Let’s say that you were effectively a complete orphan. You have no family or friends who could help with this- you are aware there are taxes. You are aware you must pay them. You are aware of the IRS. You are aware of the internet. You may not be aware that you can get tax forms from the internet or from an IRS office- who’s information can also be found on the internet or even in a phone book. The local library could also probably help. And you also may not be aware that the instructions for doing your taxes... are on the tax form. From the post I presume literacy, so one using the same skills as a research paper on the mitochondria, could easily get the information they seek. Also of relevance- did you know that there have been people doing taxes for decades without being taught in school, and without computers, tax software, the internet, easy transportation, low cost public accountants, and the like? If someone who didn’t even learn what a cell was in school can figure it out.....
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· 5 years ago
I think the point is that school doesn't teach anything worthwhile.
I don't fully disagree. The only class I'm glad I took was keyboarding.
I don’t know about nothing worth while. There are a ton of little ways from hobbies to everyday life and jobs to use much of it. Likely not all, but basic school isn’t meant to build specialists. It gives a foundation to continue specialized stuff without knowing up front what that specialty will be. But even if you use none of it- one thing worth while? The skills. The subjects and specifics don’t matter much. You’re given a goal, and optional things, and some latitude on getting there. You’re taught and left to discover how to get there. The drive, the doing of things that seem pointless because that is what you’re asked, and the skills like how to find answered, do research, examine things, prioritize, balance life and obligations, and figure out what you need to memorize and what sorts of things you only need in a moment. Organization, work flow, and other things. School can’t live your life. Everyone leaves school someday. Teachers show you their way, what works for them....
.... you pick up what you want, mix the pieces together, and do what works for you. And sometimes the lesson like organization- is that you were or are a mess- maybe scraping by despite it or maybe failing, and the lesson there is that it could be easier if you got organized in a way that works for you. Disciplined, focused. But no one can do those things for you, no lesson will flip a switch and give you the drive or the discipline or do it all for you the rest of your life. Given an equal shot at the same thing some people fail. No school can prepare you for life. They don’t know what life will be for every student, and if it were so easy to make a program that could anticipate and prepare one for anything- we’d have sentient AI. The point of school is more about learning how to learn than learning the things you’ll use- those you can pick up yourself if you developed your skills.
I mean if i use the same logic as you do I could say we don't need schools because all the information is available on the internet that you know is there and any job youd want to do youd know about and would be able to simply google the information.
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· 5 years ago
Why can't we learn how to learn by learning useful things though? Schools tend to pretend that the things taught are applicable to real life by giving half-assed examples in textbooks but overall I would have liked to know some actual adult things.
I'm not really disagreeing with you because that makes sense. A bulk of the reason I can read well is more from reading in my spare time than actual schooling. But if we're learning, why not learn useful things? I feel like you could incorporate taxes into math fairly easily.
I know I'm not changing any minds here but I think we can at least agree that the American school system isn't perfect. There are some subjects I really feel like could have been totally subjected to optional specialized classes in high school.
@bethorien- we don’t need “schools” per se. that’s just the most widely spread system of mass education because traditionally it has been the most practical way to allocate the resources to ensure an education to the most people. In places or times where most people would never go to school, the educated were usually tutored individually by experts. Everything starts somewhere, and you can’t recall what it is like to know nothing, so you take what you know for granted. Sit a 4yo down at a computer with the internet then, and leave them there for 13+ years and then see how they develop compared to a 4yo sent to school. The whole point is that school teaches you skills- skills you can learn alone but most wont, or will do so slowly. You learn how to use resources and what resources to use for what- if you figure out better ways on your own that is by your aptitudes and will likely aid your success. If you cannot- then you have the basic skills to function in society.
@mayflower10196- We never know what’s useful until we need it and don’t have it. My entire career and education was aimed at something COMPLETELY outside of what I’m doing now. Right place, right time, several times, and each jump brought me closer to here and further form there- and I was able to make them because I had learned things I never thought I’d use. When I was 13 I hated cars. My dad built show cars that placed in big shows like Hot August Nights. He built race cars. Had the tools, the shop, the know how- and wanted me to pick it up. I didn’t want that. Didn’t need it. By 17 I was racing cars without any help from him- but if I’d taken his help I’d have been way ahead of where I was and where I am. Who would have known? So you can’t presict what kids will need in 10 years let alone 20. Some kid will grow up to be a biologist or a doctor etc, and will find much of that foundational knowledge useful because it opened a door to make a leap which led to another, and another....
... you don’t go from being adolescent and not knowing what a cell is to going to med school with no jump. Those facts you forget are the kindling, they don’t make a useful fire alone. They start you off and allow bigger more useful pieces of wood- facts and knowledge- to be added and consumed, as big as you want the fire to grow for as long as you have bigger wood to add and can carry it. School can’t tell you how far you can go- you decide how far you want to try to go. So yes- I understand taxes or what not are things you KNOW basically everyone will use. They are also so brutally simple in most cases, that wasting that time in a classroom to teach you how to read the instructions on one specific form versus how to read them on another, when there are literally limitless things to learn, isn’t a help. It’s a disservice. There are plenty of places to learn about taxes, plenty of time. Almost any adult with a pulse can teach you taxes, but not every adult can teach you Trigonometry.
No one I know has had a school that offers that. The closest thing we had at my high school was financial literacy which basically just taught you what different things were and that youll never afford to be able to leave your parents house. Taxes was never even mentioned.
That's Big Tax Preparer. Getting their grubby hands on our Education Law.
Can you imagine how many of those cushy jobs would be lost if people knew how to do their own taxes???
I don't fully disagree. The only class I'm glad I took was keyboarding.
I'm not really disagreeing with you because that makes sense. A bulk of the reason I can read well is more from reading in my spare time than actual schooling. But if we're learning, why not learn useful things? I feel like you could incorporate taxes into math fairly easily.
I know I'm not changing any minds here but I think we can at least agree that the American school system isn't perfect. There are some subjects I really feel like could have been totally subjected to optional specialized classes in high school.
that gives the American school system too much credit
Can you imagine how many of those cushy jobs would be lost if people knew how to do their own taxes???