Has school become too academic and less activity-oriented?
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Those classes didn't prepare me for anything, lol. In the 70's, girls were not allowed to take auto repair or anything, we had cooking and sewing. The only thing I remember making in "cooking" class were Rice Krispie treats, simple things that are cheap ingredients for dozens of kids. We were not taught a thing about budgets or finance. In sewing class, we had an entire semester to make a wrap-around skirt (I never finished mine). Not exactly survival skills, lol.
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Funny, they helped me and many I know with a lot. I'm not a designer or architect, but I learned how to read and understand plans and drawings from the Industrial Design quarter which means I can communicate with the designers. I learned how to do basic electrical repairs and understand basic electronics so I can communicate with the ITs and electricians. I learned basic machining and welding so I can communicate with the machinists and pipefitters. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I can communicate with them. Basic home repairs have saved me money. It goes on from there.
Even though I became a physicist/engineer, I credit high school shop with as much to do with it as college courses. Shop is what let me translate what I learned in college into useful communications in the work world. In essence those skills made me "multi lingual" in the work sense. I can speak to the accountants, the contracts people, the engineers, the machinists, the technicians and translate among them. That ability to translate across disciplines is something missing among most of the new college graduates we hire today. We now have to train them on the job for the basic skills that new hires "just knew" years ago because they aren't getting it in school.
there should be a class action lawsuit over the stuff they require students to physically carry. what are they trying to do, give them arthritis by the time theyre teenagers?
I remember in 6th grade my backpack weighed 30 pounds. I was 119 pounds on April 4th of my 6th grade year (so probably 110 or so at the beginning of the year in August). I remember one time I literally felt like my spine was going to snap and my entire back was going to collapse. We had lockers, but often times there would be homework in every subject - making us carry all of those heavy, several hundred page books (that we typically only used about a third of). I was fairly big for a 6th grader, I can't imagine the 70 pound little girls carrying the same weight. You'd think by 2004-2005 they would have had a better solution than heavy textbooks. I think textbooks were much lighter decades ago, but now they have to have everything a teacher might want to teach. Good grief.
I generally liked K-12 school, I went to good schools, but the problem of inhumanely heavy backpacks seems to be at most schools. I graduated high school in 2011 and am still ticked off about heavy books. We need federal standards on how heavy K-12 textbooks can be. Well, now they have cheap, rugged laptops and net books like the OLPC. It can't be that hard to digitize that stuff. Yeah, there's concern that students would get on the Internet and look at sites they shouldn't, but it can't be that hard to design something that would be secure and easily portable.
Having to carry a 30 pound load shouldn't be a required skill in school. I'm 230 pounds now, so that same ratio of weight to backpack weight would have me carrying a 63 pound backpack! My backpack in senior year of college weighs about 15-20 pounds.
Funny, they helped me and many I know with a lot. I'm not a designer or architect, but I learned how to read and understand plans and drawings from the Industrial Design quarter which means I can communicate with the designers. I learned how to do basic electrical repairs and understand basic electronics so I can communicate with the ITs and electricians. I learned basic machining and welding so I can communicate with the machinists and pipefitters. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I can communicate with them. Basic home repairs have saved me money. It goes on from there.
Even though I became a physicist/engineer, I credit high school shop with as much to do with it as college courses. Shop is what let me translate what I learned in college into useful communications in the work world. In essence those skills made me "multi lingual" in the work sense. I can speak to the accountants, the contracts people, the engineers, the machinists, the technicians and translate among them. That ability to translate across disciplines is something missing among most of the new college graduates we hire today. We now have to train them on the job for the basic skills that new hires "just knew" years ago because they aren't getting it in school.
That's great that you learned so much. I wish I had the same opportunity. It is hard to believe you covered that much information in these classes. My shop class in 7th grade was two days a week and it was strictly wood shop. In 8th and 9th grade, we had wood shop once a week and mechanical drawing once a week. I sure didn't learn how to read and understand plans and drawings from the mechanical drawing class.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wawa1992
I remember in 6th grade my backpack weighed 30 pounds. I was 119 pounds on April 4th of my 6th grade year (so probably 110 or so at the beginning of the year in August). I remember one time I literally felt like my spine was going to snap and my entire back was going to collapse. We had lockers, but often times there would be homework in every subject - making us carry all of those heavy, several hundred page books (that we typically only used about a third of). I was fairly big for a 6th grader, I can't imagine the 70 pound little girls carrying the same weight. You'd think by 2004-2005 they would have had a better solution than heavy textbooks. I think textbooks were much lighter decades ago, but now they have to have everything a teacher might want to teach. Good grief.
