You're never going to stop a clever kid with clever hacks.
Clever kids don't need to be stopped. Clever kids can differentiate between a fantasy game and reality. If a kid is sufficiently clever enough to figure out how to play the game, that kid is not in danger of undue influence from it.
This is the "You-Must-Be-At-Least-This-Smart-To-Ride-This-Ride " equivalent.
I live in the middle of nowhere in Japan (it's not all like Tokyo - From my house I'm surrounded by rice fields, stereotypical but true), and the only thing available to me is the ~$40/month 54Mbit ADSL. Of course, I'm so far from the center that my actual download speed is closer to only 8Mbit (I know, I know, you feel my pain).
What's really worth mentioning is the Yahoo-BBphone. VoIP comes free with my internet access, and I can make phone calls to the U.S. for around 2.5 cents a minute, or free calls to other BBphone users.
Oh my god do you make me feel old. Wait until you get to your 30s and your knees start going out for no reason.
I didn't start college until I was almost 26, which gave me the advantage of emotional maturity over my 18-years-old first-time-away-from-home freshman peers. However, I felt like I was behind the curve. The head of the CS department got his doctorate when he was 26, and here I was just starting out. I was years behind where I felt I should have been.
You say children should have more free time and less study time. I feel the opposite. I had a LOT of unstructured free time growing up, and nothing to do with it. If I had lived in a place where there were clubs to join or similar (structured) activities, I would have participated in them. I feel that I have succeeded in life less than I would have had I had more education.
Unfortunatly, because thier entire life has been dictated by a schedual of classes, teachers and parents, these unbelievely smart people are incapable of making descions.
I think you mean to use the word educated there, right? Just because someone takes Calc2 their freshman year doesn't make them necessarily smart, simply educated. Of course, they could be like me and take Calc2 their freshman year, without having previously ever taken Trig. Which would make them both smart (for managing to pass) and extremely foolish (for trying in the first place). [Side-note: The best thing I learned from Calc was during the first term. We had to write a paper exploring a certain calculus problem which dealt heavily with trig. I approached the instructor in his office to ask for clarifications, and lamely said (because I was still in the whiny-freshman stage) "You know, trig is what I'm worst at" (probably hoping he would be lenient with me). He said "Well, here is where you get better at it."]
They have gotten so used to being taught that they find it impossible to do something they haven't learned or to learn through trial and error.
If someone is unable to do something they haven't learned, or to teach themselves through trial and error, they aren't over-taught but they have been taught wrong. Critical and lateral thinking should be part of everyone's education.
Which makes them useless.
Agreed.
You want a skill any employer wants? Do something that you have no clue how to do. Learn how to learn on the go. And stop asking your teacher for every little bit direction.
Agreed again. Example: I work at a school. Right now the teachers are beginning preparations for the next school year (in Japan), and one teachers was trying to re-organize his Excel spreadsheet with every student's grades in it, to save the information about the 1st and 2nd grade students that would be moving up to 2nd and 3rd grade next term. But, because their student numbers were changing, he wanted a way to move them easily without (as he had done previously) spending two days repeatedly copying and pasting. I managed to write a VBA script to do the job for him (and all the other teachers as well), but I WORK IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT. There actually is a teacher for Computers! Where was he? Am I the only one who thought to read the help file? Sigh...
Anyway, I think that more education is a good thing, but I'm looking at it from the perspective of someone who was more self-taught (and who would have appreciated a little structure). I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.
Clearly, it's time to update the old phonetic alphabet with something relevant to our modern wired world.
Alpha becomes Amazon, Bravo becomes Best Buy, etc. Foxtrot becomes FireFox; why, that's hardly a change at all! Hotel to Hotmail, X-ray to XBox...it's so simple to switch over.
I mean, who can remember that P is Papa? I'm much more likely to remember Paris Hilton.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you not read the Evolution sticker shock article from last year?
Note to self: "Do not attempt irony on Slashdot anymore, it will be misinterpreted."
How much to slap a sticker on Groklaw saying that their interpretation of the law is only a theory?
This is the "You-Must-Be-At-Least-This-Smart-To-Ride-This-Rid
May I take this opportunity to recommend the New Yorker's review of Lynne Truss's "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" to the author of the above comment?
