School and Education

Hello everybody,

I had to go to youtube to get the video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyucnM1z62U

Clearly, this type of document is useless. The title itself is simply lurid, and I've never found a single "the top 2/5/10... blah blah" video worth watching.
At best, we may have been taught things that proved wrong afterwards, but they never were deliberate lies. If I had been a student during the dark ages, I'd have been taught that the earth is flat, indeed, and at the time, it would have been the truth, because it was "common knowledge".
Teachers always try to convey what they think is right, but how can you expect them to be up to date in every field they teach ?
So even if what they actually teach is wrong, it is seldom a deliberate lie. (Exceptions ? French school teachers in Algeria ? "Our ancestors had blond hair and blue eyes" ? But what choice did they have ?)

Back to the video.
Well, the guy who made it is either an ignoramus or a blatant liar himself. There are various errors (or plain lies) in the so-called truths he tries to impart, the most brazen being about who discovered America. Leif Erikson says he ? Desparetely wrong. America got populated by Asians who crossed the Bering Straits, 20000, maybe 50000 years ago. How about that for a "discovery" ?

So, to any aficionados who might be reading this : do yourself a huge favour, and move all "top 2/5/10 blah blah" videos straight to your trashbox.

hi Muriel it's very difficult for me
I speak and learn English for three months
bye
have a good evening
Nathalie

Hi Nathalie ! hi Yves !
Thanks a lot for your answer and congratulations to Nathalie for her English. It's a amazing to write that way with only studying English for 3 months.

yves a écrit:but they never were deliberate lies.

Yves I agree with you, they were not deliberate lies but nowadays when I go back to my school years i feel I have been deceived. It was not my teachers' fault of course because they were formatted like that. Let bygones be bygones ( It's useless to try and find a guilty person because there is not any) and let's turn to the future. For instance when I was taught history I had to learn boring things like battles, dates, Kings etc... I was not taught the meaning of things, i was not taught to think about things. For instance : man can manage a small number of people but when there is a big number they have to create a myth : political, religious etc. I had never realized that. I had not understood that when  the hunter-gathers invented agriculture it was not a step forward on the contrary  it a catastrophe. I am very interested in the consecuences of quantum mechanics in my own life but nobody had ever mentioned it to me

quantum mechanics gradually arose from Max Planck's solution in 1900 and was profoundly reconceived in the mid-1920s)

I am not that old !

Nowadays,  i agree, it is very difficult for teachers.  The pupils search everything in the internet and they are not the ones who know everything.  Any way it is a good thing because the teachers' role is to teach how to understand things which is much more interesting !
Sorry for the video but i didn't have the time to Watch it. I try to read everything on the forum which is a very hard job and I can't watch all the videos. I am not the only one of course but enjoy so much reading different view points.

" I had not understood that when the hunter-gathers invented agriculture it was not a step forward on the contrary"

Is it a reference to the "Sapiens book"? (sorry, for the pseudo quote, I still haven't figured how to do it properly... So much for computers engineers !)

Natalie : congratulations for your english ! After 3 months of portuguese or catalan, I could never have done so well !
Please keep at it !

Is it a reference to the "Sapiens book"?

Yes I have found that book amazing;

Hi everyone and thanks MurielB for inviting all of us to take part to this discussion.

From my side, I haven't been able to go on MurielB's link but only on YvesB's youtube video and I barely remember me having been taught 2 of these 10 "lessons". So I have to say that if they were, they would have had any consequence on me (I think...).

It is true that ideally, all teachers should only spread truth to young minds. But not introducing personal point of views (like I remember some History/Geography teachers about politicians), truth is true until the point someone proves you that's wrong. So teachers might think it's true because studying can have occured decades ago (and relied on the teaching of others who had the same issue) and they are not working in an environment stimulating them enough for this purpuse (since they are employed for teaching and not for learning)... I am no teacher but I suppose some kinda mendatory yearly-basis training for teachers might improve it, but I am not sure the government would pay for all (all then we come always back to money ...)

MurielB a écrit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_website

Fake news websites seek to mislead, rather than entertain, readers for financial, political, or other gain

...

Hi Muriel,
I won't write about "lies at school" nor about scientific theories (which are considered as THE TRUTH and the possibility of big progress inside a specific validity range TILL further research and new theory) but here just a few words about disinformation.
For long, "approximate truth" such as in religions, are spread in the society...
On the Internet, fake information is published, most of the time intentionally and for various reasons.

