| User | Comment |
|---|
llamamama  |
Green Eggs and Ham |
LindaH    |
Their textbooks. The science, the history, the practical materials. There is not one bit of literary fiction that's a 'must-read' for kids in high school, in my opinion. It has no practical application in career life. |
Crayons   |
Not that I've graduated but I thin Fahrenheit 451 is really great and it just opens a different kind of thinking, hard for me to explain. And they did have my people read it. |
Enheduanna  |
One about safe sex. Or at least the back of a box of condoms. |
Melf  |
Animal Farm or 1984 (preferably both) and Hamlet, if it counts. |
| Galomorro |
I found one at a garage sale the other day that I think is excellent "How Cities Work - Open Your Eyes to the Wonders of the Urban Environment" with main chapters: "Utilities: the Urban Environment's Hidden World," "Green Cities: the Ecology of Cities," "Going up: Construction in the Cities," "Moving machines: Transportation in the cities." Seems this sort of thing isn't much covered by schools and I think it should be. People don't pay much attention to how their electricity, heat, sewers, etc. work. Good for home schooling I'd think-you could take kids to see tunnels, bridges, etc. after reading a chapter about it. Looks like it's for about middle school and up and has illustrations on each page. Author is Preston Gralla. |
| Melf | | (reply to LindaH) posted 3-Jun-2008 8:16pm |
Because we use quadratic equations every day. |
| LindaH | | (reply to Melf) posted 3-Jun-2008 8:36pm |
Well, not everything in every textbook has a practical application for everyone, but if something can be applied in a good number of jobs, it's probably a good idea to teach it. I just don't see any practical application for fiction literature. |
| llamamama | | (reply to Melf) posted 3-Jun-2008 9:42pm |
Animal Farm was the most frightening thing ever at the end..woo..One of the better books we read in English 9. |
JessicaWoman99  | | posted 4-Jun-2008 12:33am |
That song by Paul Simon all the crap i learned in high school
Koda Crome |
| Melf | | (reply to llamamama) posted 4-Jun-2008 4:40am |
I think I cried. Then again, I cry at quite a few books. But, yeah, lets scare kids into thinking Communism is bad  |
| Melf | | (reply to LindaH) posted 4-Jun-2008 4:46am |
It's the study of fictional literature which is more important than the fictional literature itself - which is why there is a vast range of books that schools teach. It teaches you to be analytical and interpretive. As much as most people hate studying Shakespeare, he is a figurehead of English literature and lots of people wouldn't approach his work if it wasn't for studying it.
Just because there isn't a set answer for something, doesn't mean it's useless. |
| verouge |
Maybe they should read the "survive vivre" book.. I guess we all should read it. |
bill  |
I think kids should all read different stuff. Everyone reading the same thing seems like a bad idea to me. |
| bill |
Come to think of it, a book about personal finance might really be helpful. |
| judgescratch |
All of the standards. |
they  |
Yes. |
| they | | (reply to bill) posted 4-Jun-2008 10:02am |
> Come to think of it, a book
> about personal finance might
> really be helpful.
I was thinking that too. Ben and I were talking the other day about life classes that he was required to take in school, starting with middle school. They taught them to grocery shop, take care of kids, keep a checking account, pay bills, play the stock market, etc.
The closest to that I ever had in school was just an accounting class... and that wasn't about personal finance. It was really just about making sure your figures worked out right - to the penny.
|
| bill | | (reply to they) posted 4-Jun-2008 11:24am |
I had some "home ec" classes in middle-school (grades 6-8). That school had been built with a lot of specialized classrooms. My high-school (9-12) had very little of that. The home-ec classes were fun. We learned to cook and sew. There was a checkbook class too, I remember. I think we even had a quick economics lesson. I'm not really sure how much it affected me. I do cook some now, and I can sew a button on. I pretty good with finances. My parents taught me some of that, or just got me going and I taught myself.
It seems like some sort of credit card related education might really help. I saw a science show about apes and how they are different from people, why they are less successful than us (because, really, we've very similar in many ways). I've been thinking about it a lot since. There was a part of the program where they had an ape given a choice of cups of M&Ms and he always picked the cup with more M&Ms (essentially because of something like greed). He did it despite the researcher always giving the first thing he picked to another ape. They linked it to a difference in humans, that we're more able to overrule our impulsive emotions to make a logical choice with better ultimate results. Things like "delayed gratification" come out of this. If we put work in now (plowing a field or something), in the end we'll get more from it. Apes don't do that. They live more in the moment. But, people even still struggle with this by buying stuff they can't afford using credit cards. It seems, anyway. Sometimes, it seems like our whole culture is based on it, despite it being a kind of ape-like regression in a sense. |
| they | | (reply to bill) posted 4-Jun-2008 11:44am |
That's really interesting. It also explains my clients at work -- apes. It all makes sense now.
