12th Archivist
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Since all the threads here I have made seem to have sparked interesting and useful conversations, I might as well start a new one, one regarding more questions I have.

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The term "Brain Development" refers to how far along the brain is in terms of age. A brain at age four is more developed than a brain at age one. The term "Comprehension" refers to the brain's ability to learn more advanced topics in a certain subject. Analytical calculus is a more advanced topic in math than subtraction.

It is obvious that there is an association between how developed a brain is and how well it can comprehend something. For example, a four-year-old will probably not grasp multiplication, and a twelve-year-old will probably not grasp integrals and derivatives.

However, the operative word is "probably", which gives rise to several questions. They are:

At what age does the average brain reach maximum development, if ever? Does a forty-year-old with certain knowledge of a subject comprehend better than a twenty-year-old with the same amount of knowledge in that subject?

How limiting is the lack of proper brain development? I.E, can an average twelve-year-old comprehend integrals and derivatives with proper teaching and motivation, or does their brain literally prevent them from fully understanding?

Although every brain is different and will develop and comprehend at different rates, is it possible to simplify different concepts such as multiplication to a certain value, where iteration (arguably the easiest mathematical concept of all) is set to 1? For example, if iteration has a comprehension level of 1 and could be comprehended by the average five-year-old (an arbitrary age), could addition and subtraction have a comprehension level of, say, 2 (meaning its comprehension is twice as difficult as iteration) and be comprehended by the average six-year-old (comprehension increases exponentially as age increases linearly, so it would not take a ten-year-old to comprehend something with a level of 2)?

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I worked hard on making these questions and statements as clear as possible, but the complexity of these subjects inevitably remains. No matter how much a potential answer could account for, there would always be exceptions. That is, of course, assuming these questions and the subject matter are not ridiculous; a very possible reality.

If you want something cleared up, or just want to share your thoughts, go ahead and post. I eagerly await the answers.

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

The spitemaster
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In this context, I think that I can throw this into the ring:
I think that the public school system is a joke. (Note: I live in canada) I think that all that someone needs to understand can be covered in half the time it takes for the school system. I was homeschooled for two years in junior high (Grades 7-9) and I used three to four hours a day to cover the same material that everyone else did. In addition, when I entered high school I found that I had already done most of the work from that first year as well. I think that with the proper effort one can learn all of the grade school material in half the time. One thing that my chem teacher said was this "This year I will take the foundation of lies that you have been taught and replace it with a new and better foundation of lies." Going on to say that nothing that we had ever been taught about chemistry was true because the people that created the curriculum thought that we couldn't currently understand what came after.

____________________________
Last night upon a stair
I met a man that wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would stay away

west.logan
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Hear hear!

I am a firm believer that if you treat people (kids included) as dumb, they become as much. Of course there /is/ a limit to what you can teach someone, but a good many public school systems learn at the rate of the slowest learner, if that.

I was homeschooled (all years), graduated at 15, and began taking college courses. I could keep up with the curriculum in college as well as anyone that was 18, so why not? Note that it wasn't because my mother was particularly brilliant (albeit she was devoted), the main benefit was that she could give individual attention, focus on my weak points, and encourage me in those I was interested in.

Recently we stayed with a family where the dad was taking a leading role in his children's education. The oldest boy is 10 years old and is beginning calculus and enjoying it.

I don't know what the learning limit is for children, it's highly individualistic I'm sure. I am quite confident we're not coming close to reaching it in a good many public schools in the US at least. Come to think of it, I didn't really feel that challenged in college. Most of the time the bar was lowered to the point that most people passed regardless.

____________________________
-Logan

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[Last edited by west.logan at 07-01-2011 03:43 AM]

NiroZ
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The spitemaster wrote:One thing that my chem teacher said was this "This year I will take the foundation of lies that you have been taught and replace it with a new and better foundation of lies." Going on to say that nothing that we had ever been taught about chemistry was true because the people that created the curriculum thought that we couldn't currently understand what came after.

This applies to quite a few disciplines, mostly physics and chemistry, but I think maths as well.

From what I've heard, this perpetuation of lies may extend out to the honours year of uni in some disciplines. I'd hardly fault the board of education for that.

12th Archivist
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The spitemaster wrote:
I think that the public school system is a joke.

As west.logan said, "hear hear!"

However, the public school system does have its benefits. The primary purpose of public school is to teach the public. That is, process thousands of students a year into hard-working, socially-acceptable citizens of their respective country. Public school tends to train students in proper conduct, not masterful command of their intelligence. Cranking out these human-machines is regrettable, of course, since the work they end up doing is often automatable (and humans really should doing nonautomatable work because machines almost always do a better job than their human counterparts), but it is necessary when dealing with thousands of people at once. A teacher cannot make every student learn at the same rate and with the same amount of motivation, yet the teacher must make every student learn regardless.

____________________________
It was going well until it exploded.
~Scott Manley

Check out the DROD Wikia project here!

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[Last edited by 12th Archivist at 07-01-2011 05:40 AM]

skell
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The spitemaster wrote:
I think that all that someone needs to understand can be covered in half the time it takes for the school system. I was homeschooled for two years in junior high[...]

And that is exactly the problem... Err, reason! It is much easier to teach something one kid than a group of 30 different little barbarians who'd rather concentrate on social interaction than listening to the teacher.

I won't be saying any more, because Polish education systems seems to be much more fuuu...nky than other systems. I am SO glad I finished the basic education before the worst changes happened.

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[Last edited by skell at 07-01-2011 08:03 AM]

NiroZ
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I'm a little bit amused by the assumption in this thread that public education is purely about stuffing more information into kids heads.

Nothing to do with child minding and socialising and all that.

The spitemaster
Level: Smiter
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I agree with that too, but stuffing information is an easier build up to it.

____________________________
Last night upon a stair
I met a man that wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would stay away