[Deepflow]

Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue

Not wishing to tread on Dante's toes here, but when you say "just play games" there is a value judgment there that video games players get upset at often enough. It is not right to suggest that games are just mental chewing gum with no inherent mental value..

I wouldn't say they're a less worthwhile activity, obviously games are a crucial part of a child's socialisation etc. Just that if they played games all the time, and not structured teaching games either (and they were never really very much fun were they?), then they wouldn't get nearly as much useful knowledge out of school as they would otherwise.

Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue

Also perhaps as you suggest children don't want to be at school because of the pressure they are put under to do things they don't want to do. Children congregate freely under supervision all the time.

Well OK, perhaps they would be more likely to go to school than they are now in the situation Dante described, so you can forget that point if you like. However that still doesn't address the fact that much of their school time would be spent doing things less worthwhile, or at least too unbalanced. Again, if a child cannot write properly (and some people take a LOT of practice at this and really don't like doing it, I went to a normal primary school, I remember) then I believe that the educational system has done them a disservice. Especially if it allowed them to pursue less useful avenues (e.g pretty much any other subject).

Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue

I think also Deepflow that as a (once) motivated capable middleclass boy you might not necessarily be a representative sample of childrens experience. I always regarded some subjects with mild distain, but that didn't mean I couldn't get grades in them, but then I was (am) a swotty know-it-all wanker. Remember that something like half the children in the UK DONT get 5 or more GCSEs.

I was never motivated, I don't know what gave you that idea. I didn't particularly like school at the time either, and if you're getting that picture of my childhood years then it is incorrect. I have just come to the conclusion since then that a lot of the stuff that I found boring is actually useful, as well as the stuff I didn't. Generally I didn't try to get good grades either (if by *try* you mean do any homework/coursework), but I normally did the classwork and at least tried to pay attention (more in my early years of school than by the time I got to GCSEs though, I think perhaps I did do too many of those) and in hindsight I think I have benefited from it, even though I didn't enjoy it at the time.