I need to strive to be unlike the apes. 
I've been looking at this savings bond program at work. I already do the 401k match, but I want a better way of putting money away for us in the future. Any suggestions?
We had a home ec class in middle school. It was a joke. I made a crappy teddy bear, and learned to cook the following items: biscuits dipped in butter, rolled in cinnamon/sugar, stretched and twisted and baked; scrambled eggs with cheese; Townhouse crackers with canned pizza sauce and topped with cheese and baked in oven.......... and that's all I can remember ever doing.
|
| Galomorro | | (reply to they) posted 4-Jun-2008 11:59am |
YES ! O how I wish I'd taken a class like that in school -- several YEARS of it -- but apparently these kinds of classes weren't available back in the 1890s. |
| LindaH | | (reply to Melf) posted 4-Jun-2008 12:06pm |
I think there are better ways of being analytical and interpretive. I think it would be more important to know how to analyze real life situations. It would be fine if literature were optional, but I think there needs to be more real-life practical classes in high schools. |
| Melf | | (reply to LindaH) posted 4-Jun-2008 12:19pm |
We have PSHCE over here for those kinds of things - you don't need to sacrifice English literature for it. It's important to generate a love for learning in children and English literature is perfect for that. I don't see why it should be any less important than science or maths - both of which are a required pass, and I'm not going to need either of them (at GCSE level, at any rate) in my potential career. |
| bill | | (reply to they) posted 4-Jun-2008 12:45pm |
I remember we made Vichyssoise (cold potato soup) and lasagna. I still make lasagna today. Though, my mom used to make it and I was probably more influenced by her. But, I do crazy things with my lasagna now. I made an orange pillow thing that apparently was suppose to be a sea creator of some sort too. There was another survey where this got talked about... we had a wood shop and a metal shop, both of which produces boxes. I have a clay bowl from art class too.
I have a book on investing that I really like. I've tried suggesting it to people, but I haven't gotten much response when I do, so I've stopped suggesting it. I recall one of the early chapters said that getting out of debt is really essential and to do it as soon as possible. Really, before you get into investing. I guess because the interest you're paying is more than you'd likely make investing, so it's better to get out from under what you owe first. A home mortgage is usually an exception to this rule, because of the tax breaks, though. But, student loans, car loans, credit card debt, etc. Eliminating that usually helps the most.
For investing, it recommended index funds, picking a few that covered most of the stock market thus giving good diversification. Also, balancing the funds (equal amounts in each) and re-adjusting every year or two if the balances gets off. That's what I do. I have one fund each for small, medium and large capitalization (basically company sizes) index funds, plus a bond fund (with only 10% for now, but increasing as I get older - bonds are more stable). I just added an international index fund to the mix as well, since I had been lacking that.
I could just go on and on... Some other things I do: I don't check my investments very often. In the past I used to buy individual stocks then check them (easy to do online) and it drove me crazy, ups and downs, like being on a roller-coaster. So, now I just check on them every quarter (3 months). Funds are better for me to, especially indexes because they are less volatile. In general, you want to make a plan, then stick to it. Make sure the plan is easy enough to do. I tried some stuff in the past that was just too much work. Really, it should be boring. Conservative is a good thing when it comes to money, in my opinion. |
| LindaH | | (reply to Melf) posted 4-Jun-2008 12:48pm |
I don't think it should be sacrificed at all, I just think it seems like something that should be optional. |
| Jody |
I'd like high schools to help students become financially literate before graduating (perhaps requiring a class). I'm not sure what the best book for this would be, but I'm sure finer minds could recommend one. |
| Iseult |
I'd just be satisfied with kids reading, no matter what it is. |
| llamamama | | (reply to Melf) posted 4-Jun-2008 8:45pm |
Yes, good thinking bwhaha |
| cloudhugger |
"The Four Agreements" |
| cerealkiller |
Books on personal finance, money management, investing. |
| Melf | | (reply to LindaH) posted 5-Jun-2008 2:04pm |
You haven't offered a reason why science and maths shouldn't be made optional. Surely it depents on what the kid wants to do. |
| LindaH | | (reply to Melf) posted 5-Jun-2008 2:31pm |
I think that if certain things are used in a lot of jobs, it's a good idea to teach those things to a lot of students. It does depend on what a kid wants to do, but seeing as so many kids don't know what they want to do, there should be 'general' classes that cover subjects used in a wide variety of jobs. I don't see very many jobs at all requiring analyzing or interpreting an author's imagination. (BTW, I think specific science classes should be elective. 'General science' seems reasonable as a requirement, to me) Science and math have practical applications in real life, even without needing it for a job. Literature doesn't. I'd rather see psychology or sociology used for teaching people how to interpret and analyze things. |
| Galomorro | | (reply to LindaH) posted 6-Jun-2008 11:39am |
I agree on all this. Good answers. But then I frequently like your answers.  |
| Zang |
Their textbooks and whatever is assigned to them. I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to say that everyone should read some book or other.