It's not the ultimate authority some of its fans would have you believe.
IAAET (I Am An English Teacher), your mileage may vary.
From Bash:
Neo-Tokyo: wouldnt you say suicide is a permenant solution to a temporary problem?
`[6]: I'm a Buddhist, I'd say suicide is a temporary solution to a permanent problem.
http://www.bash.org/?190241
I live in the middle of nowhere in Japan (it's not all like Tokyo - From my house I'm surrounded by rice fields, stereotypical but true), and the only thing available to me is the ~$40/month 54Mbit ADSL. Of course, I'm so far from the center that my actual download speed is closer to only 8Mbit (I know, I know, you feel my pain).
What's really worth mentioning is the Yahoo-BBphone. VoIP comes free with my internet access, and I can make phone calls to the U.S. for around 2.5 cents a minute, or free calls to other BBphone users.
sorry, it took me a while to get used to the bald captain
You mean to say, it took you a while to get used to the OPENLY bald captain, right?
Must....hide....geekiness...... Must......resist.....correcting..... Resist...! RESIST...!!
As an old fart (25) in my first year...
Oh my god do you make me feel old. Wait until you get to your 30s and your knees start going out for no reason.
I didn't start college until I was almost 26, which gave me the advantage of emotional maturity over my 18-years-old first-time-away-from-home freshman peers. However, I felt like I was behind the curve. The head of the CS department got his doctorate when he was 26, and here I was just starting out. I was years behind where I felt I should have been.
You say children should have more free time and less study time. I feel the opposite. I had a LOT of unstructured free time growing up, and nothing to do with it. If I had lived in a place where there were clubs to join or similar (structured) activities, I would have participated in them. I feel that I have succeeded in life less than I would have had I had more education.
Unfortunatly, because thier entire life has been dictated by a schedual of classes, teachers and parents, these unbelievely smart people are incapable of making descions.
I think you mean to use the word educated there, right? Just because someone takes Calc2 their freshman year doesn't make them necessarily smart, simply educated. Of course, they could be like me and take Calc2 their freshman year, without having previously ever taken Trig. Which would make them both smart (for managing to pass) and extremely foolish (for trying in the first place). [Side-note: The best thing I learned from Calc was during the first term. We had to write a paper exploring a certain calculus problem which dealt heavily with trig. I approached the instructor in his office to ask for clarifications, and lamely said (because I was still in the whiny-freshman stage) "You know, trig is what I'm worst at" (probably hoping he would be lenient with me). He said "Well, here is where you get better at it."]
They have gotten so used to being taught that they find it impossible to do something they haven't learned or to learn through trial and error.
If someone is unable to do something they haven't learned, or to teach themselves through trial and error, they aren't over-taught but they have been taught wrong. Critical and lateral thinking should be part of everyone's education.
Which makes them useless.
Agreed.
You want a skill any employer wants? Do something that you have no clue how to do. Learn how to learn on the go. And stop asking your teacher for every little bit direction.
Agreed again. Example: I work at a school. Right now the teachers are beginning preparations for the next school year (in Japan), and one teachers was trying to re-organize his Excel spreadsheet with every student's grades in it, to save the information about the 1st and 2nd grade students that would be moving up to 2nd and 3rd grade next term. But, because their student numbers were changing, he wanted a way to move them easily without (as he had done previously) spending two days repeatedly copying and pasting. I managed to write a VBA script to do the job for him (and all the other teachers as well), but I WORK IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT. There actually is a teacher for Computers! Where was he? Am I the only one who thought to read the help file? Sigh...
Anyway, I think that more education is a good thing, but I'm looking at it from the perspective of someone who was more self-taught (and who would have appreciated a little structure). I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.
Clearly, it's time to update the old phonetic alphabet with something relevant to our modern wired world.
Alpha becomes Amazon, Bravo becomes Best Buy, etc. Foxtrot becomes FireFox; why, that's hardly a change at all! Hotel to Hotmail, X-ray to XBox...it's so simple to switch over.
I mean, who can remember that P is Papa? I'm much more likely to remember Paris Hilton.