Middle school.

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by pat2011, Apr 18, 2012.

  1. After A discussion I am going to open this thread back up, but only with the stipulation that sexual talk stops at this point. For debate purposes, I will leave what is here. But No more posts about sexual acts in or out of schools. The debate about schools in general may continue.
    MR2R2M likes this.
  2. Thanks again. I think we can all agree that there is no need to discuss the sexual aspect of schools. After a bit of a debate with Ismooch, I got the thread opened again, please respect this stipulation, and DO NOT ruin it for others. Happy debating :)
  3. I heard of this happening once at my school. Middle school, prob just a rumor, but where do you guys live srsly? The schools you talk about sound bad, I actually learn a lot at my school!
  4. my school is considered good but the teachers dont teach u ANYTHING important
  5. My school is good with this stuff, from what I know.
  6. I appreciate all the input from all you guys, I really do, but it shows that you clearly do not have knowledge of the research and studies done on the subject. I used to think just like you do, which is natural, as it's the societal norm, it's what everyone is used to, and why would we even consider doing things differently? Question everything. Especially things that you believe without any evidence.

    I'm very sorry that my reply to your long, thought-out posts is this general and dismissive, but until you've read up on the research and studies and literature concerning these things, this discussion will just end up being very frustrating and not very fruitful for me. You can't properly criticize something you don't know enough about, because you end up criticizing things that are well and properly debunked or argued in the books and the blog and on the school website that I posted. Your post, MR2R2M, for instance, makes a lot of assumptions, assertions and mistakes that wouldn't otherwise be made if you were familiar with my sources. Therefore, at this point, if I continue arguing, I feel like I will just keep repeating my arguments, and you will be repeating your arguments, ad infinitum.

    I just wanted to get my viewpoint out there, both to show how I think, and to make it available to those who might be interested, but haven't been exposed to it yet. If this is as interesting to you as it is to me, please read up on the sources I provided. :)

    By the way, if any of you want me to reply to something specific in your posts, just let me know. I'm just not willing to go over the whole thing and reply to everything.

    This enormous fear of children coming across something "inappropriate" is complete hogwash. You know what truly messes people up? Being sheltered from reality. I'm not saying there are no things out there that are inappropriate for children, but seriously, children's minds are not some fragile pieces of expensive, ancient china. Anyway, I don't know why I bother... this website has one of the most ridiculously restrictive policies I've seen on behavior of the "please think of the children" variant, and I doubt my arguments would change that. I will follow the rules, mind you, but I think a lot of the ones that deal with "inappropriate behavior" are utterly stupid.
    MR2R2M and SecretAznEks like this.
  7. I for one agree with this 100%. If a child knows how to get to this website, and browse around it, then they obviously have the capability to search out "bad things" on the internet.

    And thanks for your response. I am intrigued as to how you have come to the conclusions you have and will certainly be reading those sources sometime in the near future. My point that I wanted to bring across though is that, I have just finished school and I am in my first year of University. I am fine, theres nothing wrong with me after going through school, in actual fact I think it did me a world of good. I didn't feel prisoned going through school. Upon reflection of my schooling career I think it set me up decently for my future education.

    Good debate guys, one I really liked responding to :)
    alexschrod likes this.
  8. To start, none of this is meant to me harsh in any way. I am only offering good hearted criticism :)
    First like to reply to:
    With all due respect, the reason rules like these are in place under the "please think of the children" variants is because there is a very fine line on what is truly appropriate, not only for children, but in a forum for Minecraft and is also one of the reasons this community is so successful. On the children aspect though, remember that this restriction is pretty elastic and can cover many different subjects, things not only related to the previous conversations that Smooch dubbed to be inappropriate, but things like language also. It not only keeps the forums cleaner (and more professional/appealing to the adult community), but it keeps everyone on equal footing. By this I mean, as to stick to your anti-'age segregation', it allows us all to converse in most of the threads on here with complete disregard as to who we are talking to, meaning we don't know the age, race, gender, looks, voice, etc of the other players (unless this information is decided to be disclosed by the player in question). If these rules were to be lifted, I can guarantee that the community would dissolve from its standing with 30000+ members. Much of the older community would be appalled at some of the language that would pop up and would leave. The younger community would more than likely repeat what they read in front of their parents and would no longer be allowed on the server, and maybe even Minecraft in general. So all who would be left would be mostly 15-25 year olds. The children aren't the only ones who benefit from rules like this. We all do in the long run and I am very grateful that rules like this are in place and up kept.

    Now, on the schooling subject, I agree with some of your arguments, but I very much disagree with a lot of them as well. You claim the 'ignorance' of several people on the matter, but openly admit that you haven't read into the other side of the story:
    So, is it possible that you are also being slightly hypocritical in calling people ignorant for not being as well versed in your arguments as you? According to your own words:
    you should also look up the facts about the other side as well. In order to truthfully look at this with an evidence based point of view, you should look up the arguments the other side makes, just as thoroughly as you have read up on John Gatto's material and the like. Try to de-bunk your own arguments, to see which ones are really all that great. Now, I haven't read Gatto's material as I am in college and finals are coming up, but you had better believe that I WILL be reading all of it, Gatto's material and the arguments on the other side as well, as soon as I'm back at home and have the time to actually look into all of this with the level of detail that I am stating here. I'm not going to call you on something, and then turn around and not do it myself after all :p Also, as to:
    If anything this just proves that you haven’t put forth the necessary time to try to find evidence for the other side of your arguments. I would suggest simply Googleing the topic and see what you come up with. You shouldn’t just wait for other people to find counter arguments for you, try to find them yourself.