I generally liked K-12 school, I went to good schools, but the problem of inhumanely heavy backpacks seems to be at most schools. I graduated high school in 2011 and am still ticked off about heavy books. We need federal standards on how heavy K-12 textbooks can be. Well, now they have cheap, rugged laptops and net books like the OLPC. It can't be that hard to digitize that stuff. Yeah, there's concern that students would get on the Internet and look at sites they shouldn't, but it can't be that hard to design something that would be secure and easily portable.
Having to carry a 30 pound load shouldn't be a required skill in school. I'm 230 pounds now, so that same ratio of weight to backpack weight would have me carrying a 63 pound backpack! My backpack in senior year of college weighs about 15-20 pounds.
You realize that backpacks have not always been around in schools? We carried our books in our hands when I was in school. Many of the students I see do not carry books to class or home. Many classes only have a book they use in class. I've also seen where students have a book assigned but a classroom copy is also available, so they don't have to bring their book to class. This was unheard of when I was in HS in the early 1970s.
That's great that you learned so much. I wish I had the same opportunity. It is hard to believe you covered that much information in these classes. My shop class in 7th grade was two days a week and it was strictly wood shop. In 8th and 9th grade, we had wood shop once a week and mechanical drawing once a week. I sure didn't learn how to read and understand plans and drawings from the mechanical drawing class.
You realize that backpacks have not always been around in schools? We carried our books in our hands when I was in school. Many of the students I see do not carry books to class or home. Many classes only have a book they use in class. I've also seen where students have a book assigned but a classroom copy is also available, so they don't have to bring their book to class. This was unheard of when I was in HS in the early 1970s.
The only time we used backpacks then was in Scouts for camping or all day hikes. A couple of us had shell pouches you wore on your belt for trap and dove shooting.
Funny, they helped me and many I know with a lot. I'm not a designer or architect, but I learned how to read and understand plans and drawings from the Industrial Design quarter which means I can communicate with the designers. I learned how to do basic electrical repairs and understand basic electronics so I can communicate with the ITs and electricians. I learned basic machining and welding so I can communicate with the machinists and pipefitters. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I can communicate with them. Basic home repairs have saved me money. It goes on from there.
Even though I became a physicist/engineer, I credit high school shop with as much to do with it as college courses. Shop is what let me translate what I learned in college into useful communications in the work world. In essence those skills made me "multi lingual" in the work sense. I can speak to the accountants, the contracts people, the engineers, the machinists, the technicians and translate among them. That ability to translate across disciplines is something missing among most of the new college graduates we hire today. We now have to train them on the job for the basic skills that new hires "just knew" years ago because they aren't getting it in school.
Well again, girls were not allowed to take shop then. Everything was divided into women's track and men's track.
I remember in 6th grade my backpack weighed 30 pounds. I was 119 pounds on April 4th of my 6th grade year (so probably 110 or so at the beginning of the year in August). I remember one time I literally felt like my spine was going to snap and my entire back was going to collapse. We had lockers, but often times there would be homework in every subject - making us carry all of those heavy, several hundred page books (that we typically only used about a third of). I was fairly big for a 6th grader, I can't imagine the 70 pound little girls carrying the same weight. You'd think by 2004-2005 they would have had a better solution than heavy textbooks. I think textbooks were much lighter decades ago, but now they have to have everything a teacher might want to teach. Good grief.
I generally liked K-12 school, I went to good schools, but the problem of inhumanely heavy backpacks seems to be at most schools. I graduated high school in 2011 and am still ticked off about heavy books. We need federal standards on how heavy K-12 textbooks can be. Well, now they have cheap, rugged laptops and net books like the OLPC. It can't be that hard to digitize that stuff. Yeah, there's concern that students would get on the Internet and look at sites they shouldn't, but it can't be that hard to design something that would be secure and easily portable.
