On Friday 21 May 2021 19:14:42 J Leslie Turriff wrote:
On 2021-05-21 18:04:29 Gene Heskett via tde-users wrote:
You should go to school, not to learn by rote, that will be stale before you get across the stage for a diploma, but to learn how to learn for the rest of your life. Never, ever, let your curiosity go unanswered. Except maybe about gravity, which hasn't made it into the TOE despite 100+ years of trying by some 5 star minds. We don't even know its PV!
Take care and stay well folks.
Cheers, Gene Heskett
Yeah. Good luck getting today's teachers to teach how to learn instead of how to memorize.
And that is indeed the crux of the matter. Problem solving is not on the agenda, the dregs of it vanished along with teaching phonics back in the 40's. I got the last class on that ever taught in Iowa schools in the 40's. That, and a tested 147 on the Iowa test, I have always said gave me a leg up on those that followed later. In the early 50's as korea was blowing up, I had the draft board move my number up as that was for 2 years, but volunteers were for 4 years, but I made a 98 on the AFQT. Next best in about 135 boys that day was 36. That got me instantly classified 4F, unfit for service because I wouldn't follow orders, they wanted machine gun targets.
I sat for a 1st phone and got it in '62 without cracking a book to cram. Sick of consumer electronics, I switched to broadcast engineering in '64 and never looked back.
I sat for the CET in '72, same story. 4 hours to do the test, gave it back in 45 minutes, 123 out of 125 correct. To say that the CET is a rare item is an understatement, dropping that on HR's desk has got me every job I've ever applied for. Married an old maid school teacher with a degree in music in '89 but she was a bit embasrrased at my lack of a formal diploma, and pushed me to get a GED, so I sat for that in '90. 2 weeks later I hadn't heard, so I made a trip to the P.O., the test givers $dayjob, and asked him about it. He asked in turn why I cared, it was obvious you were just doing it for the exercise weren't you? I had to admit he was right, but I got it a few days later. Now that lady has passed as of last Pearl Harbor Day, COPD. So after 31 years I'm alone again.
Leslie
Cheers, Gene Heskett