From: jane@soave.swdc.stratus.com (Jane Beckman)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Spheres and Calculus [Re: Cyber (was Introduction was Eh?)]
Date: 23 Dec 92 22:05:41 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc., San Jose, CA

"I think the school system is set up to cater only to the "norm,"
whatever that is.  A little bit of non-coping with the
learning-disabled, and a LOT of non-coping with the
extra-fast, extra-intelligent kid.  I think this last is
infinitely threatening to teachers, because it makes them feel
less needed.  The slow learners are part of being needed, and
while they might be frustrating, they are not some kid who
makes you feel---superfluous?

"I had a hard time in grade school because I was one of the
latter.  I was always punished for being a smart-ass, for
asking questions that the teacher didn't know answers to, for
"getting ahead" (when you're bored, don't YOU read ahead in
the book?), for "bringing in extraneous material," etc. etc.
My first problem was that in first grade, I had learned to do
handwriting, not just the round-hand copybook style, but the
stuff with all the flourishes.  To say the shit hit the fan
was putting it mildly.  I was constantly getting in trouble
for using cursive (which was faster) rather than kid-printing,
which I had mastered by the time I was three years old.  And
when we did start doing "handwriting exercises," I can still
feel my smarting knuckles for doing my own style of writing,
rather than copying the style book.  (The teacher favored
correction with a ruler.  There are letters I still have
trouble with, because they're kind of halfway between my own
style, and what the teacher wanted, and one of them is my
middle initial!  The only place I can decently write it, with
all the points and flourishes, is in my signature.  I always
got "D"s in handwriting.  (And my handwriting is pretty much
unchanged, nowadays, except that the points and flourishes got
winnowed out.)

"The next problem was that I was reading several grades ahead
of grade level. But then, I'd been reading since I was 3, too.
My mother got called in for a conference after my second grade
teacher had confiscated "The Incredible Journey," which I was
reading in my desk on the sly, after I had finished out boring
reading lesson.  She was told not to let me read books that
were "too old for me."  My mother, sensible woman, said she
refused to do any such thing.  But she did take me aside and
teach me how to "play dumb" so I could "pass."  Probably one
of the most useful lessons I ever learned.  How to hide your
light under a bushel basket, so that the world won't try to
shoot it out, I call it.

"I got bad to mediocre grades for the rest of grade school.
Combined boredom and playing my role.  When I hit 9th grade,
however, I finally found interesting stuff, like Trig and
various science classes, and foreign languages.  I finished
out most of High School doing independant study.  Among the
classes I took as independant study were Physics, French III
and IV, Advanced Trig, Calculus, World Literature, etc.  For
the first time in my life I was happy and getting good grades.

"Why wasn't I the Valdictorian?  The one blight on my
otherwise-4.0 record was my "incomplete" in Calculus.  I
didn't finish the class because I got "stuck" on some of the
concepts, and there wasn't actually anyone "teaching" the
class.  It was like trying to take it via a correspondence
class.  That, and the fact that I had "B"s in Physical
Education.  The Valdictorian was a straight-A student.  He got
all A's in classes like "Auto Shop" and "Chorus" and Phys. Ed.
He took the minimum solids for graduation, and (it later
turned out) had his father do all his homework, so he could
devote himself to being a football quarterback.  He got a
football scholarship and flunked out of college in his first
year.  (I finished college with a 3.29 gpa---for a change,
there was no chance of getting bored!)

"My general attitude toward our school system is the following:
Every kid should attend public school, at least for a little
while, but not to learn the subjects taught.  They should
attend to learn how to deal with fellow students, and learn
what a load of petty crap the real world is, and how to adapt
to it.  It taught me that there are folks who believe "To
achieve order, sometimes the innocent must suffer along with
the guilty," like my second-grade teacher.  (When I attempted
to argue that this was against the philosophies of the
Founding Fathers, I got sent to the Principal's office.)  It
taught me that Justice is not blind, but dyslexic.  It taught
me that you have to play games if you want to survive in this
world, and that knowledge is an immense threat to the common
citizen.  And that the world operates not by logic and thought
but by fear and irrationality.  These are very valuable
lessons, and ones that they will never put on the curriculum.
But the sooner kids learn them, the better they will learn to
survive in a hostile world."


--
  Jilara   [jane@swdc.stratus.com]

"The field of pseudo-science hasn't progressed much in ten
years, except to gain access to the net." --from ca.earthquakes