1. 27 April 2007

    572 days ago

    Spend the years of learning squandering
    Courage for the years of wandering
    Through a world politely turning
    From the loutishness of learning.

    Gnome, Samuel Beckett

  2. 18 April 2007

    School, springtime

    581 days ago

    It’s been beautiful outside the past few days and I’ve been lapping it up. 65 degree days with blue skies and light breezes make school plenty hard to put up with though. I sat down in my third two hour class yesterday only to get up and leave and sit outside the rest of the afternoon. I made it to all three of my classes today, but the third was rough. Here’s me falling asleep:

    (I told the iMac to capture an iSight image every 15 minutes along with a screenshot. So far only one kid dialing up internet porn.) Here’s all that I could do to keep awake:

    The puzzle widget is another great one to tile across the 1900×1200 screen, but you have to go through and click each one to make them move, and it chews up an unfair amount of processor to have so many little windows constantly drawing themselves in the background.

    To make things worse, I have a french paper due consecutively last friday, this morning, and tomorrow at 1pm for which I haven’t yet been able to get a paragraph out. I’ve read patches of four different books (not to mention at least as much on the web) for inspiration. Although I have a topic that pulls me in (at least in theory), I still can’t bring any words out. We’ll see how this goes.

  3. 22 December 2006

    Quick Semester Review

    698 days ago

    I finished my nth semester in college today, didn’t have too bad a time. In the past I’ve been a bit apoplectic when it comes to school, but I think that that’s working it’s way out of my system. It’s not like I’m depressed about school – it’s a plenty good time living in a little mini-real-life situation with a bunch of kids the same age as you. Having a real soccer team was a plus from last year, although club soccer was plenty fun there was a bit of discipline missing. I’m pretty much ignoring how much money it costs and whether or not paying it is rational, but my cursory investigations into that haven’t blown me away with fear or anything. Most of all I figure that I can graduate in 3 years (spring 08) and put up with it until then.

    Soccer

    I played on the newly started school team. I’m no superstar when it comes to playing, but I am the kid who’s played his whole life and just has fun. I started at left back and had a pretty good season, although it was long and cold: colder in october than in november, and our season went all way through october; we had a few practices while it was snowing. I had a good time, it was a few orders of magnitude more commitment than playing on the club team last year. But it’s nice that I show up at the school and they decide to start a program. We competed with all the teams in our division, but we didn’t too well with winning, coming in below 5 and above 2. I think there’s a good base to go from next year, we’ll see how that goes.

    English 3021 – Language and Grammar

    An interesting one, looking at english in how it works now and it’s history from the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes jumping the channel from mainland europe. I’d already been finicky with language usage, I just really hope that this class doesn’t start me off yelling at friends/strangers about using I vs me or that vs which or stupid crap like that. I can handle doing it to family, but friends just seems like stretching it and complete strangers beyond tolerable.

    Computers 3501 – Algorithms and Computability

    Here’s one of those classes that just didn’t quite work for me. I’m not expecting to fail or anything: on the first two exams I managed 95%, I should have done just fine with the labs, but I probably only turned in half the homework. I’m not sure what my deal was, but it’s nice to know that within the class there are plenty others in the same boat as me. Interesting subject matter, but just the way in which it came across sort of hurt my head and my sense of how school should work. I don’t know, last year in a class with the same professor I’d judiciously do the homework each night before it was do I just couldn’t this year.

    Honors – Some ridiculous title about progress and history that I cannot remember

    An interesting class, a bit of a survey in history and literature and ideas of time/progress. Lots of exposure to fun new ideas, a couple of books to read and lots of excerpts. I don’t know about the honors program at my school, I hate the elitist notion of me being any more honorable than anyone else, but I think that the program gives me a shot at taking some classes I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

    Political Philosophy

    I just decided one day last year I wanted to take this upper level philosophy course. I’m fickle like that. Without much background in either politics or philosophy I was swimming upriver, but don’t think I did terribly. Fun ideas once more, what more can you ask for. I’d rather earn a D in a tough course than an A in fluff. I also shouldn’t have a D, I did better than that.

    Computers – Seminar 1

    Pretty much a fluff course, we had to do a ~30 minute presentation on something about computers and write a 2 page paper on something else about computers. And show up once a week to watch everyone else’s presentation. I did my presentation on human computer interaction from a historical point of view, looking back at some cool shit, and had a good time making it. Homework should always be fun like that.

