Homework wars are wearing me out.

[WabUfvot5]

Originally Posted by wolf

In prison you get to take a dump when you want. You don't have to raise your hand to ask permission.

But you are right about the meaningless and degrading busywork.

Like learning to do math without a calculator. It's horrible what they ask of kids these days.

So students are treated even worse than prisoners in some cases? Sheesh, I'd have committed a crime to get better conditions. And the calcs are a hard issue. The speed up a lot of stuff once you learn the ideas behind it, but many use it as a crutch to get through class. Ultimately those who want to learn will learn.

[xoxoxoBruce]

At 15, on the List Of Reasons To Do Something, "because Dad told me to" is at the absolute rock bottom.

That's because they're fed so much self esteme they think they're in charge. Damn shame.

[SteveDallas]

Originally Posted by Jebediah

So students are treated even worse than prisoners in some cases?

Paul Graham has written an interesting comparisons of school and prison.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Paul Graham has amazing insight.

If I could go back and give my thirteen year old self some advice, the main thing I'd tell him would be to stick his head up and look around. I didn't really grasp it at the time, but the whole world we lived in was as fake as a Twinkie. Not just school, but the entire town. Why do people move to suburbia? To have kids! So no wonder it seemed boring and sterile. The whole place was a giant nursery, an artificial town created explicitly for the purpose of breeding children.

Where I grew up, it felt as if there was nowhere to go, and nothing to do. This was no accident. Suburbs are deliberately designed to exclude the outside world, because it contains things that could endanger children.