    Now, on the topic of schooling I agree with some of what you have put forward here, but also disagree with a lot as well. You state:
    If this is the case, then please give some suggestions as to what to do differently. This in my mind did nothing but describe every class in every teaching situation that has ever occurred. How do you suggest that we learn differently in a math or geography situation?
    This to me blatantly contradicts your other statement:
    I think this because what is school other than simply the most organized version of this in history? We all learn from our teachers (our our elder), and by becoming educated we learn how to interact in society.

    Now, in regards to what I really agree with you on, yes, as it is now, public schooling is highly ineffective. In my experience it was because of all the standardized testing being thrown around at us all through school (Like in my case the OGT, or Ohio Graduation Test). To all of my teacher’s dismay, they had to prepare us for what was going to be asked on the test, not what was really practical. In other words they had to pound memorized facts into our heads instead of teaching us the theory behind most things. It really is unfortunate.

    To end my little rant here, I’ll go out with this. I do feel that parents should make more of an effort to teach problem solving and things of the sort to their children. To represent what I mean by this, I am going to ask you all a riddle. This was asked in my Calculus II workshop by our TA (at the University of Rochester). He gave us about 5 minutes to come up with an answer since he had to get on with workshop (none of us got it by that point), but bear in mind that this question was asked on the Chinese kindergarten entrance exam this past year (he knows this from first-hand experience)


    1. There are 4 people.
    2. Each is wearing a hat.
    3. There are two colors of hats, 2 red ones and 2 blue ones.
    4. They are all facing in the same direction with each person's hat in front of them visible, and cannot move.
    5. One person is on the other side of a wall and is not visible to the other people.
    6. They are not allowed to speak unless they are positive of what color hat they are wearing.

    Which person is the one who knows what color hat they are wearing?
    Malicaii12 and MR2R2M like this.
  9. Right, so I pondered on this riddle for about 3 minutes and came up with a solution.

    We will start with the guy on the other side of the wall, I believe he serves no purpose at all other than wearing the hat.

    Assuming of course the people know there are only two hats of each colour. Lets start with C, if he can see that B and A are the same colour, then immediately C can determine that his/ her hat colour is the other colour and speak up about it.

    However, if A and B have different colours, C would say nothing as he/she would be unsure of their own colour. B would be able to pick up on this because C wouldn't say something at all (as C is unsure) and can tell that if C says nothing the hats on A and B must be different. Being able to see A's hat B can determine his/ her own hat colour.


    Great riddle mate, I thoroughly enjoyed that one! I am quite surprised I got it.
    SecretAznEks and Yukon1200 like this.
  10. Yes great job :) I must say it is a bit tougher when your being told aloud the instructions only one time, and have to visual to assist you, but I'm glad you liked it!

    On the topic point though, if the Chinese expect this of their KINDERGARTNERS then we must be doing something wrong if this is still challenging to college students...
    MR2R2M likes this.
  11. I added a spoiler button, just to not spoil it for people :)

    And yes, haha, no wonder they are so smart! I want to be Chinese!!
    Yukon1200 likes this.
  12. yes thank you :)
    MR2R2M likes this.
  13. Haha add that to your next EMC news video, "and congratulations to MR2R2M for figuring out a riddle I posted on the forums" :p ;)
  14. haha we'll see ;)
    MR2R2M likes this.
  15. Upon further thought on this, I came up with something else. For those who have figured it out I ask you this:

    Could the meaningful silence of C break the "No communication" rule? I will answer this in a few minutes time.
  16. I would say no. That being because the rules state that they can only not speak. The lack of speaking is the only conceivable way to 'communicate' as to who is wearing each different hat.

    correct?
    MR2R2M likes this.
  17. Yes, you are correct in some respect :) But ponder on this:

    speaking is a form of communication. And therefore the rule could be interpreted as "No Communicating". In which case the meaningful silence could be a form of communication.

    Given that communication is usually defined as the transfer of information. A silence does have the ability to communicate something, some information, in this case an uncertainty about a hat.

    And so therefore, you are breaking the no speaking rule :p Mind Bogglement FTW!
  18. so far all of my teachers have said 90% of what we "learn" we will never use again...
  19. Are you sure it's for that? When I was in high school I had classes that required me to work with the small children in our school implemented daycare. Teachers would drop off and pick up their children who ranged in age from Newborn and infants, a room for toddlers, and there was also a room for student around preschool age. It was for the teachers' children from the entire school system so that they wouldn't have to drop them off at some place possibly out of their way. We rarely had students' children in there.
  20. 6 hours? What country do you live in? I go for 7-8 hours a day! (Depends on whether you play sports or not.)

    Keyword here is rarely.