Science Forums 2

[lemit]

Theory5,

You are hopelessly mature for your age.

Please try to remember that your school years will at some time in the future be a relatively meaningless blip in your past, as opposed to the relatively meaningless eternity they seem like now.

So, what can you get out of them? Your practice of just recapitulating what was said to you is a good start. You know, if you work at that enough, combining, separating, and recombining the ideas, in that act of creation you will find yourself actually learning.

The best you can hope for from school, aside from honing skills of self-expression, is access to all the information that kind of blows down the empty hallways and props up the trashcans. The head-on educational experience is intended to not leave any child behind nor propel any child ahead. It is intended to grind all brains to a pulp which is then called the future of the country. God help us.

It doesn't have to be that way for you as an individual. You can read the essays of Oscar Wilde. Besides "The Critic As Artist," try his notes from "Reading Gaol."

About Columbus, try "1491." One of my favorite novels is "Little Big Man." To fend off the other end of the spectrum, check out Twain's "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses."

And so on. Challenge yourself. Don't expect the challenge to come from formal education. I didn't challenge myself. I depended on my ability to write to keep from having to learn anything. I regret that deeply now.

I should tell you that my first two years of school were in a one-room schoolhouse. I listened to all the lessons, read the library, and was horrified when I found out I needed to go to a town school. That was the end of my usefulness in school, although I eventually did some postgraduate work (in educational philosophy).

I ended up eventually working in a college library and, for five years, supervising a herd of student employees doing public service. I tried to teach them, in a less concentrated fashion, what I have been trying to tell you. For example, when valuable, unique programs were closed so the money could be spent on sports, I reminded them that the primary purpose of a university is to raise money. The students and I loved each other, and that transmitted easily to the public. Of course, as soon as it was feasible, that job was taken away from me, although the students voted me their favorite supervisor and the users voted our service their favorite in the library. The student employees returned to their accustomed cynicism, I retired, and all was right with the world. The students I supervised have gone on mostly to IT and library jobs, no matter what they wanted to be when we met. I'm proud of all of them.

So, please feel free to say here those things you would get into a world of trouble for saying in school. I will enjoy helping.

--lemit