What Did You Learn In School That You Still Find Useful?

Discussion in 'Education & Learning' started by Thomas Stearn, May 14, 2019.

  1. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Unless the pizza is a Pizza Hut pan pizza and it comes as a rectangle. Easy math.

    Now, about history. You ARE a part of history, which is the way I think about it. Now, if you examine the other parts of history that is closely associated with yourself, learn it then expand on that to another fixed date it becomes easy because you have made yourself part of it.
    When that becomes boring then find a fixed date and event and work your way forward until something applies to you.

    Here’s the thing with me. I do not remember names. When I went through seminary for instance, I could remember when, where and how but doggone it who did it was nearly always my Achilles heel.
     
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I've always loved languages. I got my 2 year degree at night when working full time, and burned out before finishing my bachelors. When at Marymount (in Arlington, VA, not Loyola) I tried to sign up for a History of Languages of the World class, thinking that my interest in languages might give me the frame of reference you allude to. Sadly, it was a graduate level class, and I could not negotiate an exception.

    Regarding names: I spent the first 15 or so years of my career in purchasing, some of those with multinationals (Japanese, French, German), so always paid particular attention to remembering names. In an international environment, it's even more crucial as a sign of respect. Just a couple of years ago I was at a church function, and there was a woman speaker representing an unrelated organization. I did business with her in 1985 100 miles up north, and here she was over 30 years later. I recalled her name and her business. She did not remember me. But that's what I did for a living. Again, as you stated, for me it had a meaningful context.

    That's good advice for me to see that point of reference when studying history. I really want the knowledge. Now I just have to keep my mind from wandering...
     
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  3. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Nothing wrong with minds that wander. In the 12th century Genghis Kahn united a whole bunch wandering minds (nomads) and built the Mongolian Empire.
    Besides that, a wandering mind is that of a dreamer and without dreams, among other things, daddy would not have “known” mama.
     
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  4. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    That's a good point. I used to carry a little notepad so as to capture fleeting thoughts before their replacements arrived. They seemed to have a short tour of duty.
     
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  5. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Ya know John, in my most humble opinion, children are relieved of their imagination way too soon. They’re not led to have a desire to answer the why’s and why nots but rather given a specific line of knowledge that all things have to fit into.
    If perchance a dream or wayward thought comes near to the notebook it is first re-examined to see if it fits with everything they have been taught to believe and if it doesn’t, well, scratch that otherwise that child must have ADD, ADHD or is even slightly autistic or has Asperger’s syndrome.

    It is a good thing that those labels did not exist when I went to school or I truly believe I would have had to take the short bus to school.
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    You, Sir, just defined "New Math."

    Our answers are the same, but your thought processes are non-conforming. "F"
     
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  7. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Ah yes, I do remember it well. Too well.
    It’s a long story but in short, by the time I hit 7th grade I was fulfilling my math requirements a couple of years ahead of my peers then.....we moved to another city and state.
    When I tried to take the same courses with the new school they told me I couldn’t keep taking Algebra II until I completed a course of “new math”.
    I asked the big question, “why”. The math teacher said, “we know that 1+1=2 but we want to know why 1+1=2”. Then, in the most belligerent voice I could drum up I said, “Dick had one apple and Jane had one apple so between the two they had two apples. Why? Because mama only had 2 apples to give.”

    I guess I sounded too belligerent because my next conversation was with the vice principle.
     
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  8. Ed Marsh

    Ed Marsh Very Well-Known Member
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    Good evening to all-
    This is a very interesting topic to me.
    I learned a great deal when I was a student. I learned a great deal more when I was a teacher.
    Of all the classes and subjects I took in school, the one that has benefited me most was a one-semester class in junior high- typing. That skill has served me very well in a number of situations through my life.
    Being able to put words on paper- and in electronic media- has helped me a great deal.

    good night to all- Ed
     
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  9. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    The "Three Rs" are really only one R....Reading.

    Writing is a "W".

    Arithmetic is an"A".

    Hal
     
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  10. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    If the teacher had a hickory stick, it’s however he or she says it is.
     
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  11. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Captain Obvious checks in. :p
     
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