Is it worth going to school?

ejmaztec

How do you think we'd do here, because I'd say the future of the UK is fucked if this survey result's anything to go by?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8565258.stm


One in 10 children thinks the Queen invented the telephone, a survey of children's science knowledge suggests.
Others gave credit for the invention to Charles Darwin and Noel Edmonds.
One in 20 of the 1,000 pupils polled thought Star Wars character Luke Skywalker or Richard Branson had been the first to set foot on the Moon.
Some 60% of nine- and 10-year-olds thought Sir Isaac Newton discovered fire, the survey for science campaign Birmingham Science City found.
Despite these misconceptions, more children want to win a Nobel prize for science than the X Factor.
The survey of primary and secondary school children in the UK suggests there is some confusion about key scientific achievements.

Just under a half of boys (49%) correctly pinned down gravity as Newton's ground-breaking discovery, compared with 76% of girls.
Just over a third of boys said Newton discovered fire, while the remaining 16% either said he invented the internet, or discovered the solar system or America.
Eight out of 10 boys correctly identified Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, compared with 69% of girls.
Dr Pam Waddell from Birmingham Science City said: "While some of these findings will raise a smile, it suggests that school children aren't tuned into our scientific heroes in the same way that they might be to sporting or music legends."
She suggested it was clear that primary school children had a real interest in science.
"In fact, nearly 70% of nine and 10-year-olds would like to be famous for winning a Nobel Prize in science, yet this drops to only 33% among 11 to 15-year-olds.
"It appears children are losing an interest in science at secondary school, so more needs to be done to excite teenagers about the subject and rekindle some of their early childhood aspirations," she added.
The poll was carried out online with a panel of 1,000 UK children in early March by OnePoll.

WindSock

Sounds like they are interested in History less than Science to me. I'd love to know how the survey was carried out on the 10 year olds. 'The Queen invented the telephone' - True or False?

jimmycrackcorm

is anyone here smarter than a ten year old?

thetonynator

what age were they???

OutlawPete

Poll = Bollox Talk

60% of kids wouldn't even know who the fuck Sir Isaac Newton was, let alone what he discovered.

Multiple Choice farce.

That_Guy

They're 10 FFS.

Gray

No surprising as they have changed the way they they teach history in the UK. They no longer spend much time teaching lists of historical events but go for an in-depth analysis of a few subjects.

Who invented what was never really covered in science & left to history so now its not covered much.

ejmaztec

Perhaps we were all lied to, perhaps Isaac Newton did work out how to light a fire?:eek:

Cianos

If anyone uses this survery for anything other than slight bemusement it's a more serious highlight of the education boards flawed view of what measurable intelligence is and should be.

Sea Sharp

Maybe they didn't bother reading the questions and just randomly selected a,b,c or d.

pickarooney

9 and 10 year olds still taking the piss and getting away with it - all is not lost

ScumLord

Once you've learned to read, write and do some math school has pretty much served it's purpose. Everything else is just filling them up with information they have no interest in retaining. I liked engineering and woodwork in school but it moved to slow and wasn't practical enough.

I've learned 1000 times more on my own initiative after leaving school than I ever could in school simply because I have an interest in learning now.

Kormeera X

I'm in school right now. i hate it! And i'm sick and want to go home!!

ScumLord

Mr.S wrote: »

Apart from maths, english & business the subjects that i took in school have been pritty much pointless.

We really should adopt something along the lines of the A levels, where you pick 3 subjects you acutally want. Like i have no use for what i learnt in Geography and Biology, waste of 2 years imo.

That whole systems a waste of time, children should be given the tools to find and assess information for themselves. They'll follow their own interests and will be able to pick up skills much more rapidly.

El Siglo

I blame the parents, they don't encourage their children to read books anymore, it's all about sticking them in front of the goggle box and letting that do the job. My mother taught me my brother and sisters to read before going to school, she encouraged us to read as much as possible and watch the news. When I was ten we got two books, which still to this day are my favourites; British Medical Association A-Z Medical Encyclopedia and The Hutchinson Encyclopedia 2000: Millennium Edition.

Blisterman

The problem, and I suppose strength of A levels, where you pick 3 subjects, is that there are a huge amount of subjects to choose from.

Good in the sense that you can pick subjects that relate to what you want to do for a career.

Bad in the sense, that you only get a very narrow education, and a lot of the subjects aren't the most taxing or useful. For example, film, media studies etc.

In general, from experience, Irish people seem a lot more knowledgable about general things like history, geography, science etc than English people.

pickarooney

El Siglo wrote: »

my favourites... Millennium Edition.

Congratulations on being the first person in history to combine these words in one sentence.

blisterman wrote:

In general, from experience, Irish people seem a lot more knowledgable about general things like history, geography, science etc than English people.

The grudge centre of the brain has long been closely associated with the capacity for long-term memory creation.

bonerm

OutlawPete wrote: »

Poll = Bollox Talk

60% of kids wouldn't even know who the fuck Sir Isaac Newton was, let alone what he discovered.

Multiple Choice farce.

Agreed. If 5% of them were actually dumb enough not to know who the first man on the moon was they certainly wouldn't be inventive enough either to come up with answers like "Luke Skywalker" or "Richard Branson".

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

El Siglo wrote: »

I blame the parents, they don't encourage their children to read books anymore, it's all about sticking them in front of the goggle box and letting that do the job. My mother taught me my brother and sisters to read before going to school, she encouraged us to read as much as possible and watch the news. When I was ten we got two books, which still to this day are my favourites; British Medical Association A-Z Medical Encyclopedia and The Hutchinson Encyclopedia 2000: Millennium Edition.

Nothing to do with books/TV; it´s getting them interested in something. Our appraoch at the moment is to force them to do something and if they like it it´s a bonus.

