[minim]

@panda12 wrote:

but i do feel teaching is now as mims said is alot more directed at exam result achievements,

That is the whole idea! :roll:
#-o

But it maybe shouldn’t be. To just teach so that people pass exams misses out information that might provide a more well rounded understanding of a subject. I guess it has always been like this since the education system involved passing exams to measure achievement, but the skill base is highly weighted on the skills needed to get maximum points. This is a skill, and a very useful one, but I wonder whether learning how to pass exams, to answer questions in such a way as to get maximum results, is really an education? No doubt it will set all children who achieve good results well on their way to an academic future, but do they learn how to analyse and think for themselves? Do they all read round subjects they are studying to gain a deeper insight? There is no doubt that you have to be able to absorb knowledge and understand your subject to be able to pass the exams in the first place, and I am not saying that children that get good grades are not intelligent. I just wonder if they are transferrable skills and being able to pass exams does not always indicate that one child is more intelligent than another. Some exceptionally clever people are cr@p at passing exams. Does this kind of education squash the natural talents in some children?

[minim]

To take up what Pikey said…. I think he’s right that because of the way school’s performances are measured, the teachers adapt a “teach them how to pass exams” approach, rather than teaching subjects in a way that allows pupils to develop their natural abilities. I know a few youngsters who got very good grades for their GCSE and A’levels but if you asked them something specific from the syllabus five years further on, they can’t remember! Knowledge is forced in and then very quickly vanishes because it isn’t applied knowledge. If you learn something “on the job”, it is applied knowledge and the ability for the memory to hang on to skills increases exponentially because people have multi layered memories, not just spoon fed ones. This has always been the case though, nothing has changed.

I don’t think as a race we are any more or less intelligent than we were 100 or 200 years ago. Maybe it is just measured differently now. There will always be people who cannot do simple things and have no common sense, but can recite mathematical equations or complex algorithms. I remember one bloke I worked with once, he had a degree in economics and politics, was a complete brain box with a Teflon coated brain, but he could not EVER work out how the photocopier worked!

Horses for courses, we need lots of talents to make a successful society, and practical skills are as valid as academic ones.

[minim]

For Mr Noddy
by Ian Dury and the Blockheads
and… i expect a lot of the words will get changed, so you will have to fit the correct words into the lyrics….. 8) As most of it rhymes it shouldn’t be difficult.

Winnie The Pooh is having a wank
And what are you up to? said Tommy the Tank
Peter the Rabbit is at it as well
And all the young pixies in Dingelydell

Singing: fuck off Noddy, you stupid prat
Fuck off Noddy in your rotten hat

Sinbad the Sailor is drunk as a sack
Mary Contrary is flat on her back
Pinky and Perky are having a snog
Little Miss Muffets been sick as a dog

Singing: fuck off Noddy, you little prick
Fuck off Noddy, you get on my wick

Happy and Dopey are smoking a joint
Sneezys flaked out, he cant see the point
Fuck this for a lark said Sweet Jack of Hearts
Which one of you bastards has shit on my tarts?

Singing: fuck off Noddy you bloodless berk
Fuck off Noddy, youre just a jerk

Fuck off Noddy, you smelly turd
Fuck off Noddy youre so absurd
Fuck off Noddy you stupid prat
Fuck off Noddy in your rotten hat
Fuck off Noddy you little wimp
Fuck off Noddy youre a piss brained shrimp
Fuck off Noddy you stupid prat
Fuck off Noddy in your rotten hat

a master was our Ian

[minim]

Loving your work Susie :) very evocative. I love the way your mind works.

*hugs*

[minim]

I know somone who had a flashback once…. they set fire to their kalvin kleins

[minim]

@pikey wrote:

I’m sorry, Minim. I didn’t mean my reply to be a criticism of your ambition to study. I think that would be a fine endeavour. I was just airing my philosophical ideas about the whole thread, rather than your post.

I tend to think that when you diagnose, say, depression, you are actually labelling something in the same way you would, say, a broken leg and then proceeding accordingly. This works in cases of broken legs because a broken leg is a broken leg. I’m not sure one depression is the same as another, though. It’s a general problem with all the ‘softer’ sciences, I think, because they can never just point to an equation on a bit of paper, like a physicist or a chemist might, and say ‘but look, it’s true’.

However, as I said, I would hate to think my misgivings would ever count as a vote against studying anything.

That’s ok, I didn’t think you were remarking on my deciding I might like to study psychology, but I was asking where we should look for inspiration outside medicine. Although I think I get the gist of what you mean. Putting people into boxes and labelling them isn’t a holistic approach and every single person is different. I too dislike the way the medical profession categorise because labels of the kind we have been discussing on this thread are not helpful. They don’t tell the story, they just highlight certain aspects of somone’s personality but can hardly give the whole picture. Anyway, i truly am disappearing up my own fundamental orifice here I think. I don’t know enough about the subject to be able to discuss it at the level I would like to. Library here I come :)

[minim]

where do you suggest I look? I look around me all the time, and i am inspired and exasperated in equal meaure.

[minim]

a scratch isn’t flipping acne!!!

mind if it does the trick… who am i to say anything :?

[minim]

I am tempted to study psychology. Have always been interested in the human psyche. Maybe it is time.

[minim]

It makes extremely good sense, but it does show just how complex the human mind is, and when you take into account the ego or is it id? not sure there, but when you take that into account, then the variations on a theme seem endless. I think if someone feels worthless and has a low self esteem, that perhaps they are going round in circles and not getting very far. They perhaps expect other people to make them feel happy, when of course, most of us have worked out that happiness comes from within. Sometimes, to do things for others and stop fretting about yourself can bring deep contentment. If someone is really suffering from a very deep level of low esteem, and is not per se depressed, then it should be possible, if not easy, for them to get themselves back on track. If someone is deeply clinically depressed or has a combination of mental disorders including narcissism, delusions or paranoia, then perhaps that road would be just too difficult to walk without help.

I think perhaps signs of talking things over again and again could be a stress or anxiety thing, but i think that is a symptom of depression in some people. We are all of us different and vive la difference! Whenever people use labels to affix to others personalities it worries me a little. Nothing is as simple as it seems and without all the information it is hard to determine what is what. Someone who consistently talks about themselves could just be a self centred bore! Met a few of those in my time too :)

Anyway, its an interesting subject!

[Author]

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