[geeks] Education

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 @ 21:55 -0400, der Mouse said:

> >> But even a student knows when they have mastered a particular
> >> excersize, and repeating it doesn't help.
> 
> Unfortunately, neither part of this is "true".
> 
> Students regularly *are* wrong about whether they have mastered things,
> and repetition *does* help make sure they really have.

I didn't think it necessary to cover something so obvious.  I'm well
aware of subjects were a student doesn't understand the metrics that
gauge learning.

But a lot of times he does.

Just for example, multiplication and division took me about five minutes
to learn, but the teacher beat us to death with it for the next year.

I did hundreds of copies of the same problems every day for the whole
year.  

> I wouldn't trust a random student's estimation of having mastered
> something unless said student were already learning at least one level
> past it, preferably two.

In my school, you were held in place rigidly with no chance to show that
you were a level or two past anything.

Some things really are blindingly obvious.

> To this day I have to re-derive (or look up) the formula for, eg,
> sin(a+b) when I need it because I've never practiced it enough.

Never practiced it enough, or you just don't need it enough?

I see no point in memorizing it if you aren't using it.

If you need it, you'll use it, and memorization will happen as a useful
side effect.

If you never learned *what* sin() is and how to use it, memorizing it
does you no good.




-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- [Well, I have entered the "metallic years." 
Silver in my hair, gold in my teeth, lead in my ass... -- Sheldon Hall in
the rescue list]