posted
Regarding the not being able to "get" a concept, that I can understand. I have taken all the algebra courses that were required in high school, then I took integrated Calculus/Physics and was totally lost. It's not that I didn't study. It's not that I didn't have different people try to explain to me in different ways. I would start to think one way about something, then I would get myself so confused that I would wonder what I was trying to do in the first place. It is something like Belle's "Magical Devices" where I understand that the picture on my television comes from information sent via satelite or whatever...but how the heck do you get a picture to pop out of thin air and onto a screen? For that matter, how do you get all these neat things to do with a computer? Where is it coming from? Who is putting all this information onto my screen? Is it like the underwear gnomes that steal your underwear(Southpark)? Intellectually I can understand that it is "beamed" into our homes, I just can't comprehend how. I have no learning disabilities and every time I have taken an IQ test, I have had very high scores. I have never been able to "study" like "normal" people, yet I have always done well on tests in school. In high school I missed several weeks because of severe illness, but the first day I returned to school I read the notes of the girl in front of me, took the US History test with everyone else, and scored a 107 (with the bonus points the teacher gave). I put no effort into it at all. I had not been taught by the school. I just have the ability to test well. Some people don't. It doesn't mean that the school system failed them, or that they don't care enough to learn, it just makes them different. Anyway, I would much rather be a musician than a rocket scientist anyday!
posted
BaoQingTian, I'm well aware of the difference in amounts between the two studies. I have done my research and have many friends who are in or have completed various engineering or math degree programs. Calculus is just an example of one skill set that would be needed to succeed in either path (albeit to different degrees of understanding). Obviously it isn't the only skill needed. I was trying to show that I learn in a different way than other people who are typically in that type of study. It may take me longer to learn it my way, but I'm capable of learning it.
Trust me, I wouldn't waste time and money on something that I wasn't capable of or didn't have potential for. Actually, I'm decent when it comes to mathematical thinking. I suppose part of the equation I left out was that it was my senior year, and honestly, "worked hard" was probably a more relative descriptor. Posts: 298 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Jeniwren said this on the first page and I think it's worth repeating:
quote:There's a vast difference between learning for the sake of learning and learning for the sake of having a job.
And until we explore that difference, public education in America is going to be a muddle. I'll go one step further and say since public education is the cornerstone of this nation, then until we explore the difference between learning for the sake of learning and learnign for the sake of having a job, life in a free democracy is going to be a muddle.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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