-1- I'd like to point out that people must check the truth before forwarding such fake information as it's disastrous when someone you know and trust also publishes.
-2- I'd like to point out intentional false information published throughout the Internet in a period of election campaign, just to influence future votes, discrediting certain candidates; every political party prepares (and prepared) special files but the Internet makes propaganda more efficient.
-3- I don't know if this will be considered as information (I do). I'd like to point out a catastrophe concerning the primaries (elections): nowadays, people have to vote about 6 times (2 times 2 for the primaries of the 2 main wings plus 2 times for the official votes); nowadays, people also vote to choose their "favorite opponent" - someone as far as possible from their own candidate... the height of disinformation/disact*.

* my word "disact" doesn't exist: I make it up because it's worse than disinformation, it's the opposite of normal acting - vote for our candidate (vote for the worse opponent    ).

Gérard what do you think of the fact that the word fake news is not properly understood by the French. They  think that fake news means lies and it is not exact.

false=>Untrue,  intended to deceive
fake=>something made to look real
For instance websites can pretend to be  press institutions  but are not
The pope who  endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was spread through  a fake news web site. Is the word you have made up "disact" means false or fake ?

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/6-secrets-infants-can-teach-adults-about-learning/?WT.mc_id=SA_FB_MB_BLOG%5B/size

Hi Gérard, everyone !
I like to bear in mind that I can make mistakes and even fail

MurielB a écrit:Hi Gérard, everyone !
I like to bear in mind that I can make mistakes and even fail

However, France doesn't value this tho mistakes are also big knowledge...

Tries and errors are the best way to learn and progress in many domains.

Tries and errors are the best way to learn and progress in many domains.

Yes but make the same mistake only once !

Tries and errors are the best way to learn and progress in many domains.

Experimental science is based on this couple.

I made a mistake Muriel, the English expression is "trials and errors".

Gérard I wanted to add that that Barbie has had more than 18 careers from doctor, architect and journalist to fire fighter(Not only pink coloured jobs) Every little girl needs a doll through which to project herself into her dream of her future. Barbie in that sense explores all the possibilities. The dark side is that Barbie puts pressure on girls to look perfect which is impossible isn't it ?

I agree on what you said! One downside of Barbie is that little girls can identify with the doll and take it as role model. Barbie's height is not realistic enough, and in my opinion it is a shame this doll does not represent better the wide diversity of feminine bodies' shapes...

it is a shame this doll does not represent better the wide diversity of feminine bodies' shapes...

I totally agree with you !

Sexist education should be banned

http://discovery.economist.com/features/does-screen-time-affect-children?kw=all&csid=socialfb6for6la&ref=features&qq=ok17

The limited evidence available suggests that the negative effects of screen time on mental health are tiny and not worth worrying about. But solid research is lacking. Ask

It is obvious that activities like socialising, exercise, sleep are displaced by screen time. A good balance between screen time and these very important activities is necessary.

=>virtual reality

Virtual reality can be used in classrooms to enhance student learning and engagement. VR can transform the way educational content is delivered; it works on the premise of creating a virtual world — real or imagined — and allows users to interact with it.

It is true that learners who are actively engaged learn better and research proves that immertion in the virtual is very beneficial. For instance, when medical students study the human body with clear images that come to life, it is really exiting and useful isn't it ?

An online school (virtual school or e-school or cyber-school) teaches students entirely or primarily online or through the internet. It has been defined as "education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students.^[1] Online education exists all around the world and is used for all levels of education (K-12, college, or graduate school). This type of learning enables the individuals to earn transferable credits, take recognized examinations, or advance to the next level of education over the internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_school

Hi everyone
Online school is interesting because it allows students to continue their activities (working or raising their children) while studying. Even when when they live on a small village, they have access to an excellent teaching and they don't have to move which could be very difficult for them.
Anyway, it is difficult to work alone and they miss classmates. On the other hand, even when they can use emails, chats and mobile phones they Don't have face to face teachers which could bring problems for them.

Hi everyone
Before the arrival of the Internet my husband studied pediatrics. He was away from the university and studied alone. The advantage for him was to learn from different books and thus be able to compare different currents of thought. In this sense virtual schools make people self-reliant and free.