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It's crazy to me that modern adult life is nothing like a traditional classroom format, and yet we spend 18 years preparing our kids for it by having them sit i

It's crazy to me that modern adult life is nothing like a traditional classroom format, and yet we spend 18 years preparing our kids for it by having them sit in a room and get talked at. Sure, there other kinds of activities but lecturing takes up such a huge chunk of the time spent in the educational system for most people. Alternatives or complements like apprenticeship that can teach in a different way are really interesting and exciting to me.

atlasunshrugged 7y ago
I don't know, I've been in plenty of meetings where the best action for my career was sitting still and shutting up for a few hours while someone talked. Kidding aside, I totally agree that it's quite silly. I hated school when I was in it but as soon as I left I couldn't stop learning - there are so many opportunities for knowledge online now (and in real life too) with MOOCs, Youtube lectures, free software tools to play with, etc.
beached_whale 7y ago
There has been a push, especially in the early years, for discovery based learning where I am. So problem solving with teachers there for guidance.
joe_the_user 7y ago
A lot of adult work are fairly similar to the classroom in the sense that you're sitting at a desk doing stuff, usually with computers, usually shleping information around. It would be nice if both had less of this quality. But still, a lot of education is a bureaucracy teaching people to be bureaucrats. If we are to have a bureaucracy, traditional schooling is certainly a training ground for that.
lilgreenland 7y ago
I'm a physics and computer science high school teacher, I think lecture takes up about 5-10% of my classes. This is not unusual in high school. (I'm in Los Angeles) On the other hand, when I was a student in college it was about 95% lectures.
- amursft 7y ago
  That's awesome to hear! I'm recalling history, math, science lectures, english classes. Just thinking back to both high school and college there was a lot of lecturing.
ken 7y ago
> It's crazy to me that modern adult life is nothing like a traditional classroom format Dozens of people sitting in the same big room working at desks?
alchemism 7y ago
It’s worth keeping in mind that ‘education’ as we practice it was Roman, passed through cathedral schools for priests to the British Empire, (becoming) what we know of today as academia. Some further tangential exposition on the topic: https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud/transcript https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the...

atlasunshrugged 7y ago

I don't know, I've been in plenty of meetings where the best action for my career was sitting still and shutting up for a few hours while someone talked. Kidding aside, I totally agree that it's quite silly. I hated school when I was in it but as soon as I left I couldn't stop learning - there are so many opportunities for knowledge online now (and in real life too) with MOOCs, Youtube lectures, free software tools to play with, etc.

beached_whale 7y ago

There has been a push, especially in the early years, for discovery based learning where I am. So problem solving with teachers there for guidance.

joe_the_user 7y ago

A lot of adult work are fairly similar to the classroom in the sense that you're sitting at a desk doing stuff, usually with computers, usually shleping information around. It would be nice if both had less of this quality. But still, a lot of education is a bureaucracy teaching people to be bureaucrats. If we are to have a bureaucracy, traditional schooling is certainly a training ground for that.

lilgreenland 7y ago

I'm a physics and computer science high school teacher, I think lecture takes up about 5-10% of my classes. This is not unusual in high school. (I'm in Los Angeles) On the other hand, when I was a student in college it was about 95% lectures.

amursft 7y ago
That's awesome to hear! I'm recalling history, math, science lectures, english classes. Just thinking back to both high school and college there was a lot of lecturing.

ken 7y ago

> It's crazy to me that modern adult life is nothing like a traditional classroom format Dozens of people sitting in the same big room working at desks?

alchemism 7y ago

It’s worth keeping in mind that ‘education’ as we practice it was Roman, passed through cathedral schools for priests to the British Empire, (becoming) what we know of today as academia. Some further tangential exposition on the topic: https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud/transcript https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the...