Thread: The loss of basic skills in school

I can't think of any good reason why textbooks shouldn't disappear. That's the last kind of book that should be preserved. How many heavy textbooks get printed, hauled around, abused and destroyed while going virtually unused? I just finished an engineering degree and the fraction of a given textbook that's even assigned to be used in a course is tiny, let alone the fraction that students actually look at. On top of that, they go out of date almost yearly so that the publisher can waste another 1000 tons of paper printing (and selling) negligible revisions. The sooner the whole textbook system is virtualized the better, IMHO. Printed textbooks are an incredible waste and inconvenience.

We all know that basic math skills are vital, but you probably wouldn't defend a slide rule in place of a calculator.

Learning cursive ought to be like learning latin. I was taught cursive in school but that time would've been a lot better spent teaching me how to print better. That's the kind of writing I use, and maybe my girlfriend wouldn't make fun of it so much if it were better.

Originally Posted by Goggles

I can't think of any good reason why textbooks shouldn't disappear. That's the last kind of book that should be preserved. How many heavy textbooks get printed, hauled around, abused and destroyed while going virtually unused? I just finished an engineering degree and the fraction of a given textbook that's even assigned to be used in a course is tiny, let alone the fraction that students actually look at. On top of that, they go out of date almost yearly so that the publisher can waste another 1000 tons of paper printing (and selling) negligible revisions. The sooner the whole textbook system is virtualized the better, IMHO. Printed textbooks are an incredible waste and inconvenience.

We all know that basic math skills are vital, but you probably wouldn't defend a slide rule in place of a calculator.

Learning cursive ought to be like learning latin. I was taught cursive in school but that time would've been a lot better spent teaching me how to print better. That's the kind of writing I use, and maybe my girlfriend wouldn't make fun of it so much if it were better.

Hard to disagree about text books actually.

Calculators vs slide rules i don't know, i'm not actually advocating slide rules (although i have to say they're very handy in engineering, hydraulics etc) but i worry about peoples reliance on calculators, especially mine. We shouldn't be teaching people to use a calculator instead of being able to do the math. In my engineering degree the only time i'd used a calculator in exams was so that i didn't have to express the final solution to an equation as a fraction. But nowadays i find myself reaching for the calculator for even the simplest addition. That's just lazy.

And as for cursive being like learning latin, well, after learning a learning french a few years ago while living there and having developed an interest in language, i just wish i'd listened more in latin class in school. School used to be about expanding your mind, and i don't necessarily agree that teaching kids via computer based systems, powerpoint presentations etc is a better method, just means you need less teacher interaction and less teachers as opposed to someone who has been shown how to run the "learning unit", Less teachers.. now that would be a tragedy.

Originally Posted by Goggles

I can't think of any good reason why textbooks shouldn't disappear. That's the last kind of book that should be preserved. How many heavy textbooks get printed, hauled around, abused and destroyed while going virtually unused? I just finished an engineering degree and the fraction of a given textbook that's even assigned to be used in a course is tiny, let alone the fraction that students actually look at. On top of that, they go out of date almost yearly so that the publisher can waste another 1000 tons of paper printing (and selling) negligible revisions. The sooner the whole textbook system is virtualized the better, IMHO. Printed textbooks are an incredible waste and inconvenience.

One student's outdated textbook is another publisher's opportunity to make a profit on the new printing.

Computers are very useful and make the recycling of lectures/lecture notes a breeze. There is almost nothing that gets obsolete on a yearly basis, even in higher education. The differences from year to year are mostly in different problem sets, so that the students don't just copy the previous year's solutions.

As far as computers vs. cursive, it seems like a no brainer to me - one is very useful the other not so much. Of course, when the question becomes computers vs. critical thinking the priorities should be the other way around. It's a matter of prioritizing the right things, so it depends on the context. The exact same thing can win or loose depending on what it competes against.

Many years ago I witnessed how my grandfather (a farmer) was amazed that my father (an engineer) doesn't have a pocket knife on him. The exact words were 'What kind of a man are you, not to carry a knife". My father, had absolutely no need to carry a pocket knife at all times, since his job was to design machines for the weapon industry. Though he could tell you in his sleep how to make an opamp from a fistfull of transistors, capacitors and resistors.