I suppose that every nation has some renowned author or other. If pressed, I might say that they should read at least one book by that author. Perhaps the one generally considered their greatest work. |
| kcthedog |
War And Peace. |
| moviesnob | | posted 9-Jun-2008 12:47pm |
I remember I had to read "Fahrenheight 451" "Red Badge of Courage" "The Crucible" "Of Mice and Men" . . . "To Kill A Mockingbird" . . . I know there were others, but I can't remember. I think Fahrenheight 451, Of Mice & Men, and To Kill A Mockingbird should be read, but that's my personal preference because I really enjoyed reading them and feel lessons can be learned from them. I do think kids should have to read some kinds of literature in school, because sometimes they may never be exposed to it, and may never know they really enjoy it. |
| docgbrown | | posted 11-Jun-2008 3:54am |
Oh here a a few... in no order;
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace & Anna Karenina
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
Victor Hugo, Hunchback of Notre Dame
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Edward Morgan Forster, A Passage to India
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
Umar Ibn Muhammed Al-Nefzawi and Sheikh Nefzaoui, Perfumed Garden of the Sheikh Nefzaoui
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
After all we need to keep the kids busy |
| CarolL | | posted 12-Jun-2008 4:07am |
Who Has Seen The Wind by W.O. Mitchell or Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
Good survey. |
| CarolL | | (reply to they) posted 12-Jun-2008 4:29am |
> |> Come to think of it, a book
> |> about personal finance might
> |> really be helpful.
>
> I was thinking that too. Ben and I were talking the other day about
> life classes that he was required to take in school, starting with
> middle school. They taught them to grocery shop, take care of kids,
> keep a checking account, pay bills, play the stock market, etc.
>
> The closest to that I ever had in school was just an accounting class...
> and that wasn't about personal finance. It was really just about making
> sure your figures worked out right - to the penny.
>
> When my son had his lemonade stand and advertised the lemonade as Free Lemonade, he had to take 10% right off the top for charity. He had to keep an accounting of what he spent on cups, lemonade, wages (kids in the neighbourhood were runners, advertisers, managers etc.) The hook was that the lemonade was free, but he accepted donations (no mention of charity). He had to account for expenses and wages in a book. He opened at the end of June and closed in mid-August. Well, Donald Trump bought himself things his mother could not afford to buy, his staff made money and thirsty passers-by were happy, not to mention the charity of choice. One year he hung onto the money until November until his conscience could not take it one more day. We tried to make a donation at the hospital which was the charity of choice but no one was there on a Saturday. Too bad. We went to the Humane Society instead. They were open.
He now is 14, has been working at the best pizza etc. place in town after school folding boxes since Feb/07. Has a bank account, buys stuff. Nice young man.
|
| Pomeranian | | posted 13-Jun-2008 3:39am |
"Joy of Sex" |
| Kristal_Rose | | posted 13-Jun-2008 11:26pm |
1984
Brave New World
Stranger in a Strange Land |
| Kristal_Rose | | (reply to bill) posted 13-Jun-2008 11:35pm |
Perhaps the scientists have it all wrong. Perhaps the ape is being kind to his friend, and it's us who's concept of things is clouded by notions of immediate self-interest. |
| bill |
I did wonder if the scientists were misinterpreting the apes at times, though from the video it did seem to be accurate. Once they taught the ape how to count, it started picing the smaller group of m&ms. |
| Biggles | | posted 18-Jun-2008 7:42am |
One of the Shakespeare tragedies, at least some of each of the major religious texts, at least one winner of the Nobel-prize for literature, at least one major 18th/19th century author (Dickens, Austen, the Brontes), at least one 20th century classic (Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Catch-22, Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest etc.), at least one collection by a major poet, at least one classic by an author from that country...
