The EU: In, out, shake it all about.... (294 Viewers)

As of right now, how are thinking of voting? In or out

  • Remain

    Votes: 23 37.1%
  • Leave

    Votes: 35 56.5%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 3 4.8%
  • Not registered or not intention to vote

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • Total voters
    62
  • Poll closed .

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
But that's an issue with the teaching approaches, rather than the subjects. There's a lot of inverted snobbery about certain subjects, and it usually stems from a lack of understanding.

Not really. Every History teacher has given subject matter they have to teach critical thinking through. If the subject didn’t restrict critical thinking to historical subjects but allowed its use everywhere (by allowed I mean left enough time for after all the compulsory stuff was done), I think you’d see better engagement.

Though to be honest I’ve been against subjects in general for a while as it seems a bad teacher or topic can turn kids off mentally from an entire subject and the compartmentalise too much and don’t realise how much crossover there is between subjects. Much harder to find good renaissance man style teachers to teach a mixed approach well though.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
Fact is though to a lot of kids it’s just boring memorisation of dates. Same in Computimg which if taught well teaches information literacy, but that’s not the main focus.

A wider critical thinking subject that have teachers freedom to tailor the subject matter to their students interests, and isn’t constantly interferes with by politicians insisting we all learn about X, would be good.

I was pretty good at history, but very rarely used exact dates in exams. As long as I knew the chronology of events that was enough for me and the important thing - it lets you see how things develop, possible causality etc so you focus on whats happening and why rather than when.

A history teacher that focuses on memorising dates IMO is underselling the value of their subject and not selling it's merits very well at all and more likely to be putting people off than engaging them.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
I was pretty good at history, but very rarely used exact dates in exams. As long as I knew the chronology of events that was enough for me and the important thing - it lets you see how things develop, possible causality etc so you focus on whats happening and why rather than when.

A history teacher that focuses on memorising dates IMO is underselling the value of their subject and not selling it's merits very well at all and more likely to be putting people off than engaging them.

I hated History. Found it boring and irrelevant and always been more focused on what’s coming than what’s past. Also a little teenage rebellion against my history lecturer mother 😂. I had the same issues with Biology which seemed to be all about memorising names and diagrams and no thinking. Obviously as an adult I know better but we aren’t talking about teaching adults.

I’d have loved a critical thinking or even just philosophy course however.
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
Not really. Every History teacher has given subject matter they have to teach critical thinking through. If the subject didn’t restrict critical thinking to historical subjects but allowed its use everywhere (by allowed I mean left enough time for after all the compulsory stuff was done), I think you’d see better engagement.

Though to be honest I’ve been against subjects in general for a while as it seems a bad teacher or topic can turn kids off mentally from an entire subject and the compartmentalise too much and don’t realise how much crossover there is between subjects. Much harder to find good renaissance man style teachers to teach a mixed approach well though.

When I wax lyrical about history in my science lessons kids often ask ‘so why not teach history then’, to which you can easily point to lots of examples of how scientific progress has been influenced by the state of society at a given time.

Most take for granted that what they learn in Year 7 was at one point cutting edge and controversial.
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
I hated History. Found it boring and irrelevant and always been more focused on what’s coming than what’s past. Also a little teenage rebellion against my history lecturer mother 😂. I had the same issues with Biology which seemed to be all about memorising names and diagrams and no thinking. Obviously as an adult I know better but we aren’t talking about teaching adults.

I’d have loved a critical thinking or even just philosophy course however.

Ha, I did some biology at uni. Stopped after one module alone had us memorise pathways and enzyme names for months on end. Didn’t envy the medics one bit!
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
I hated History. Found it boring and irrelevant and always been more focused on what’s coming than what’s past. Also a little teenage rebellion against my history lecturer mother 😂. I had the same issues with Biology which seemed to be all about memorising names and diagrams and no thinking. Obviously as an adult I know better but we aren’t talking about teaching adults.

I’d have loved a critical thinking or even just philosophy course however.

I'm far more interested in the future, but I find looking to the past is a decent way of predicting the future in terms of general behaviour etc.

I had that issue with chemistry more - memorising periodic table, atomic numbers, mass, electrons etc. Couldn't ever find a way to make it anything more than a memory test. Could never do chemical equations either.

I agree teaching kids is more likely to be a challenge because you need to try and make it relate to what they're interested in, but the generational gap between teacher/pupil makes that nigh on impossible.
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
I'm far more interested in the future, but I find looking to the past is a decent way of predicting the future in terms of general behaviour etc.

