Malik Greatly Disapproves. Again.

[loyalrebel]

[It's been a while since Malik's spoken up on the network but this is something drastic to him and it needs addressing.]

It has been recently brought to my attention that the education system of modern times is sorely lacking in a number of regards.

I was told that beyond the basics of reading and mathematics anything else was not important and was not even taught, and this desperately needs to be rectified.

We may be learning magic and other such things from our overlays, but there are areas that are horrifically left by the wayside in this arms race we have entered in to.

I may not know much about history as it is from most of your perspectives but there has to be educators among us or at least those who will be willing to step up and help the children among us not return home uneducated louts who respond to the idea of mathematics or reading with "why should I care?" or "it is too difficult".

[He's not sorry Phillip. This is probably your fault kid.]

Comments

[claudiometer]

It's all well and good to propose this, but how do you plan on making them care? An education's only as good as your ability to make the students give a shit.

[darkhourdear]

[.......goddamnit this is his fault, isn't it. Have a mental sigh, and an older version of the kid who started this.]

Ok, that was a slight exaggeration on my part- they do teach other stuff, it's just math and reading that's stressed. A lot. ...A whole lot. [like school districts shut down if they dare focus on other shit more a lot]

Also I didn't say either of those things. [the... first was kind of implied but.] I don't mind learning stuff, it's just. Not gonna pick up a math book when I'm bored or anything.

[professorwolf]

Part of the problem is funding and higher-level or less strictly-educational programs being cut in an attempt to keep costs down, and part of the problem is an attempt to standardize what everyone in the country learns so things wind up being taught to the country-wide test, but I don't think it's as bad as all that. I teach biology and health, and my school also had a chemistry teacher, and history and government are also required courses.

[loyalrebel]

If they do not want to learn then they will not be forced to.

I will not apologize for being incredibly disappointed in humanity. Sticky notes, fountain pens and pizza seem to so far be the only good things I have encountered from the future.

[thornsofmalkav]

So are you proposing Liminal School or something?

[She takes a moment to digest this.]

Okay, but I am calling dibs right now on teaching literature. Please, I beg you, let my goddamn B.A. in English be actually useful for something.

[senpaidol]

Hey, a lot of us are from Japan, and we've got the best public education system in the world!

I mean I haven't actually used it much, but, y'know, statistically.

[claudiometer]

I don't expect you to. Formal education has its bright spots, but... well, these days it's more teaching kids how to take tests than to absorb any actual information.

I was younger than most of our current gaggle of teenagers when I dropped out. There is stuff it'd be useful for them to know, but the trick is getting past 'why should I care when no one's making me show up?' Probably more useful to make the information available to everybody, and then the people who are interested can ask about more. [Because really, who says that'll be just the kids?]

[haveabiscuit]

The children here aren't being educated? That won't do at all.

[She's new and hasn't had time to discover the true extent of that oversight]

I was deputy headmistress of a school at home.

[Probably going to be headmistress now, but there's hardly been a chance to formalize that]

[loyalrebel]

Mathematics and language are the fundamentals of humanity, without math we cannot understand the world around us.

I am reading the English dictionary because I am bored and it is a language I am poor with, why not learn mathematics?

[darkhourdear]

...........is that an actual thing or are you just saying that to try and make me like math?

You're reading the dictionary because you're bored? [YOU CLEARLY HAVE A DIFFERENT DEFINITION OF BORED.......]

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh good. You can be our school principal if this happens.

[truerevelation]

...Did you get the timeline where most of the Yasogami teachers gave a shit?

[thornsofmalkav]

It's a thing, dude. Even Donald Duck knows it's a thing.

[senpaidol]

...well, our school might not be the best example.

You went and checked out Gekkoukan in your world though, right? That place looked amazing.

ota even though it's not a toplevel

[fridgeninja]

Even with a year to go, I feel like I'm ready to face the world!

Besides, I don't want to add cram school in between Jaunts.

[professorwolf]

What sort of school do you work at? What do you teach?

[Hello fellow teacher. He is interested in this. He is not aware she is a magic teacher just yet...]

[loyalrebel]

Something, yes.

Just... I am not sure I ever want to see the future as myself at this point.

[aimedhigh]

In my experience that's how most young men and ladies respond to mathematics and reading. But your point is a good one, without education I would hardly have gotten to be a clerk, let alone to the colonies.

[darkhourdear]

Well Donald Duck didn't teach my math classes.

[loyalrebel]

Can you reliably keep a balanced ledger? Can you navigate a foreign city with only a map?

[thornsofmalkav]

I'm going to fucking find a copy of Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land in the boat stores and then make you watch it.

[fridgeninja]

Yes, and yes.

[loyalrebel]

Why would you..? Tests do not... what? The only test should be the practical application of your knowledge in the wider world.

[darkhourdear]

I have no idea what that is. [so it's not his fault he's never heard it before.]

[loyalrebel]

Ducks are terrible teachers... unless it is swimming, then they are not the worst out there.