  4. 13 November 2006

    737 days ago

    It has been said, only too truly, that Plato was the inventor of both our secondary schools and our universities. I do not know a better argument for an optimistic view of mankind, no better proof of their indestructible love for truth and decency, of their originality and stubbornness and health, than the fact that this devastating system of education has not utterly ruined them. In spite of the treachery of so many of their leaders, there are quite a number, old as well as young, who are decent, and intelligent, and devoted to their task. ‘I sometimes wonder how it was that the mischief done was not more clearly perceptible,’ says Samuel Butler, ‘and that the young men and women grew up as sensible and as goodly as they did, in spite of the attempts almost deliberately made to warp and stunt their growth. Some doubtless received damage, from which they suffered to their life’s end; but many seemed little or none the worse, and some almost the better. The reason would seem to be that the natural instinct of the lads in most cases so absolutely rebelled against their training, that do what their teachers might they could never get them to pay serious heed to it.’

    Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies

  5. 11 April 2006

    Essay Tests

    953 days ago

    Man I love essay tests. It’s almost like the less I study for them, or am even prepared at all to take them (I don’t really study ever), the better I do.

    Freshman and Sophomore year in High School I had classes that gave lots of essay tests, but not since. No matter what the tests are on, I always manage come up with something to say close enough to the actual question and I can come out with my A.

    It’s nice to be able to take an upper division history class, do half the readings in the section, and ace the exam. I was expecting more of a C. I got 100/100. I had the biggest goofiest smile on my face for the next ten minutes. I felt the grade was a real testament to how much I kick school’s ass. The last section of the course I probably did 85% of the readings and got a 93.

    I still can’t decide whether it’s a good thing that I do great in school without trying, or a bad thing. On one side, I’ve always hated the kids who try hard in school – don’t you have better things to do with your time than homework? But then they’re the ones who are getting the most out of school. At least it seems to be that way. Maybe they just spend so much time on all that homework that they can’t see how little they’re really getting out of it.

  6. 14 March 2006

    Mumblings

    981 days ago

    I got picked to fill out a survey for my school, 15 minutes of button clicking. The quick reflection on college it provided wasn’t a bad one, and here’s what I put in the comments box after it was all said and done:

    I’m no big fan of “school,” and really only came to college for lack of anything better to do. I consider myself an ardent self learner and value skills learned independently and on my own time tremendously (probably because they so outweigh those I’ve experienced within school). School just hasn’t ever been able to keep me interested.

    Considering that, UMM has been better then I expected, and although I’m not yet sure whether or not I’ll be continuing with institutionalized education or not, I have enjoyed my time here.

    When people at home ask me how things are going, my response varies between “not bad” and “I haven’t dropped out yet.” As unenthusiastic is I sound, that’s really quite a testament.

  7. 22 February 2006

    School

    1001 days ago

    I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted to just raise my hand and say “when are we going to learn something?” in a number of my classes over the past week.

    I’m paying $4,865.42 (not counting housing and my meal plan). That is a shitloat of money. And I’m really not learning anything that I couldn’t just pick up a book and teach myself.

    I give interesting points to a few of my courses, but I’m really not sure if I’ll be able to put up with 2 more years of college.

  8. 30 January 2006

    1024 days ago

    Why "No Child Left Behind" Does Not Work for our Schools

    What is going on in today’s public classroom is this: the opportunity for teachers to open children’s minds and create lifelong thinking skills is being systematically and surgically removed by educational bureaucrats, politicians and administrators under the reform banner of “No Child Left Behind”.

    I was a sophomore when NCLB took effect, and my high school didn’t have anywhere to go but down. As an upperclassmen, I was past the basics courses in which 45 kids would get thrown into a room with one teacher (a lab science course!). I in fact managed 4 quite pleasant years. But anyone could tell that things were deteriorating fast.

    Children need more than basic skills. They need the chance to become motivated learners. They need the chance to be nurtured, to be loved. Education is not a business, a computer game, or a military operation. But to NCLB advocates, with their power-point presentations and their charts and spit-shined loafers and double-breasted suits, it is all this and more.

    Intangibles are all I’ve ever taken from school. I took calculus my junior year, passed the AP exam, and can’t remember which one is an integral and which a derivative. I’ve gone to public school all my life, and been quite impressed at the caliber of my teachers. Most of them had a quite significant impact on me.

    And not because they taught me what 2+2 equaled.

    via Kjell Olsen1024 days ago

  9. 29 January 2006

    Spring Semester

    1025 days ago

    So I’m a few weeks into my second (real) semester of college. I’m taking 19 credits, which comes out to five classes. I have most of my work MWF, with four classes at about one hour each. I start at 9:15 and go until 11:30; break for lunch; then go from 1:00 to 3:20. Tuesdays I don’t have anything, and thursdays a Data Structures lab and Economics of networks.

