Tuesday, 5 October 2004
They're not paid to think!
I just got an email from a former homeschooler, who plans to homeschool again in the future.... She was "so mad she could spit"... her words, not mine.
Her son did poorly on a school assignment because he thought for himself and so he got the answers wrong. However, based on his personal experience, his answers were technically correct.
The problem with this is that in school, kids are not "paid to think"; they are paid to give the answers the teachers want. These answers are very often right in front of their noses, as it was in this instance. He had to look at a bike diagram and answer questions on how to fix bikes according to the diagram. But he himself knew how to fix bikes and his knowledge base was wider than the normal person's was. So... when they said at what point to you go to a mechanic, he said. "I don't have to... I can fix it myself!" If you ask me, the answer was genius... but that does not make it right.
Seems to me that the last thing the schools want the kids to do is to think for themselves... and we wonder why the country is such a mess... there are no original ideas anymore. Children are trained to be discouraged, hoarded, and used for mass labor. Hmmm... that explains why she complained his math books were so confusing. Maybe he isn't supposed to learn math.
Just my thoughts for the day.
As I remember it, my male teachers were especially fond of the phrase "you are not paid to think". I wonder why? Did any of your teachers every say this to you?
Read more Notes From a Homeschooling Mom
1 comment:
I don't remember being told that, but I did once get marked wrong on a test for being too precise. I had learned in 5th grade that the speed of light was 186,282 miles/second. In 6th grade we learned that it was 186,000 miles/second. When I put the more precise answer on the test, I got it wrong. When I confronted the teacher about it, he said that I was supposed to give the answer that our textbook said, not what I had learned before. I thought that was rather dumb, so I didn't let it bother me.
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