Tean year olds tend to be the most enthusiastic people IF they´re interested in what you´re talking about.

ScumLord

El Siglo wrote: »

I blame the parents, they don't encourage their children to read books anymore, it's all about sticking them in front of the goggle box and letting that do the job.

Reading a book is no better than reading it on a screen. Children can access just the information they need faster. It's current unlike books that can't change.

El Siglo

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

Nothing to do with books/TV; it´s getting them interested in something. Our appraoch at the moment is to force them to do something and if they like it it´s a bonus.

Tean year olds tend to be the most enthusiastic people IF they´re interested in what you´re talking about.

True, very true. But the parents need to be taking the lead on this, I mean if the parents aren't enthusiastic about learning stuff like this how do they expect the children? Especially at such young ages, they've buckets of energy and their heads are like sponges.

El Siglo

ScumLord wrote: »

Reading a book is no better than reading it on a screen. Children can access just the information they need faster. It's current unlike books that can't change.

Yeh, but what I was talking this was 11 years ago, living in the sticks, no computer and no internet. Now, yeh it's different, but the printed word is still a great place to start off.

derfderf

A heard another survey said most people on irish internet forums think when richard branson became the first man on the moon his shuttle was called the Atari Jaguar.

Coriolanus

Kormeera X wrote: »

I'm in school right now. i hate it! And i'm sick and want to go home!!

Fingers down the throat works a charm.

ejmaztec

Apathetic suicidal teachers trying to teach apathetic suicidal kids = a generation of cretins.

phasers

I used to give fake answers to surveys when I was younger for the lulz, I suspect similar shenanigans here

EL_Loco

hmm, I'd like to meet my 10 year old self and see how I'd do.

gurramok

Kormeera X wrote: »

I'm in school right now. i hate it! And i'm sick and want to go home!!

Get off the internet, pay attention and do some study!

School days are the best days of your life so I heard

CrazyRabbit

pickarooney wrote: »

9 and 10 year olds still taking the piss and getting away with it - all is not lost

Yeah, I imagine this is one of those multiple choice questionnaires with only one reasonable answer. The kids found it insulting or amusing and so deliberately chose the 'funniest' answer.

I remember doing a test when I was 11. It had questions like "The dog in is the kennel. Where is the dog?" and 4 choices. I thought it was a joke, so I properly completed about 10 questions out of the 200 and then choose random/stupid answers for the rest. It wasn't until a few months later I found out it was an IQ test when I was interviewed by some DoE guy who was concerned that I might need special schooling. Apparently, I got a score of 72 from choosing random answers.

hooradiation

ScumLord wrote: »

That whole systems a waste of time, children should be given the tools to find and assess information for themselves. .

Give the amount of utter crap that adults routinely spew out based on their own "assessment" of information i am not very confident in this scheme of yours.

ScumLord

hooradiation wrote: »

Give the amount of utter crap that adults routinely spew out based on their own "assessment" of information i am not very confident in this scheme of yours.

That's why teaching them how to evaluate and compare information is important. They shouldn't be thought to just blindly accept whatever a position of authority tells them.

hooradiation

ScumLord wrote: »

That's why teaching them how to evaluate and compare information is important. They shouldn't be thought to just blindly accept whatever a position of authority tells them.

Ok.
So you want to abandon the current system in favour of this vague notion of "being given tools to asses information" because this will stop them blindly accepting "whatever a position of authority tells them".

Fine. Now explain to me how you're going to give children these tools and get them to use them correctly WITHOUT having someone in a position of authority telling them how.
Because, as you've previously established that's a very bad thing.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

ScumLord wrote: »

That's why teaching them how to evaluate and compare information is important. They shouldn't be thought to just blindly accept whatever a position of authority tells them.

But then they won´t be nice conformed little robots who do what they´re told!!

ScumLord

hooradiation wrote: »

Ok.
So you want to abandon the current system in favour of this vague notion of "being given tools to asses information" because this will stop them blindly accepting "whatever a position of authority tells them".

Fine. Now explain to me how you're going to give children these tools and get them to use them correctly WITHOUT having someone in a position of authority telling them how.
Because, as you've previously established that's a very bad thing.

The current system just fills their heads with information which they regurgitate at the designated time, after which they can forget everything they learned as 90% of it will be useless even the skills they developed to learn and get by in school will be almost totally useless to them in both the work force and in continued education.

I never said there shouldn't be a teacher, there has to be a teacher but the teacher isn't fulfilling the needs of the student in my book they're just ticking boxes for the state.

hooradiation

ScumLord wrote: »

The current system just fills their heads with information which they regurgitate at the designated time, after which they can forget everything they learned as 90% of it will be useless even the skills they developed to learn and get by in school will be almost totally useless to them in both the work force and in continued education.

Unless you can quantify this to show it's not just your own biases talking, I'm calling bullshit on this entire idea.

ScumLord

hooradiation wrote: »

Unless you can quantify this to show it's not just your own biases talking, I'm calling bullshit on this entire idea.

It's based on my own time and the time others have spent in school, most people that go to collage will tell you it's nothing like school and other than reading, writing and math I can't think of anything you learn in school that would help you in the work place.

pickarooney

ScumLord wrote: »

It's based on my own time and the time others have spent in school, most people that go to collage will tell you it's nothing like school and other than reading, writing and math I can't think of anything you learn in school that would help you in the work place.

If you learn to make pretty pictures with paper and glue, surely that's a bonus?

Hur hur, spellcheck hur

ScumLord

pickarooney wrote: »

If you learn to make pretty pictures with paper and glue, surely that's a bonus?

Hur hur, spellcheck hur

Damnit. That's the 3rd or 4th time that words caught me out this week.

Ruu_Old

Down with homework!!