    I’m still not sure about college. It’s damn expensive, even at a public school. I can’t say I hate it, but neither can I rationalize going into debt over it.

    I keep thinking there are better things I should be doing, and whether or not I manage to ever graduate will mostly come down to biting the bullet and ignoring that “this is a waste” feeling to come out of it with the requisite piece of paper.

    But I said I’d try out a year, and can’t say that its been a complete waste.

    French 3011

    Reading and Analysis of Texts. So far we’ve just started looking at french poetry. I’m surprised at how much french I know. Last spring I did some reading on my own (Le Petit Prince, Petit Nicolas, Rhinocéros) and got to the point that it’s not so much of a brain stretch to understand written french. But renaissance poetry kind of throws a wrench into all that comprehension.

    CS 1301

    We’re getting to go at things with scheme, which looks like fun. We’re not exactly moving fast yet, which always bugs me. I resent that fact that we’re made to take quizzes about programming on paper. They seem a bit antithetical retarded to me. I rely heavily on the computer when I’m programming, there really isn’t any need to sit down and memorize constructs and the finer points of syntax – the compiler tells you.

    Renaissance/Reformation

    I woke up one morning having nocturnally decided that I was going to take a class on the renaissance, and looked for one in the catalog, and there was one. The Renaissance is an interesting subject. I spend most of the time in any history class trying to draw parallels between now and then, and like to hope that right now we’re in a dark age and just ready to be reawakened into a new age.

    Data Structures

    Another computers course, I’ve been cutting my teeth on java for the first time. Having a bit of experience with ruby, java sucks pretty hard. It’s nice to learn something new, but it could be something a lot cooler then java. Unfortunately there’s probably one or two more course for which I’ll need to have a handle on java.

    In class the other day I said we should quit java, and the prof (same as in my 1301 course) made some noise about how much she liked smalltalk, so I’m going to see whether or not I could steer the course away from java. We’d maybe get to spend time on a second language, but java still seems requisite.

    Open Source vs. Proprietary Techonology: The Economics of Networks and Innovation

    Most obnoxious title ever. But probably my most interesting course. It meets once a week for a two hour block, and is all discussion (vs. lecture). Right now we’re reading free culture. So far I’ve come out of both the meetings excited for the next one, which hasn’t happened in any of my classes for awhile.

  10. 05 January 2006

    1049 days ago

    Ban all schools? That's a dangerous thought

    Radical ideas from radically smart people:

    We need to stop thinking that all children need to learn the same stuff. We need to create adults who can think for themselves.
    Call school off. Turn them into apartments. Roger Schank

    via Kjell Olsen1049 days ago

  11. 02 December 2005

    1083 days ago

    Never Underestimate the Power of Fun

    This is exactly what gets me about college. Play is extracted from work, and play inevitably becomes getting drunk and killing someone tearing down a goal post while celebrating a football victory (yes, thats my school).

    ...play=learning, play=practice, and learning/practice=survival. Play – and laughter – sends a signal to the brain that “this is good, and it matters”, which is why we’re often more likely to remember especially funny things than neutral or annoying things.

    I can’t understand how college makes work and play so irreconcilable. I’m all too close to dropping out, college just doesn’t any sense to me.

    via Kjell Olsen1083 days ago

  12. 06 November 2005

    1109 days ago

    Autodidacticism

    I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker… I never learned anything at all in school and didn’t read a book for pleasure until I was 19 years old. Stanley Kubrick

    via Kjell Olsen1109 days ago

  13. 03 November 2005

    1112 days ago

    autodidactic

    Thank you qwantz.

    via Kjell Olsen1112 days ago

  14. 18 October 2005

    1128 days ago

    Notes from Startup School

    and more notes.

    via Kjell Olsen1128 days ago

  15. 18 September 2005

    1158 days ago

    Against School: How public education cripples our kids and why

    I just started college, and I’m as close as ever to deciding it’s not the right thing for me. I had quite a hunch I wouldn’t enjoy college, but thought it merited a try. I hate it more then anything I’ve done to date so far, it’s just fucking banal.

    Inglis, for whom a lecture in education at Harvard is named, makes it perfectly clear that compulsory schooling on this continent was intended to be just what it had been for Prussia in the 1820s: a fifth column into the burgeoning democratic movement that threatened to give the peasants and the proletarians a voice at the bargaining table. Modern, industrialized, compulsory schooling was to make a sort of surgical incision into the prospective unity of these underclasses. Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant rankings on tests, and by many other more subtle means, and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever re-integrate into a dangerous whole.

