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juliet13 yr old wanting to go to university
Oh for *fuck's* sake. He's 13, my arse would he "have no problems coping with life at university". And there's plenty of ways to avoid him "stagnating" at secondary school if they stop just pushing the poor kid to take exam after exam. Not to mention the fact that just possibly, if he'd *not* taken A level Maths early, he might have done better than a B.
grRRR. This sort of thing really pisses me off.
Oh for *fuck's* sake. He's 13, my arse would he "have no problems coping with life at university". And there's plenty of ways to avoid him "stagnating" at secondary school if they stop just pushing the poor kid to take exam after exam. Not to mention the fact that just possibly, if he'd *not* taken A level Maths early, he might have done better than a B.
grRRR. This sort of thing really pisses me off.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 04:00 am (UTC)Music lessons! Sports! Penpals! Lots of fun things!
I had a maths teacher once who did not care if we paid attention in class as long as we did not disrupt his teaching. He didn't make us hand in our homework, either. He said 'do as much as you feel you need to'.
The class was possibly the best-behaved class I have been in. The people who needed to ask questions asked them. The people who didn't, wrote letters or whatever else instead.
It was the first maths class where I ever actually enjoyed the mathematics.... and I was only paying attention for about 20% of each class. That was enough.
There are LOADS of things to do to make school more interesting, without even having to break away from a traditional classroom setting.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 05:03 am (UTC)Music doesn't help with academic subjects? Nonsense. Music IS an academic subject as far as I am concerned (okay, I am a music teacher, so I am biased), at least as much as English is.
Sports are certainly good for the brain on a few different levels.
Penpals can teach a person a hell of a lot.
Volunteering (left this one out by accident) looks excellent on a CV, if that is what is the concern, and again, a lot is there to be learned.
All of them are still learning, anyway. He's obviously good enough at the academic side of things, but if all he is doing is writing exams I do wonder what the rest of his life is like. I submit that a lot of things which are certainly learning activities could be quite easily done at or through school, and this would enrich his education considerably.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 05:29 am (UTC)The education system (probably rightly) forces us to do a certain amount of sport, music etc already, and efforts should be made to ensure he doesn't miss out on that minimum level if at all possible. But it's not clear to me what the benefit would be of him being pushed into doing more of those things (or any of the other things you describe) if he's not interested - of course, it may be that he is.
I don't know if all he is doing is sitting exams, but there's no evidence to suggest that's the case.
What we *do* know is that he has reached a certain level in a number of academic subjects (a surprisingly broad range, in my opinion, especially if he does get As in all of them), and he wants to progress in them. If forced to remain within the pre-18 education system for those subjects, he will certainly stagnate in them. This seems (to me) to be the point his parents are making.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 06:24 am (UTC)I think that there is considerable education to be had in academic subjects without ever having to set foot in a university. University is only one route. It is, in many ways, a more convenient route than some others might be, but it is not the only way to learn.
Well, you said "Music lessons", which I interpreted as "learn to play an instrument", rather than "learn music as an academic subject".
What do you define as an academic subject? I think that learning to play a musical instrument is a very academic undertaking in many ways.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 06:41 am (UTC)I don't believe that's true for the subject he's expressed an interest in (biochemistry). Certainly there's no other path to the research career that the article in the Times says he's interested in. Of course, what he wants to do might change.
What do you define as an academic subject? I think that learning to play a musical instrument is a very academic undertaking in many ways.
Well, I don't think it's particularly relevant to the discussion anyway, since being forced to study English (say) through lack of an alternative has the potential to be just as pointless/bad as being forced into playing sport or whatever. The point is that he will stagnate in his chosen subject(s).
But I'd base any definition around the set of subjects one can study and take GCSEs/A-levels in at school, and degrees in at university. I don't think you can get a degree (just) in playing the piano, but if you can then I would argue that this was a mistake.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 07:13 am (UTC)In terms of usefulness towards getting a career, a music degree is about as useful as any other university degree. It doesn't guarantee a good job, or good pay, or even a job at all. The bit of paper you get at the end is nearly worthless. There are much better reasons for going to university.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-13 07:45 am (UTC)Yeah, like wanting to learn the stuff taught there, which seems to apply to this kid :-)
no subject
Date: 2003-08-14 04:40 am (UTC)Looks like the BBC's definition of top grades and mine differ: today's article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/3150095.stm). No mention of whether he got up to A in Maths, either.