Your creativity and skills are being murderd

[Darth]

Lets say you got into those biology and craft classes and found that biology was what you wanted to do.

Good luck trying to continue with biology at uni with poorer maths and English.

Economics yeah, sod it. But if a kid is struggling with maths or English (especially if his interests(not just strengths) are in fields like sociology and biology rather than P.E and Crafts), then yeah, I would say additional classes would be appropriate.

You state that that fields (biology and crafts) were of interest to you, so yeah, I don't think the extra maths was inappropriate.

[Violet]

They're trying to give you a fundamental understanding of each topic. It's understandable that you would need extra classes in the areas you scored the lowest on. This is how we improve all our skills. Economics, in my book, is a more worthy class than "Crafts".

Not in my book. Get lucky with your craft, and you have half a shot at making it white.

Too much focus on economics is diving headfirst into the black, lest it be wholly ineffective

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Good luck trying to continue with biology at uni with poorer maths and English.

Math isn't difficult, and anyone who claims otherwise is a liar. Same with cooking. "I can't cook!"... they mean "I can't follow directions!"

Better idea than wasting your life studying every nuance of english: Embrace it on the internet. Got the basics? You're lingual mastery should explode plenty rapidly, assuming you've no particular learning disability.

And now, for a religiously inspired melody!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uORhjM9h9vo

... I messed up. That's an acid-inspired happiness maker. Wonder where all my religious music ran off to

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If I were to become realy good at say for instance crafts, I would at one point I have to be to sell my crafts for a living.

I wouldn't count on it. Artistic expression usually sells for dirt, exceptions being A: it is extraordinary in some way, or B: a producer accidentally happens upon your work and is just drunk enough to consider it gold (if you're Justin Beiber, say).

Regardless, unless they happen to be blessed with luck as well as talent... one will solemnly kiss the sodding corpse of their employability for creativity sayonara. Or spend the rest of their life destitute.

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Dear mother of fuck you're impossible. Who said anything about focussing on ONE thing. I'm talking about THINGS. Read my other examples. One thing/subject will lead to another, and then another and then some. Eventually I believe you will know enough to function perfectly in a sociaty. So you won't know just one thing.

Let's not give this system too much credit, now... you don't need to have a lick of mathematical understanding to take out the trash at Micky D's.

To function perfectly well in society... mostly follow the rules, and you'll 'make it'. Or don't, and you can still 'survive'. It doesn't require much, and education is, at its best: a bonus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vadN2uBXcE

[Fryslân]

contradictory

How so?

Your old job was one you didn't like, so it was something you studied for and did not like.
Your hobby, something your probably better at, or want to better at and like to do. You said you made your work out of your hobby. So you're doing what you like and probably are better at then your old job. So it's contradicting to not see what I mean to say with this thread.

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It's threads like these people just can't accept new ideas. The ones that do not understand what i'm trying to say are narrowminded in my opinion. I think they should focus more on peoples skills and creativity more. Since these are also a form of intelligence. It's just the fact that i'm not a proffecor that makes people think everything I say is up for ridicule. I know atleast one proffecor you should check out if you're interested. Check out Ken Robinson.

[thesummerqueen]

There's a lot wrong with American educational system - at least the one I went through in Prince William County in Northern Virginia. There seems to be plenty wrong with the system in Cabarrus county here in North Carolina as well. I can't speak as to other countries.

That said, all knowledge is useful. I believe that schools bloat and suck dry areas that they shouldn't in order to conform to government programs, and I've expressed my opinions of that elsewhere, but having a basic understanding of the systems that surround us and govern our lives is not a bad thing. I may never enter into commerce, but it would serve me well to understand the surface of economics. It helps me make informed decisions, as it ought to help people who enter into the wide world at 18, although I don't know about you but I was still pretty shit-stupid at 18.

If you ask me, it's not being made to learn things you're not interested in that's the problem, but the way that it's taught. The subject matter doesn't stifle creativity - the way it's presented does. A lot of dry facts with no relation to how it applies to the outer world. It really bugs the shit out of me the way math and history especially are presented.

Also, just because people don't agree with you doesn't make them automatically narrowminded. It means they have a different opinion.

The reason people are trained in more practical subjects rather than creative ones is because the world runs on practical applications. Creativity - the arts - unfortunately do not earn enough 90% of the time to supply people with the revenue necessary to live. Some people are lucky and hardworking within that framework to produce something that many people like, OR that enough people are willing to pay big bucks for. This isn't always the case because crafts and arts are subjectively judged. What I think is beautiful isn't the same as what you think is beautiful and while you might have spent hours putting something together and fulfilling your creative urge and executing it beautifully, I'm not under any obligation to buy it or pay to see it. On the other hand, people always need tables waited, math done, bridges built, plants grown, etc.

