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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (25055)	9/28/1998 12:47:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

>I wonder if a little bit of why we disagree somewhat is based on your being scientifically oriented, and me being more of a liberal arts kind of student.< I wasn't aware we were disagreeing! I felt this was one of our more harmonious debates. What we did is place emphasis on different faces of the same coin. I do appreciate your taking the time to fill me in on how Briana's school handles things. Of course, if disagreement is the spice of the Net, I'll scroll forward to this pair of morsels. >Given the grim choice, I would still argue that it is more important to keep the joy of learning alive than to teach strings of facts.< and >I still assert that reading Homer is a pointless waste of time if there is no recall,< I'll put on my bowl cut and pointy ears and say if it were a CHOICE (which fortunately it is usually not) I'd pick "string of facts" every time. Enjoyment does not build a safe bridge. A sovereign command of logarithms does. Ideally a student should enjoy learning. But the one mandate is to learn. No exam has a question like "Did you enjoy the chapter on conic sections?" As far as reading and recall is concerned - this is a point where the universe might not be fair, but the rules are pretty clear. Recall is the responsibility and duty of the student. If I read Homer and remember nothing, yes, it was a waste. I have faith that most who read it - even in the throes of puberty - will remember more than they think. And the sensation of having a long-forgotten fragment of schooltime learning resurface in a cool context is simply delicious. All else being equal - if two kids learn the same material, and one recalls it better than the other, I'd have to say that the one with the recall will become the more desirable professional. (And in my jaundiced, curmudgeonly opinion - the one more likely to enjoy life in all its mundane complexity.) Good memory is a survival skill, just like any other component of intelligence. Those who don't remember as well may have the same dignity as those who do, but I'd rather hire the latter. And that is as it should be - life is competitive. I want my kids to learn that success has value and that failure carries a price. It is the order of things.