kasran, fourier transfemme

here's a good thing to tell school-age children: the textbooks they use to learn are made by people, and those people might gloss over or omit parts of the whole truth, accidentally or intentionally

basically just teach kids to be critical of their sources of info and ask really good questions

Jun 28, 2017 at 4:50pmWeb
Show threadCaitlin, but becoming a doggoJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion it's also important to say when you don't know and look it up together, including checking sources. So they learn how to as a part of the learning experience
Show threadkasran, fourier transfemmeJun 28, 2017
@Sailorplutoid exactly! it's all part of learning how to learn responsibly, which most schools apparently do a terrible job of
Show threadFlorianJun 28, 2017

@typhlosion @Sailorplutoid I ended up told by professors at university that the secondary school I went to has a reputation for being "very good at teaching people to learn but very poor at teaching them to study"

and that the reason for this reputation is that it causes Issues when people graduating from the school crash face first into the wider education system

Show threadkasran, fourier transfemmeJun 28, 2017
@Sailorplutoid @theoutrider sounds like the "everyone else is with me so *you* must be the wrong one" argument?
Show threadCaitlin, but becoming a doggoJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion @theoutrider That or "Memorize the facts, but don't focus on the why or the how to figure it out"
Show threadFlorianJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion @Sailorplutoid no, the professors were acutely aware that the Bavarian education system even at an early academic level largely expects regurgitation rather than understanding, and that my secondary school fosters the latter rather than the former
Show threadkasran, fourier transfemmeJun 28, 2017
@Sailorplutoid @theoutrider oh okay cool
Show threadFlorianJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion @Sailorplutoid and there were three or four specific teachers I had at that school who in retrospect I'm *very* acutely aware of having had a major influence on who I am today, moreso than any other teacher I encountered in my 15 years at school
Show threadFlorianJun 28, 2017
@Sailorplutoid @typhlosion and the first time I went back to Germany after moving country, five years or so after graduating from that school, I made a point of going back there to say hi to those specific people (the ones that hadn't yet retired, at least)
Show threadFlorianJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion @Sailorplutoid (and anyone else who still recognised me, but I somehow felt that after I finally figured out what to do with my life after several years of aimless flailing post-school I should say thanks to them specifically)
Show threadMinerva's PalJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion
This is also sometimes a good thing to tell adults!
Show threadgreen except too damn hotJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion when I was a kid, I was told basically "anything in a nonfiction book (assuming subset of 'acceptable books') you can take as a factual source." that was kinda painful to deprogram growing up. :|
Show threadkasran, fourier transfemmeJun 28, 2017
@green aaugh ewww :(
Show threadgreen except too damn hotJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion I suspect a lot of people were taught that too. I have a theory about--how information is handed down, why we have this inherent bias--but it's less important than the hope that humanity is maybe finally getting away from that dangerous mindset. XD
Show threadTilton RaccoonJun 28, 2017

@typhlosion That's a hard lesson to learn. When I was a kid (and I suspect this is true of most kids) every adult was a Supreme Authority of Truth. Anything they said, I believed without question, because they were Grown Ups.

But you're absolutely right that we should be teaching critical thinking skills young, and part of that means questioning authority.

Show threadbrookeJun 28, 2017
@typhlosion Related: reassuring the kid that sometimes, when they just can't understand the instructions no matter how hard they try, it's because the instructions are incoherent in some way (editing errors, poor sentences, or sometimes who the heck knows).
Show threadMovedJun 29, 2017
@typhlosion Also a lot of the time editors on these books (my friend's mum is one) learn the topics as they read them
Show threadSydney Falk, An Oversensitive SJW TypeJun 29, 2017

@typhlosion

am planning to ^_^