#i blame the education system

[sheila--e]

"the usa education system is so baddd they dont teach us anything..... also i dont wanna learn about africa because its not in my special interest and not my hobby and also africa is not useful anyways :/" I need some of you people to go outside and get ran over so badly

[northlight14]

Speaking as someone who was constantly late to school, I think punishing kids/teens for being late to school is stupid. Like, I get it. When they’re older, they can’t be late to work and stuff and they need to understand that. But majority of kids/teens are getting to school via their parents or someone else driving them or hell the school bus which is also driven by an adult. So when a kid arrives late and gets punished for it, all that’s happening is a child getting punished because the adult responsible for getting them there on time wasn’t successful. That’s not teaching the kid anything, that’s just annoying. Especially when, as a kid I was always ready on time and it was my parents I was waiting on and then in detention I’d be expected to write down a “what will I do better” that didn’t apply to me because I didn’t do anything wrong

I get that sometimes it will be the kids fault but I feel like those cases are few and far between and punishing a kid for the adults in their life is just counterproductive

[enigmaticpink]

I want to act like I dont know where the stereotype about Americans not knowing basic geography comes from but then you have people out here calling London a country

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

At a certain point blaming the school system for failing to teach you every fact becomes an excuse to absolve yourself from learning on your own time as an adult. Maybe you had bad teachers and curricula, maybe you never did the assigned reading, maybe you were taught propaganda, but it’s okay to start now. It’s okay to learn geography from online games. It’s okay to get entry level books from the library on a subject. It’s okay to explore Wikipedia and other reputable websites as a start. You can learn as an adult. You should continue learning as an adult.

[hephaestuscrew]

Clara's father being an Earl means that her family outranks Baron DeVries' family in terms of the hierarchy of the nobility. DeVries - a mere Baron, the lowest rank of British nobility - is constantly making references to his family's heritage and history and the responsibilities that come with it. Meanwhile, Clara - the daughter of an Earl (which is two ranks above a Baron) - actively avoids mentioning her aristocratic heritage and is making every effort she can to construct an identity and a life that is separate from that heritage. DeVries' adventuring is a continuation of his family's legacy; Clara's is a rejection of her's.

[steelycunt]

when people blame their education system for not being able to name any countries outside of europe im like. do you think everyone else had a special Country Naming class your school skipped? do you think there was Country Naming hour and Country Naming exams you were deprived of? do you think thats why everyone but you can. name some countries?

[maylilithreign]

I gotta say...American users on here...man I love you but you really gotta start learning more about Canada.

[lwh-writing]

Okay, so my college classes started again today and I ended the day with the first lecture of my military history class. Now, I don't usually like military history because it very much is the Dude Bro type of history that I don't jive with. However, I am taking this class because:

Even if it is Dude Bro History, I love history in all forms and want to learn more about it

I'm an engineering student with too many fucking calculus, physics, and electronic classes and my mind needs to think about something other than STEM before it breaks

I fucking LOVE my professor. I had him last semester for a European history class and he was the best. He was very much against what he calls "asshole history." Aka, the type of history that focuses on one, usually white, Christian man who "shaped the course of history" until it shuffled onto the next one. He never mentioned Henry VII or Shakespeare except in passing, but he was the first person to teach me about Alessandra Strozzi, Baruch Spinoza, and Olaudah Equiano. So once I saw he was teaching another class this semester, I was like "Okay, but only because it's you, Awesome Professor."

Anyway, today was the first lecture of Military History taught by Awesome Professor. As should have probably been expected, the class makeup was 80% Dude Bros who need to cover their liberal studies credit. We get in, go over the syllabus, do an icebreaker, and Awesome Professor pulls up a PowerPoint slide with the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Gettysburg side by side.

Awesome Professor: "Can anyone tell me the connection between these two battles?"

Some answers are offered. One Dude Bro goes on a soliloquy about war tactics and drools over the 500 Spartans. Awesome Professor corrects him and says that there were way more Greek factions there than Sparta. More answers are offered. A different Dude Bro does a different soliloquy about Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army. Awesome Professor shoots back about Meade having the superior defensive position. More answers come in. I offer that both the Greeks and the Union soldiers were vastly outnumbered. A few more answers.

Awesome Professor: "Those were all wonderful answers, but unfortunately, you're all wrong. The major connection between these two battles is.... they're the only battles we will ever discuss in this class."

This wonderful, wonderful man then goes on to say that we will NOT be getting into war tactics. We will NOT learn about weaponry. We will NOT be reading quotes from famous generals. We will instead be learning about the cultural impact of war, all sides of every conflict, how militaries and wars affect technology that isn't weapons (preserved foods, medical innovations, etc.), how to recognize war-time, pre-war, and post-war propaganda, and female and nonbinary individuals' experiences during war.

