From:	Geoffrey Haacke knight_errant30@*******.com
Subject:	[Quite OT] the value of education (OT-rant, long)
Date:	Mon, 12 Jul 1999 12:14:59 CST

>Did Columbus "discover" the New World before or after Shakespeare wrote
>Hamlet?

Actually, he wasn't the first to discover it! That was the vikings!! :)

>
>Granted, this is not the deepest or most crucial question on Earth, but the
>point is that Americans are taught in an unnessessarily compartmentalized
>way: Columbus is in this little box and Shakespeare is in this little box,
>and the boxes have nothing to do with each other.

That's where thinking comes in. I was taught these topics that same way,
but I made the connection with a little thought. Course I wasn't taught how
to think, I just picked it up naturally. :)

>Why did I have to learn myself that the best way to answer this is to
>realize the meaning of the numbers and use it? Doing this lets you realize
>that this problem is really 2000 + 2000 - 2. You can do that in your head
>in
>about a second, while the mechanical way I was taught is both lengthy and
>error prone.

Because it is still a good way to learn to add stuff like say:

12365+ 359=?

which is a royal pain to do the "short way". I use both ways myself, but
most don't. (apparently I'm the only one in my circle of Friends that can do
math in their head when it involves numbers of more than two digits. I
guess I'm just gifted. :) )

>
>Teaching facts over meaning does not yeild education. It yeilds someone who
>knows facts.
>

Which is a type of education. Or more appropriately: It's not what you know
but what you do with it.



Geoff Haacke
"If you not part of the solution then you are part of the precipitate."
"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."


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