I had that issue with chemistry more - memorising periodic table, atomic numbers, mass, electrons etc. Couldn't ever find a way to make it anything more than a memory test. Could never do chemical equations either.

I agree teaching kids is more likely to be a challenge because you need to try and make it relate to what they're interested in, but the generational gap between teacher/pupil makes that nigh on impossible.

I found maths most frustrating because teachers could never seem to empathise with not understanding it. All the while you have others racing ahead finding it easy. As students are given it in exams there is no need to memorise the PT, but they do need teaching how to use it. The problem in all subjects I guess is that how you were taught it guides your perception of it.

I hate art, but it’s mostly because teachers never told you how to improve and made fun of bad pieces.
 

Sky_Blue_Dreamer

Well-Known Member
I found maths most frustrating because teachers could never seem to empathise with not understanding it. All the while you have others racing ahead finding it easy. As students are given it in exams there is no need to memorise the PT, but they do need teaching how to use it. The problem in all subjects I guess is that how you were taught it guides your perception of it.

I hate art, but it’s mostly because teachers never told you how to improve and made fun of bad pieces.

I was OK with maths until A level when I could understand the equations but never quite how to apply them in the questions. I could never work out if I should integrate or work out the derivative. Didn't help that my best mate I sat next to was a maths genius who completed everything in 10 minutes and then started doing uni-level stuff. And like you say he couldn't understand why I didn't get it. He tried loads of times to explain it to me but it never helped.

Should've done A level history rather than maths but I felt I should have a bit more varied subject matter than mainly humanities.

I agree with art. Always ended up frustrated it was never as good as I wanted it to be and I always feel something should have some sort of practical use so doing stuff just because I wanted to seemed rather self indulgent rather than useful. Felt the same about music.

You had the same thing with art about failure to understand. Things like Art Attack used to annoy me with the 'anyone can draw'. It's like saying anyone can do quadratic equations. Some people just aren't built to do some things.
 

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
I was OK with maths until A level when I could understand the equations but never quite how to apply them in the questions. I could never work out if I should integrate or work out the derivative. Didn't help that my best mate I sat next to was a maths genius who completed everything in 10 minutes and then started doing uni-level stuff. And like you say he couldn't understand why I didn't get it. He tried loads of times to explain it to me but it never helped.

Should've done A level history rather than maths but I felt I should have a bit more varied subject matter than mainly humanities.

I agree with art. Always ended up frustrated it was never as good as I wanted it to be and I always feel something should have some sort of practical use so doing stuff just because I wanted to seemed rather self indulgent rather than useful. Felt the same about music.

You had the same thing with art about failure to understand. Things like Art Attack used to annoy me with the 'anyone can draw'. It's like saying anyone can do quadratic equations. Some people just aren't built to do some things.

We had some compulsory maths seminars at uni where the unsympathetic lecturer would just say 'it's easy, just do the Taylor expansion', to which the reply 'I don't know what that is' didn't get you very far. The biggest challenge a teacher has as an expert in their area is to understand what it's like to find it difficult or to learn it for the first time. That's assuming also that the people you're teaching want to learn in the first place.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
I heard a quote yesterday from some Aussie who said something along the lines of - "the UK doesn't want Tony Abbott as their trade envoy, they want the person who managed to offload him as their trade envoy'.
There’s been a few remarks from Australian commentators. One I heard the other day was if Tony Abbott is seen as the answer the U.K. are in trouble. Basically the Aussies are pissing themselves at us.
 

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
There’s been a few remarks from Australian commentators. One I heard the other day was if Tony Abbott is seen as the answer the U.K. are in trouble. Basically the Aussies are pissing themselves at us.

Weve been the world laughing stock for about four years now. Now I know how the Yanks feel.
 

Philosoraptor

Well-Known Member
Excellent to see the democratic process of leaving the EU as given to Parliament by the Public finally taking its course.
 
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Philosoraptor

Well-Known Member
I think the jury is still out at the moment of when exactly to get a white van and move to the Irish Border.

Going to be serious rich pickings.
 

Philosoraptor

Well-Known Member
Oh, anywhere if you are in Northern Ireland. I'm expecting that border to get busier than Dover/Calais with no checks.
 

Alan Dugdales Moustache

Well-Known Member
Oh, anywhere if you are in Northern Ireland. I'm expecting that border to get busier than Dover/Calais with no checks.
You can just take a rubber dinghy between Dover and Calais. No one checks, certainly not the frogs.
Can I say frogs ? Fuck it, yes.
 

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