What would you have loved to learn at school?

[RandomGrinch]

...and back to the question!

I wish I'd learnt the importance of learning at school.
I've had some amazing opportunities, but through occasional apathy and getting carried away by the here and now, I have squandered them.
I don't regret where I am am now, but I do sometimes wonder where I would have ended up, had I taken learning seriously, and revised for exams instead of just winging it!

 

[Deleted member 18243]

Latin.

 

[bolo 2]

I wish I'd learnt the importance of learning at school.

And so do I RG,

I've had some amazing opportunities, but through occasional apathy and getting carried away by the here and now, I have squandered them

I did too, but it wasn’t through apathy, it was because my father who had a good going business, refused to allow me and my siblings to attend an academy because the costs which in his opinion, were excessive. And to be honest, he lost more every day backing horses than it would have cost him in 6 months for me at the academy.

.
I don't regret where I am am now, but I do sometimes wonder where I would have ended up, had I taken learning seriously, and revised for exams instead of just winging it!

I don’t regret where I am now either, because at 29 years of age, I studied and passed 6 Highers, gained access to university, got my degree, taught for the next 40 years and am now happily retired. And in that retirement, I have learnt a great deal, not only about diy in general but also also about life as seen through the eyes of other diynot members here.

 

[Dork Lard]

...and back to the question!

I wish I'd learnt the importance of learning at school.
I've had some amazing opportunities, but through occasional apathy and getting carried away by the here and now, I have squandered them.
I don't regret where I am am now, but I do sometimes wonder where I would have ended up, had I taken learning seriously, and revised for exams instead of just winging it!

I can only speak for myself, but my time at school really was wasted.

They taught me nothing.

Almost everything I have learned I have learned it since leaving school, or I already knew it before entering.

Do you think that school taught you your apathy?

 

[bolo 2]

That's because the Mods know what he is doing.

How do you know that Andy? Are you a mod? I’ve been a member of this forum for around 18 years under different user names (which the forum allows), but have no idea who the mods are or what they know or don’t know.

. He puts the question out there and never puts any other posts on the thread.

But why should he? If he gets members talking about the question he has posed, he has achieved his objective Andy.

But I do believe there should be a section where men can ask for help and advice for metal health problems on here.

Can’t agree with you there Andy because health and advice about mental problems are the remit of the medical professionals. That said, a couple of months back, I did message the mods because I was concerned about the mental health of a particular member. It has never crossed my mind to convey my concerns about any other member to the mods. I have tried to make my thoughts clear and have nothing more to add.

 

[RandomGrinch]

Do you think that school taught you your apathy?

Interesting point. I don't think it taught me my apathy, but it didn't push me either.
There were some parts of school I enjoyed, but along with my parents attitude and being looked after by childminders for a lot of the time, I found it too easy to just go with the flow (...and still do! !)

 

[Justin Passing]

Latin.

I did that. Complete waste of time for me. I can get by in a few languages but Latin didn't help with any of those.

What (afaik) they don't do which would have been useful, is a bit of human psychology, a simplified CBT(Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) approach, similar to Mindfulness.
Kids (and too many adults) have their heads full of illogical ways fof thinking which only make sense to the person, to get some sort of subconscious gratification.
EG kids let themselves believe it's clever to slide out of school and hang around in the middle of town all day, whereas if it was explained to them how to go about it, they could get more pleasure from going to classes and getting good marks. They aren't taught what sort of thinking & doing patterns, actually help. Instead, they delude themselves and get a kick out of being a rebel.
I was really bad at self discipline, at structuring my time and managing it. Decades later I'm only a bit better - if I put my mind to it. If we were all taught from school year one, how to go about doing the things which need to be done, I'm certain it would make everyone's life better.

There's a highly recommendable book, "Games people play" by Eric Berne(1964). It can be alarming. You read about a load of stereotypical behaviours which he calls "maladaptive" - or dumb, then you recognise yourself doing some of them.
Berne explains how a "game" works for the player, then you see the behaviour repeated over and over all around you.
Apart from Games, there are also Rituals, and there are Pastimes, each of which has a place. Berne added Procedures, though other writers split things differently.

 

[HERTS P&D]

and have nothing more to add.

Thank God for that!

If anyone does not like my posts, they are free to block me.

Andy

 

[Justin Passing]

Thank God for that!

If anyone does not like my posts, they are free to block me.

Andy

Nah. Things get smelly when the P & D is blocked.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Latin.

I started to study it at school, but opted out as soon as I could. Couldn't see the point unless I was going to become a doctor or botanist.

This little ditty summed it up for me at the time -

The Latin language is dead
Dead as dead can be
It killed the bloody Romans
And now it's killing me

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I wish I'd learnt the importance of learning at school.

That is part of being young and not having much experience of life, plus cause and effect.

I've had some amazing opportunities, but through occasional apathy and getting carried away by the here and now, I have squandered them.
I don't regret where I am am now, but I do sometimes wonder where I would have ended up, had I taken learning seriously, and revised for exams instead of just winging it!

Life would be so much better, if only we could all foresee the results of our life choices. We are, where we are so must make the best of it.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Useful things to learn at school? How about what used to be called home economics, i.e. some cookery, a bit of sewing, household budgetingand basic child care. Then maybe some civics (the rights and duties of citizenship), and finally maybe some basic first aid - I'd like everyone to be able to be able to out someone into thecrecivery position, administer CPR and be able to perform the Heimlich manouvre. That way we might have a few more survivors out there

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Useful things to learn at school? How about what used to be called home economics, i.e. some cookery, a bit of sewing, household budgetingand basic child care. Then maybe some civics (the rights and duties of citizenship), and finally maybe some basic first aid - I'd like everyone to be able to be able to out someone into thecrecivery position, administer CPR and be able to perform the Heimlich manouvre. That way we might have a few more survivors out there

I don't remember being taught anything practical at school, beyond my primary school years, apart being given a choice of metalwork or woodwork and they were soon curtailed due to time pressure. Before that, the school previously just didn't have the equipment to support either metalwork or woodwork. All of my practical stuff was self taught and at home. Until my final school, there was nothing, apart from desks and ancient dog-eared books - my final, brand new school was a revelation of what a school could be and a time when I derived the most from my time at school.

Learning needs both a willingness to teach and a genuine wish to be taught. I think we are all born with natural curiosity and it's a schools primary job to help and encourage that curiosity and provide us with the basic tools to support it - the rest follows along.