oh, there is a bottom. There is definitely a bottom to the abyss.

The question is, can you calculate the length of the abyss based on the time it takes for your screams to reach the surface?

nazgulnarsil3• 18 years ago

I think the goal of school is supposed to be to teach children how to evaluate which actions will be most beneficial to them. What school actually teaches is how to be dishonest/illogical in all the correct ways for a given society.

mnemonik2• 18 years ago

Teaches you how to cheat and get away with it. How to act like you are doing something but not really; how to get others to do your work for you; etc...

nazgulnarsil3• 18 years ago

those are the obvious ones yes. the ones that affect people most strongly are the ones we don't think about. You probably picked those because they all seem somewhat unwholesome. It gets more interesting if you take a step back and look at what you do consider wholesome.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

Someone has to look after the children, yes? I started off by writing a lament about my own school days, and how much I loved summer, and how much time was wasted, etc. But then I realized...my mother had to work a day job, and I was an asshole even as a child. Should she have to deal with me 24 hours a day while making a living? Is that possible...?

Is it not more efficent to allow an institution to babysit children rather than working parents? It's a matter of cost/benefits like anything else.

Still, I wish I could really "drop out" from it all. The article reminds me of that fact. I spend 3 dollars/day on food and every other penny goes to shining my prison walls.

mattchew• 18 years ago

Is it not more efficent to allow an institution to babysit children rather than working parents? It's a matter of cost/benefits like anything else.

Maybe. But if what we want is an institution for babysitting, we ought to call it "babysitting", and have conversations about the institution of babysitting.

Instead we call what we do "education" and have conversations where we treat it like a magic spell that will transform children and society.

I would love it if I could hear a politician or columnist say "more investment in babysitting is always a good thing", or "babysitting is the key to solving our social problems".

anaphoric• 18 years ago

thank god for recess! And school wasn't so bad. I mostly have happy memories (I guess I have forgot the bad ones).

Still I remember being so envious of the dog. I was forced to walk a mile through the snow/rain at 7 am and the dog just got to curl up next to the radiator. It's amazing that I was able to get up so early for so long.

edw519• 18 years ago

I was forced to walk a mile through the snow/rain at 7 am

So was I. We're showing our age.

Does anyone do that anymore?

Zev• 18 years ago

Does a quarter or half a mile to class at college count? If not, doubtful

eru• 18 years ago

School used to start at 7 am for me. And I had to drive around 5 km by bike.

pmjordan• 18 years ago

I think it depends where you are. In a lot of places, parents seem to be so worried about the safety of their kids nowadays that they take them to school & pick them up until their mid-teens.

Having grown up in a small town in central Europe, I certainly walked (later cycled) to and from school (~2km), as did most colleagues that lived close enough. (the rest got the bus or train; many kids were picked up on Saturdays though) I haven't been around that school at 8am since I finished 6 years ago, so it's possible the situation has changed.

SwellJoe• 18 years ago

thank god for recess!

Some states no longer have recess.

sown• 18 years ago

I miss recess. :(

And it is true, it seems to have dissapeared. I haven't gone next to an elementary school in a while but the last time I went to my old school, I didn't see any slides, swings, jungle gyms, etc.

:`(

whalliburton• 18 years ago

Anyone who cares about this subject should read Ivan Illich's "Deschooling Society".

http://ournature.org/~novembre/illich/1970_deschooling.html

He was ahead of his time and died in 2002, but his time is now. His ideas on "Learning Webs" and "Conviviality" are a goldmine for any startup not wanting to get rich but to actually help the world.

delackner2• 18 years ago

This ties in nicely with the lecture series recently on Death.

The Onion in good form, blending humor and a question that more and more of us are asking: really, what is the point of school?

A question which has been asked a lot on HN recently, and I hope to see more answers in the near future that are not "eh, school is necessary".

I am so grateful that I started taking part time jobs as early as the 6th grade, after school at INTERESTING places. A patent law office, SETI (really, I was amazingly lucky), SLAC, several software companies. Without those experiences, I am not sure I would have ever realized that work and fun can be synonymous. School certainly didn't teach that idea.

ardit33• 18 years ago

I would never recomend anybody not going to school. It is a great learning experience, and I am not saying academically only. Also socially.

Really, there is nothing prohibiting you on working on a startup idea during summer time, and if it goes well, you can run with it. 3 months is a lot of time, and time is a great luxury when you are working full time. And by the time you reach 21-22 your ideas will have changed.

What I wouldn't recomend, is somebody paying too much for school, and ending up in debt up to their eyeballs when they get out. Forcing them to work full time, instead on an idea.

But even financially, you could go to community college for the first two years, get grants, scholarships, some debt, attend good state school (that tend to be cheaper).

There is a lot of help out there, you just have to seek it. And if you question the value of school, then you either are going to the wrong school (too exepensive, too party type), or not taking the right kind of classes (ie. bullshit majors such as communication, or businness....).

when you start working, you have contact with the same people, doing the same things, for months or years, and not exposed to different point of views, or people that you would be exposed in school.

delackner2• 18 years ago

I was actually thinking just about K-12 education. I got a lot of rewarding stuff out of college. I think most kids would turn out just fine if they were given much less structured enjoyable activities while growing up.

6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss of Formal Schooling

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