    ...the Prussian system [emulated in american public schooling] was useful in creating not only a harmless electorate and a servile labor force but also a virtual herd of mindless consumers.

    Dr. Inglis knew that if children could be cloistered with other children, stripped of responsibility and independence, encouraged to develop only the trivializing emotions of greed, envy, jealousy, and fear, they would grow older but never truly grow up.

    After a long life, and thirty years in the public school trenches, I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.

    via Kjell Olsen1158 days ago

  16. 09 September 2005

    A bit more on college

    1167 days ago

    So I’m still ambivalent about college. I don’t know how much it’s helping me learn. I’ve always been a fiercely individual learner, and I’m not yet sure whether or not college is the right place for me. I decided to attend college more by default, I didn’t quite have anything else to do that would satisfy me entirely. I thought I should at least give it a try. But I’m still only lukewarm at best about it’s value, and what the fuck am I doing here when I don’t think it’s the best thing for me?

  17. 01 September 2005

    College again

    1174 days ago

    So I’m off at college, and things are going fine. A few quick bits:

  18. 09 June 2005

    1259 days ago

    MIT OpenCourseWare

    I’ve never actually taken a class here, but fantasized about it lots.

    a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT’s mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century. It is true to MIT’s values of excellence, innovation, and leadership.

    How about intro linguistics?

    Kjell Olsen1259 days ago

  19. 30 March 2005

    1330 days ago

    Bhargav's Collection

    “The Collection,” a nice bit of academic reading materials (textbooks and lecture notes!). I love the internet. I’m tempted to wget the entire site – but I’m running out of hard disk (doh!).

    via Kjell Olsen1330 days ago

  20. 27 February 2005

    1361 days ago

    Governors Work to Improve H.S. Education

    The nation’s governors offered an alarming account of the American high school Saturday, saying only drastic change will keep millions of students from falling short.

    Yeah, that’s me. But I’m out this spring and on to ‘the real world,’ and I couldn’t be more excited.

    Most of the summit’s first day amounted to an enormous distress call, with speakers using unflattering numbers to define the problem. Among them: Of every 100 ninth-graders, only 68 graduate high school on time and only 18 make it through college on time, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

    “On time?” School is becoming too much like just an assembly line, I don’t think people should be judged as to how “fast” they “get out.” College just seems retarded to me right now, so maybe I’ll go and maybe not. I’m graduating with highest honors (whatever that means) this spring, I’ve been plenty successful in high school – but does that mean that I’m a failure if I don’t finish college by 2009?

    America’s high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I don’t just mean that they’re broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools even when they’re working as designed cannot teach all our students what they need to know today. Bill Gates

    I do agree with this statement a lot. In looking back at my education the years I feel that I learned the most were fifth and sixth grade, and I wish I still could be learning at the level I did then. I just went and went, and accomplished all sorts of things.

    But what I really feel I learned those two years wasn’t that important as measured by the CAT test, or the MBST test (both which I scored incredibly high on) or even the more recent SAT or ACT (also) but in how ever since I’ve been motivated to learn for myself.

    Since then I just haven’t cared as much for any of my schoolwork, my ‘learning,’ or my grades – but I sincerely feel that I did learn what is important to learn in school – the ability to be able to learn.

    And I really wouldn’t encourage the governor’s council to just raise standards, because all I can see that doing is driving the number of struggling students through the roof. You need to give students who don’t already have a reason to learn a reason – and you need to do it promptly. Because there are a lot of kids who don’t care about college these days, both on the talented side of average and the struggling side who can think of better ways to live then struggle through another four years of mechanized and oppressive “learning.”

    via Kjell Olsen1361 days ago

  21. 01 February 2005

    1387 days ago

    St. John's College

    Wow, an interesting looking college:

    St. John’s College is a co-educational, four year liberal arts college known for its distinctive “great books” curriculum.
    The all-required course of study is based on the reading, study, and discussion of the most important books of the Western tradition. There are no majors and no departments; all students follow the same program.
    Students study from the classics of literature, philosophy, theology, psychology, political science, economics, history, mathematics, laboratory sciences, and music. No textbooks are used. The books are read in roughly chronological order, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing to modern times.
    All classes are discussion-based. There are no class lectures; instead, the students meet together with faculty members (called tutors) to explore the books being read.

    Another school I’ve looked at is Evergreen, but the only colleges I’ve applied to are pretty run of the mill… I don’t like school much.

    Kjell Olsen1387 days ago

  22. Also somewhat recently

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