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Comment on It's Breathtaking How Fast AI Is Screwing Up the Education System

Pirata@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

It’s not a take, it’s how children (and adults, frankly) feel about school. It’s not great at making you a capable adult.

Do you know how useful my two diplomas were to get a job? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. None of the theories I learned were useful, neither on the job nor for their own sake.

As for middle school, exactly what did you learn that you think is so useful for daily life? I’d happily replace learning “how to discover x in n dimensions” with basic financial literacy, for example.

The school system as it is is quite literally a waste of time. The useful stuff you learn before middle school.

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Zexks@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Lmao. You things kids are going to be any more interested and pay more attention in a financial literacy course than they are about arbitrary math problems. I have some bad news for you about finance. It’s full of math.

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- Pirata@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Except that personal finance (which of what I’m referring to) is mostly arithmetic, while middle and high school math is algebra.
  
  The moment letters come into the equation (no pun intended) is when you start to lose me.
  
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  - Zexks@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Sorry but financial literacy requires more than 5+5. And if you can’t understand the concept of a variable there are more problems then the course work here.
    
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Eggyhead@lemmings.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It took all of school to help me realize what kind of person I wanted to be, and more importantly, what kind of person I didn’t. It seems it had the same effect for you, albeit a much different outcome. I changed my major two times and was in university a couple years longer than most. It was wasteful for sure, but it directed me down the path that eventually led me to my current career and meeting the wonderful woman who became my wife. My studies don’t really apply to anything I do, but I know they’ve enriched me as a human being.

Just because you didn’t find a use for math in your life doesn’t mean nobody else does either.

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shoo@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

As for middle school, exactly what did you learn that you think is so useful for daily life?

Off the top of my head: basic biology so I’m not dumb enough to be antivax. History subjects that require more than elementary maturity so maybe we can avoid another Holocaust. Enough physics, ecology and chemistry that I can comprehend how climate change is happening. How basic statistics work so I’m not completely lost when someone throws around misleading data.

None of that is automatic from a 4th grade education and is crucial to be a functioning citizen. Learning to take unquestioned GPT answers is not a substitute for actually learning any of those.

You either went to a painfully bad pipeline of schools or were too dumb to recognize the important parts.

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- Walk_blesseD@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Holy shit, thank you, finally someone in this thread is still living in the same reality as I am.
  
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- OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ve been to 7 different schools and the answer is horrible pipe lines. But the true answer isn’t so black and white. It’d largely dependant on area, class, state and local Govts. School fails people everyday, the govt and its systems fail people everyday, medical fails people everyday etc. Systems are perfect they just allowed humans to organize. Subsequently also disorganize.
  
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- Pirata@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You’re right, I was too hyperbolic when I said 4th grade was enough. Biology was indeed useful and so was history. Likewise, learning a second language from 5th grade was crucial for the conversation we’re having right now.
  
  Still, I’d put the usefulness “cut off” point at 9th grade or so.
  
  On a side note, I know people who did the whole of university with me who are anti-vaxers. I know IT graduates who think Trump totally isn’t yet another fascist dictator, and i know a doctor who believes name brand ivermectin cures cancer.
  
  Turns out more education isn’t necessarily related to coming out the other side of the pipeline not being any of the things you mentioned. It’s maddening.
  
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