I wouldn't want to give a set list as it's best to encounter a book that your teacher is passionate about. I hated studying literature in school because so many of the books we read were half-rate - the only thing I studied in literature that was any good was Shakespeare. I would have loved to have read some classics, or just some acclaimed novels, but we ended up reading complete and utter rubbish because it had a social/political theme that we could comment on. Apart from Shakespeare and some (mostly bad - Simon "bloody" Armitage for example) poetry, I didn't study any of the books that I've listed - most of the decent books that I've read have been in my own time. |
| Melf | | (reply to Biggles) posted 18-Jun-2008 7:53am |
Simon Armitage is king! I got to see him at Poetry Live! (their exclamation mark, not mine), and he was a really lovely bloke.
But yay for you reading (and enjoying) A Tale Of Two Cities! I've not read it myself... I'm finding it really difficult to concentrate whilst reading these days, and as Dickens tends to put a bit too much plot in his stories I probably won't for a while. I think it might be because of doing a lot of creative writing, and then going straight to study leave, which was basically condensing my subjects into a week each. I dunno. |
| Biggles | | (reply to Melf) posted 18-Jun-2008 9:20am |
> Simon Armitage is king! I got to see him at Poetry Live! (their exclamation
> mark, not mine), and he was a really lovely bloke.
I saw him do a poetry reading (with other poets from the GCSE English anthology) about 9 years ago. He probably is a nice bloke, but I don't rate him as a poet. He didn't seem very inspired by his own poetry either - read everything in the same monotone! He's being talked about as the next Poet Laureate and I just can't understand why he's so successful. The other poets in my anthology were Carol Ann Duffy and Ted Hughes, both of whom are vastly superior.
> But yay for you reading (and enjoying) A Tale Of Two Cities! I've
> not read it myself... I'm finding it really difficult to concentrate
> whilst reading these days, and as Dickens tends to put a bit too much
> plot in his stories I probably won't for a while.
It was definitely not the easiest story to follow - you have to work hard to connect characters mentioned in passing early in the book with characters that appear or are again mentioned in passing (but with great importance) later in the book. I had to keep flipping back to work out where I'd seen characters previously. I did like that there were so many connections between the characters - it made it a lot more satisfying that significant characters were mentioned early on because it made it feel as though the whole plot had been worked out with care before Dickens actually started writing. Some authors don't do that - especially crime writers - so it can be a real let-down when they tie the whole plot together at the end on a newly-introduced character.
>I think it might be because of doing a lot of creative writing, and then going straight to study leave, which was basically condensing my subjects into a
> week each.
Studying literature in school always put me off reading. After GCSE, I barely read any fiction for two years. I only started reading again when I was at university (Oxford has the best Oxfam second-hand bookshop ever and I used to get gift vouchers for Borders in return for volunteering for Psychology experiments). Then I stopped reading again within a few months of leaving university because I was so shattered from working that all I wanted to do was flick on the TV and watch rubbish. I'm glad I've started reading again, even if it can only last for the summer
|
| Kristal_Rose | | (reply to bill) posted 19-Jun-2008 5:42am |
Now if they (the humans) were smart, they'd offer larger portions of the color which is always given to the other ape.
Even then though, it could be a matter of just color, and for all me know, the apes are psychically cueing in to our study desires and not doing what comes natural anyhow.
I've concluded statistics are theoreticlly useless anyhow. Within the scope of eternity, 15 billion years of gravity may be just a blip of chaos within some other more stable system. |
| jess82091 | | posted 23-Jun-2008 12:09am |
Definitely "To Kill a Mockingbird"...we had to read at my school, and I really liked it. We also read "The Crucible", and I liked that one also, but it's not as important as "To Kill a Mockingbird". |
| LindaH | | (reply to Biggles) posted 23-Jun-2008 12:19am |
I wouldn't have minded having to read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest |
| Biggles | | (reply to LindaH) posted 24-Jun-2008 6:32am |
I found it quite an interesting read - not one of my favourites though. |
| midagehippie | | posted 6-Jul-2008 10:21am |
"Everything I Needed to Know I Learned In Kindergarden", by Robert Fulgham |
HMC35  |
Tough. I say some Sylvia Plath. We all need to experience some of what she did before venturing off into the real world .. or something. |
