Posted by riddlemethis on January 23, 2004, at 22:37:18
In reply to Re: Brain fog, posted by LightShifter on January 21, 2004, at 21:58:47
I don't in any way want to sound rude, nor do I want to come off as if I'm attacking your opinion. I do, however, feel the need to respond with my own on this subject.
You've obviously had a very rough time with school and, believe me, I can empathize. It's a horrible feeling to be slower than the other kids, to have to study harder and twice as long just to be half as good. It just sounds like instead of dealing with the issue (your problem) you're directing it onto an outside source, academics. Granted, when dealing with this issue academics can be terribly difficult, but that doesn't mean that it is the academics itself that pose the problem. It sounds like you're trying to come up with an explanation as to why this happened to you, but you want the cause to be something other than personal. Thus, it's due not to your own condition, but to the academic work, or force by others. It just sounds like you'd rather the cause of this problem be due to something other than a condition that you have. Easier to deal with that way? It isn't always the case that children with this problem don't want to learn what they're being taught. I, for one, wanted desperately to learn. That was my biggest problem. I had such a thirst for knowledge (including what I was supposed to be learning in school), that not being able to learn (understand) was pure torture for me. Like you, it took a long time for things to "sink in." It had nothing to do with being forced to learn. I wanted to learn.
You say that kids shouldn't be forced to learn things they don't want to learn, and that we don't need the majority of what we're being taught anyway, less for reading and math. Well, what if a child doesn't want to learn reading and math? Do we just let that child become an illiterate adult so as not to "force" him/her to learn against his/her will? Because honestly, there are plenty of children who don't even want to learn basic reading. How exactly are they supposed to function as adults if it isn't required for them to learn that as children?
Education and knowledge are the most valuable assets any human can have. The brain is like any muscle. If it's used, it grows stronger. If it isn't, its function diminishes. Childhood is the target age for developing a strong brain. That is when the brain is programmed to think certain ways, rationalize, solve problems. If it isn't put to use in childhood, that child will have a lessor ability for intellectual growth in adulthood. An example would be learning a foreign language. When children are taught to speak another language, it then becomes easier for them, as adults, to learn a third. Whereas, if in childhood a foreign language is not learned, it is very difficult to train the brain, as an adult, to learn. It's possible, but much harder. The brain is a muscle. Use it or lose it. Children must be forced to get an education for the same reason they must be forced to go to the doctor and eat their vegetables. If they're not, they will suffer as adults because their brain has not been trained properly. You might want to consider reading up a bit on cognition and childhood development. It might shed some light on the issue, as well as make you take a second look at what the real problem might be instead of trying to find a cause in something, anything, that has nothing to do with you.
I'm sorry if that sounded harsh, but I just can not believe that, in a country where a large percentage of the population can't even read (including adults who were born and raised here), and most people can't even name one member of the Supreme Court (even though the court makes decisions that impact state laws,) that someone would say we need "less" education. If anything, we need more.
poster:riddlemethis
thread:7959
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040122/msgs/304859.html