My school had a horrible botany section in their science labs. I wish they had expanded this and I might have discovered my talent with plants sooner. My school DID have a photography program, but I only recently discovered an affinity to it. Part of this has to do with how I changed as a person over the past several years - nothing to do with anyone stifling creativity and me rediscovering it. I would never want to do photography as a real job though. It's for my personal pleasure, no matter how much of a hobby or passion it is. Some people might want to live and breathe their art. I don't - and neither do a lot of others. But more to the point, why are you letting your past dictate who you are now? You're an adult. If you want to go do something creative, go do it. Remake your life.

[Annik]

How so?

Your old job was one you didn't like, so it was something you studied for and did not like.
Your hobby, something your probably better at, or want to better at and like to do. You said you made your work out of your hobby. So you're doing what you like and probably are better at then your old job. So it's contradicting to not see what I mean to say with this thread.

I did train in my hobby. I realized in my second or third year of high school that graphic design was calling my name, although it's very unusual for someone to know what career they want to pursue that early. One of my best friends switched majors 3 times during her college career. You assume too much.

It's threads like these people just can't accept new ideas. The ones that do not understand what i'm trying to say are narrowminded in my opinion. I think they should focus more on peoples skills and creativity more. Since these are also a form of intelligence. It's just the fact that i'm not a proffecor that makes people think everything I say is up for ridicule. I know atleast one proffecor you should check out if you're interested. Check out Ken Robinson.

That isn't it at all. You can't see what is fundamentally wrong with letting someone in their school age ignore becoming proficient in a wide variety of topics before their truly decide what they want to do with their lives and it's not always the thing they are best at (reading and sciences was something I was good at, but I didn't want to make that into a career, although I do have a psych minor for personal enrichment). Education is important not only in getting a job, but in leading a full, satisfying life.



EDIT: Summer has the right idea. I'm actually in favor of education reform because the interest has revolutionized the world and we haven't adapted out schools to it yet. As my beloved psych professor would put it: We teach people what to think, not how to think. That is what really needs to change. We could produce a whole generation of critical thinkers.

[thesummerqueen]

Exactly right, Annik. I excelled at art and literature. Miles ahead of most of my classmates in literature/English courses, especially. Unfortunately, beyond teaching, there isn't a very practical application for this talent in the paying job market.

You see, in elementary school we were in the "Accelerated Reader Program" which encouraged kids to read with a points system. It was a detriment to us learning basic science and math skills, though. These things had to be remediated in middle school. I am still weak in science and math, which is a shame. It's only my great respect and love for science that pushed me to struggle through what I initially lacked. In this case, my grades might have reflected that I was poor in science and shouldn't have continued, but I love science. Second, in art I had poor grades from not meeting deadlines and poor work ethics. However, I can sew, paint, make clothes, was learning to throw pottery, I'm developing my photographer's skills, I can sketch, and I have ideas.

Kids need to be balanced. At 17, there was no way for me to know that at 27 I'd be toting a camera around and dispensing plant advice.

[Rayaan]

I wasn't good at math and science either. I used to do a lot better, and more interested, in the Arts and creative-related courses. I liked writing and poetry as well (though not literature, specifically). I liked science classes, too, but I didn't like the part where we were required to memorize massive amounts of information and complicated details while being shown all these different slides one after another just to pass some exams, only to forget them afterwards. My appreciation of science grew mostly from the books that I have read on my leisure time, not from the classes I took.

Liberal Arts, which includes subjects like writing, art, music, philosophy, culture, anthropology, psychology, etc., overall, are given less priority academically as compared to science and engineering. But as Summer mentioned already, there's a reason for that, and it's simply because the Arts tend to have a much less demand on a professional level.

But people have different goals and desires in their lives, obviously. Some people mainly aim to find a high-paying career for themselves and so they pick their subjects accordingly, while other people much prefer to study whatever they are interested in regardless of the professional applications.

[Welsh cake]

I don't have career, just a dead-end desk job that barely puts food on the table.

My creativity is dead on account of there's always someone better, and I mean a LOT better. Hoo boy, we talking humiliation here. Why try and fail? is my motto.

[festive1]

EDIT: Summer has the right idea. I'm actually in favor of education reform because the interest has revolutionized the world and we haven't adapted out schools to it yet. As my beloved psych professor would put it: We teach people what to think, not how to think. That is what really needs to change. We could produce a whole generation of critical thinkers.

THIS! I would love to see a generation of critical thinkers... Just imagine what they could accomplish! It would be awesome!

[Angrboda]

"Individuals suck."