Comment by graemep
18 days ago
> I think the biggest fallacies is 100% seperation of "there is school, then there is work".
A agree very strongly with this. Not so sure about your solution if pushed too young
School level education should focus on mental development and learning how to learn. Given this, applying this to learning practical skills is a lot easier.
I think that link is interesting because a lot of people are taught things, maths in particular, in ways that leave them unable to apply it. People say they never used the maths they were taught in school, but that is because they do not have the grasp of it required to apply it to real life problems. Of course, going back to my earlier point things taught in school do not have to be directly useful (funnily enough no-one suggests kids should not be taught art or literature because they are not useful) so there does seem to be a particular issue with maths.
> hate that after leaving university it is difficult to find out what is taught current students, what are the new theories and tools that have been introduced in the last 10 years.
Or to learn new subjects and fields. IN the UK it has become a lot harder than it used to be - distance learning is a lot more expensive and adult education has been cut back.
I wonder if it's because art and literature are better at teaching one how to think in and derive abstractions from more complex ideas. Math should most definitely do this as well, but I don't think is taught that way. Most of the time is spent in math classes are on procedural practice and connecting that work to think about it in an abstract way happens infrequently.
I think you are right. One reason is that people are first taught maths in primary schools where most teachers are generalists who like art and literature, but dislike maths. People start by regarding maths as a chore forced on them, so never enjoy it, and the rest follows from that.