The hundreds of Dude Bros start gaping like fish and sputter about "How can you teach WAR if you don't talk about WAR?". I'm holding back cackles as they slowly realize that they will not be getting spoon-fed the classic Dude Broe history. I genuinely cannot wait to go to my next lecture and count how many people drop the class.

In conclusion: definitely give college history classes a try, even if they aren't your usual first pick. Especially if you know the professor is amazing and knows how to teach about the scope of history rather than shuffling from one asshole to the next.

[crisscross2]

I think what really fucked me up emotionally was when my IEP assigned teacher yelled at me to stop crying and that I can’t avoid doing my schoolwork when I was having an emotional breakdown and begging to call my mom.

She and another teacher (who was special ed) just sent me back to my homeroom sobbing and wanting to die. She pushed a mentally ill middle schooler to want to die, and to attempt. I failed (clearly), I stole some pills (i forget what they were) and tried to overdose when nobody was home at age 13. Ended up just puking The pills up, cleaning myself and the floor and just pretending like nothing happened because I was scared I would be told I just wanted attention and didn’t have anything to be depressed about. My parents never found out i attempted at age 13.

[crybabyleclerc]

I am the dumbest mfer on the planet. I was today years old when I found out that Monaco isn’t…an island🤦🏾‍♀️ I was so confident I knew where it was I never thought to look at a map. Feel free to shame me and my t American ignorance

[esspurrr]

man i look back to when i was a kid and having my parents actively encouraging me to learn ie look up words i didnt know in the dictionary, reading books in general, using imagination to write stories, learn about other countries, etc and i know not all kids are like this nowadays but hearing of A LOT of kids that can barely read and write as 14 year olds is like..........phew

[bxsmxx]

BAMBIIIIII💔💔💔💔💔

[thatfrenchacademic]

It's kind of annoying to me that so many Americans think that knowing where a particular European country is is the same as knowing where a specific US state is. Like yeah I can't identify Idaho on a map, but I don't think that's comparable to Americans who can't identify Ukraine on a map???

Hi Anon!

I... will assume this is in response to the "can you name all European countries?" game going around ! And I have exactly two (2) thoughts about it:

1.Devil's advocate argument:

I agree with the general sentiment, BUT [pulls out my nerdy academic glasses], a fun thing I have noticed is that instead of

"knowing where a European state is (for USAmericans) = knowing where a US state is (for Europeans)",

what comes up is more often is:

"NOT knowing where a European state is (for USAmericans) = NOT knowing where a US state is (for Europeans)"

Like, this is the type of argument USAmericans pull out only when they fail to identify European state and we point it out. On the other hand, there is not such a strong expectation that I would ACTUALLY know where Idaho is, in my experience. A few times people have assumed I know where some State is, I point out I don't, and they go 'oh, yeah, it's in North/East/...". Very rarely has an American that I talked to in person truly, actually been in disbelief that I can't place a US State on a map.

"You don't eve know where Idaho is" comes up only once they have been faced with THEIR inability to place a European State. It feels to me like a cognitive (or just rhetorical? idk, not my field) defensive move, more than an actual expectation that I would even be able to name all US State, let alone place them.

2. They are straight up not taught.

I know the instinct is to point it out and laugh at it because the irony of coming from a regime that lords its superiority over all other countries with a population that cannot, actually pinpoint where the other countries are, is STRONG.

But like.

Whose fault is it that Mark, 20, WY, thinks being able to place Utah is much more important than being able to place Albania. Or even that it is equivalent.

I know it's tempting to tell Mark that he is being a fking idiot, especially if Mark is also an asshole. But sometimes, you just need to take a breath, look at someone who is the predictable result of a shitty system, and remember that you gain nothing by confronting them aggressively like it's solely their fault they turned out like that.

Even when they are an asshole.

And just... walk away. Especially if it's online.

[bee--28]

I want the world to know that I was in Boston with my parents and brother for my brother's senior trip and my parents kept making jokes that every statue was Paul Revere and I thought they were talking about Paul Rudd because I payed absolutely zero attention to 8th grade American history

[starbirdciraus]

I drew her being a suspicious creature cause I was told doing so would help improve art skills (and I also wanted to see if I was capable of sus)

[a-very-zilly-gooze]

learning to play music as someone who cannot read music and never had a music education is wild. bandmate is like “ooh that’s a c-major chord” and “oh yeah the song changes to a 3/8 time signature here, be careful!” and it’s amazing how little of that makes sense to me.