Science Fair

[glatt]

I was always a big fan of the science fairs until the kids started getting a little older. Now I really hate them. They aren't about scientific discovery. What they are about is following rigid directions and schedules without any explanation about what its all for or what it means.

When you are showing your kid at 1:00AM on a Sunday night/Monday morning how to search for youtube tutorials on using Excel to do statistical analysis so they can come up with some standard deviation number that was never explained to them in class and that you never studied or learned yourself, the only real lesson they are learning is how to half ass your way through something to get 'er done.

The teachers hate the science fair too and are very defensive about it at parent's night at the beginning of the school year. You know it's a state or county mandate or something.