Having to carry a 30 pound load shouldn't be a required skill in school. I'm 230 pounds now, so that same ratio of weight to backpack weight would have me carrying a 63 pound backpack! My backpack in senior year of college weighs about 15-20 pounds.
That's great that you learned so much. I wish I had the same opportunity. It is hard to believe you covered that much information in these classes. My shop class in 7th grade was two days a week and it was strictly wood shop. In 8th and 9th grade, we had wood shop once a week and mechanical drawing once a week. I sure didn't learn how to read and understand plans and drawings from the mechanical drawing class.
You realize that backpacks have not always been around in schools? We carried our books in our hands when I was in school. Many of the students I see do not carry books to class or home. Many classes only have a book they use in class. I've also seen where students have a book assigned but a classroom copy is also available, so they don't have to bring their book to class. This was unheard of when I was in HS in the early 1970s.
Most of my grandchildren's books have a classroom copy and an online copy. We also ordered a home copy, but they don't take that to school. The home copy is checked out at the beginning of the year and left at home.
I'd say the opposite: outside of teaching to standardized tests, schools became not academic enough. They're a cross between playgrounds and liberal indoctrination centers. At least from the photos and videos I see. Well, I went to a k-thru-8 elementary school, which was different than most true elementary and middle schools today.
Lower elementary grades today look and feel very infantile, compared to how I remember mine. I mean, stuff like Breakfast in the Classroom, communal snacks, story time, classrooms that look like preschools, etc. Back in my day (man, I feel old saying this!), I recall cartoony textbooks, an animal poster on the wall, and a gimmicky stretch break my teacher called "one minute of gym". That's it! Outside of those things, you never forgot that you were in an actual school. You were expected to sit quietly during lessons, acknowledge your teacher when walking into the classroom, and outwardly treat everyone with respect even if you didn't like them.
Upper elementary grades were very much academic. "Fun" was limited to art class, computer class, library time, and gym class. As well as the last days before vacations; teachers pretty much threw in the towel, and let students have a relaxing day. But in standard subjects, you had strict discipline. Classrooms were quite spartan. Stretch breaks were done away with; walking between classrooms for different subjects fulfilled that role. Discipline and workloads intensified almost to prison-like levels. And no one cared about your "feeeeelings", either; it was "put up or shut up". Now, it wasn't entirely bad; but school was school, period.
High school is beyond they scope of this thread, in my opinion. It's when kids are old enough to make or find their own fun in school, as opposed to having their teachers provide the fun for them. It could be through clubs, it could be through sports, but classes were for academics and learning, even if presented in a enjoyable way.
Last edited by MillennialUrbanist; 03-14-2019 at 07:33 PM..
That's great that you learned so much. I wish I had the same opportunity. It is hard to believe you covered that much information in these classes. My shop class in 7th grade was two days a week and it was strictly wood shop. In 8th and 9th grade, we had wood shop once a week and mechanical drawing once a week. I sure didn't learn how to read and understand plans and drawings from the mechanical drawing class.
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Our shop classes, as were those around us, in high school 9th and 10th were general shop and 11th and 12th were pure automotive for those with a really strong interest in mechanics. Of the roughly 36 weeks in the school year, general shop was:
Mechanical Drawing: 6 weeks
Woodworking: 6 weeks
Metalwork: 6 weeks
Auto body: 6 weeks
General mechanical: 12 weeks
For a small 300 person K-12 school, we had a well equipped shop capable of any automotive work. We could and did built stock cars from the frame up. That's why I'm such a big advocate for high school vo-tech. I've seen the advantages having good shop skills can provide to both the college bound and the trades bound kids. Just as an example, we were reviewing resumes today at work for new 2019 graduating engineers and physicists. The ones who had knowledge of these kinds of skills listed on their resumes went to the top of the pile ahead of the ones who were purely academic through high school and college.
And for the side question, yes, both girls and boys could take shop or home ec when I was in school even back in the dark ages.
Most of my grandchildren's books have a classroom copy and an online copy. We also ordered a home copy, but they don't take that to school. The home copy is checked out at the beginning of the year and left at home.
I remember the rolling backpacks, they banned them at my school at least for a little while.
The classroom copy, home copy, and online copy is a GREAT idea. I remember hearing something about that around my middle school years. I'm glad they're moving toward more efficient methods like this.
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