I went to high school about three weeks. I'm a drop out. But I could read well, so I read books on what I wanted to do. Believe it or not art of the deal was one of those books. Took a college course for QuickBooks so I could do accounting for my business. I now own two businesses (not big). Got my good enough diploma (GED) at one point, thought I'd do trade school but got a good job before I pulled the trigger. We need to be taught the basics and how to learn!
Im a drop out success story too. There's a lot of bullshit the world dumps on people for going that route, but something you learn quicker in the outside world vs in school that its "who you know, and not what you know".
"We need to be taught the basics and how to learn!"
This is the biggest catastrophe when it comes to public schools. The entire concept of self-education is lost on them (mostly by design, but I also think there's some arrogance mixed in there in that many of these radical leftist teachers truly believe people cannot learn on their own ... there always has to be some kind of master/apprentice paradigm involved ... ridiculous bullshit if you ask me).
Public education only focuses on the college bound. A class, in normal times, would have about 25% of its students heading to a university after high skrewl. This leaves 75% either going to a college they don't really want to attend, feeling like they're failures since they have no desire to go to college after 13 years of having it pounded into your head that its either college or a life of suffering, or they basically check out when they step foot in school since they're not wired to sit in a classroom 6 or 7 hours a day learning garbage they'll NEVER use in life.
It's fucking maddening. Public education as it is structured today is a total waste of the best learning years of one's life. You'd think people would wise up when they realize that they need an additional 2-4 years of training in something after spending the past 13 years of their life sitting in a school.
K-6 are the only grades where a one size fits all approach to education makes sense ... by the time a kid is ~ 12 years old, you'll have a far better idea of the kid's strengths and weaknesses as well as their interests. The current system basically throws them into classes that are a total waste of the kid's time as they enter 7th grade.
What these fucking schools need to do (assuming they actually care about their futures, which they don't) is start letting kids 'explore' things that are geared more towards what interests them if a traditional academic environment is not the way their brain works. Just as an example, some people get SCREWED having to suffer through two years worth of algebra when a better solution is to have them learn math from more of an application standpoint instead of all of the theory behind it.
Hell, I'm an engineer that has sat through all sorts of advanced math ... of that advanced math, I probably use stuff in calc I & II the most ... and I only apply it ... I don't care about the theory behind it ... I use math as a blunt instrument to calculate stuff. I don't care how or why it works ... I only care if it works! :-).
I become livid looking at how much time and money I wasted sitting in classes ... one can always earn more money, but you cannot get that time back at all.
Amen-Never made it through more than three quarters of community college myself as it was not afforded me and my parents (paranoid extrordinaire) refused to give financial info so I could get financial aid. 1st quarter was on scholarship. Met my husband later who already had one degree in Mechanics and got his bachelors in business mgmt which allowed us to start our own business which was successful until we got burned out after twelve years and got some rotten customers.
I went to high school about three weeks. I'm a drop out. But I could read well, so I read books on what I wanted to do. Believe it or not art of the deal was one of those books. Took a college course for QuickBooks so I could do accounting for my business. I now own two businesses (not big). Got my good enough diploma (GED) at one point, thought I'd do trade school but got a good job before I pulled the trigger. We need to be taught the basics and how to learn!
Im a drop out success story too. There's a lot of bullshit the world dumps on people for going that route, but something you learn quicker in the outside world vs in school that its "who you know, and not what you know".
You don’t learn critical thinking or useful life skills in college.
For me, Philosophy has been more than useful in figuring out primary sources. It literally saved my life.
"We need to be taught the basics and how to learn!"
This is the biggest catastrophe when it comes to public schools. The entire concept of self-education is lost on them (mostly by design, but I also think there's some arrogance mixed in there in that many of these radical leftist teachers truly believe people cannot learn on their own ... there always has to be some kind of master/apprentice paradigm involved ... ridiculous bullshit if you ask me).
Public education only focuses on the college bound. A class, in normal times, would have about 25% of its students heading to a university after high skrewl. This leaves 75% either going to a college they don't really want to attend, feeling like they're failures since they have no desire to go to college after 13 years of having it pounded into your head that its either college or a life of suffering, or they basically check out when they step foot in school since they're not wired to sit in a classroom 6 or 7 hours a day learning garbage they'll NEVER use in life.
It's fucking maddening. Public education as it is structured today is a total waste of the best learning years of one's life. You'd think people would wise up when they realize that they need an additional 2-4 years of training in something after spending the past 13 years of their life sitting in a school.
K-6 are the only grades where a one size fits all approach to education makes sense ... by the time a kid is ~ 12 years old, you'll have a far better idea of the kid's strengths and weaknesses as well as their interests. The current system basically throws them into classes that are a total waste of the kid's time as they enter 7th grade.
What these fucking schools need to do (assuming they actually care about their futures, which they don't) is start letting kids 'explore' things that are geared more towards what interests them if a traditional academic environment is not the way their brain works. Just as an example, some people get SCREWED having to suffer through two years worth of algebra when a better solution is to have them learn math from more of an application standpoint instead of all of the theory behind it.
Hell, I'm an engineer that has sat through all sorts of advanced math ... of that advanced math, I probably use stuff in calc I & II the most ... and I only apply it ... I don't care about the theory behind it ... I use math as a blunt instrument to calculate stuff. I don't care how or why it works ... I only care if it works! :-).
I become livid looking at how much time and money I wasted sitting in classes ... one can always earn more money, but you cannot get that time back at all.
I think apprenticeships are most important.
Amen-Never made it through more than three quarters of community college myself as it was not afforded me and my parents (paranoid extrordinaire) refused to give financial info so I could get financial aid. 1st quarter was on scholarship. Met my husband later who already had one degree in Mechanics and got his bachelors in business mgmt which allowed us to start our own business which was successful until we got burned out after twelve years and got some rotten customers.