what is understanding something anyway.

TTK12G3 on 26/10/2006 at 21:06

Skronk is a poor role-model.

Mr.Duck on 26/10/2006 at 21:10

Hey, got me some smokes.

Lets go to Alchy's place and lite up :cool:

Vigil on 26/10/2006 at 21:15

After about 3 rereads of the thread I'm pretty sure I got what it was all about in the end. Not quite sure why it took that long for me to do so.

I have to say jimjack, I've never been in a teaching environment like that in my time in public education. The quality of education and the attitude of teachers of course varies a lot depending on what country, city and school you're in... you're in Canada, aren't you?

jimjack on 26/10/2006 at 22:35

Quote Posted by Agent Monkeysee

Did I miss the day we handed out cranky juice in CommChat? Unless there's some external jimjack drama-rama

Did everyone sign up to have some dude shit in everyone's cheerios today?

This is the part I read and had as much trouble trying to see the rest of it as much as I haven't come across clearly in my own post. Anyway my dramatics aside I thought it was a topic worth thinking out loud on.
My construction of a paragraph isn't too good it seems.

Yes I am in Canada. After my schooling in scotland I had thought that the standard of eduction in Canada would be better than in most places. but so what.

Swiss Mercenary on 26/10/2006 at 23:05

I don't know about your school, but in mine teachers were always open for help/discussion - if they weren't busy with something or other.

I don't think I've encountered a single teacher who got hostile when asked a question, or was not open to them in the first place.

Para?noid on 26/10/2006 at 23:20

I guess he is talking about shit teachers and lecturers.

Although it does raise an important point my supervisor raised when I told him, "I am not satisfied until I understand something completely!". He asked me a question:

"If I applied a high-pass filter with a cutoff of 3,000 Hz to signal consisting of a sine at 2,900 Hz, what would you hear / see (analyzed)?"

"Nothing!" I replied with a satisfied grin, smugly sure in my understanding of such a basic concept.

"Well," he said. "You might hear or see something. No filter is perfect and there could easily have been some of the signal still present. Ideally, you are correct but we do not live in an ideal world and we do not and cannot understand *everything*."

So anyway the moral of the story is you can only take your understanding so far. And in that sense, if the understanding of a concept could go on for eternity, we truly understand nothing at all.* What is understanding something anyway?

Or maybe that one should take filter design very seriously

* OHHHH GODDDD MINDBLOWWWWINNNG DUDE COLLEGE TOTALLY OPENED MY EYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS

What I mean is that if there is no upper limit, then where on the "understanding" scale do we lie? The safe thing to do would be to place the upper limit at the experts, the leaders in the field but then you're valuing quantity over quality since I may know something theyyyy don't. Does that make me an expert? No.

Gingerbread Man on 26/10/2006 at 23:37

The one thing I know is that schools no longer provide you with an education. Not in the main. The teachers are poor, the resources spotty, and the children largely unimaginative and unmotivated. The onus falls on the student to DEMAND an education, to ask questions until satisfied, to insist that the teacher demonstrate their worth as such.

And if the teacher cannot satisfy you, cannot get you to understand something new that you're curious about and asking about -- assuming it's appropriate and falls within the teacher's sphere of expertise -- then you should demand to know why they aren't teaching you.

You only really get one shot at this. Sure, you can go back and learn things you missed later on, but it's not easy and there isn't as much time and access to things. And every minute of yours they waste now will cost you two minutes in the future. This is foundation, bedrock, the precursor stuff. And it's basic.

Used to be that being a teacher was a calling. Now it's just another job. And like all the other "just another job" jobs, it's full of the wrong people who do it for the wrong reasons and with disastrous consequences for the consumer.

This is also why you should make the best use of good teachers when you happen to come across one. There are always a couple in every school, and they are worth more than you can truly appreciate.

jimjack on 27/10/2006 at 00:50

I know some teachers seem to enjoy being overbearing, impatient asses, and you look at the number of students who fail or come close to failing if that teacher will not encourage students to participate more. Not all of them are like that..my p.e teacher is alright go figure. As a result most of the students start to get bored and then disruptive. The teacher gets pissed off each time he faces his class. Parents should probably be teaching kids some social skills and how to act civilized. If they can't be taught then they fail too.I don't know maybe asking to understand something or daring to debate what your being taught and opening your mind a bit to new ways of thinking makes some people afraid as it will ruin their brainwashing control over the children.:O

I think Gingerbread man has a good take on it though. Teachers are underpaid and kids get a longer holiday from school it seems and more of these pro d days.

That was also an interesting view on understanding, but I will have to re-read that a couple of times to grasp that.

SD on 27/10/2006 at 00:54

Teachers are mainly there to prepare children for the job market. To create unthinking, unquestioning little drones who accept their role as cogs in the machine. I was lucky enough to go to a (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_Blue_Coat_School) good school where this wasn't so much the case, with teachers who encouraged me to think and to question, but even still, most of what I have learnt I have taught myself.

jimjack, if you really want to learn, you'd do well to start educating yourself.

Gorgonseye on 27/10/2006 at 01:18

Aye, Strontz is right. From what you've said, your going to need to educate yourself. But, taking days off won't really help much, your going to need to try and absorb everything they attempt to teach, because, its best to have a crappy education, then no education at all. But, your going to have to do that, as well as read a lot in the library, see if there are after school activities, sign up for extra classes etc etc. Sure, you're not going to enjoy it {I should know...} but it will more then likley pay off.