School Rots Your Brain?

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05-12-2006, 11:50 PM
PenguinLord13

School Rots Your Brain?

I have a theory that school rots your brain, as it consumes so much of your time. If you are not very challenged by school, it still consumes a ton of time on out of school stuff like homework, projects, studying, etc., but your brain isn't working very hard. Last year I had very little homework, and plenty of freetime (mostly used up by activities, but even then more than now), now I have more homework, have to get up earlier, and school is much more consuming of my life. Here is my evidence:

Last year I was bored one day adn took an online IQ test thing and scored 149 (that's 49% above "average"). Today, I had nothing to do (friday, I don't bother with homework since I can do it on the weekend), so I took an online IQ test again (I think the same one), and what do you know, I dropped 19 points, scoring a 130. This is not a bad score at all, but I am much happier with a 149.

So heres the question, do you think that this is my brain weakening from not being worked enough, or is it just me being tired at the end of the week?
05-13-2006, 02:12 AM
wasup

Re: School Rots Your Brain?

Quote:

Originally posted by PenguinLord13

So heres the question, do you think that this is my brain weakening from not being worked enough, or is it just me being tired at the end of the week?

It's more you using shitty internet IQ tests as evidence. Honestly, if you don't get above 130 on one of those... well I think it speaks for itself. Think about it - an IQ test that targets people anywhere from 9-99? I don't know if you heard, but online IQ tests aren't dependable at all.

You honestly think your brain would be worked more if you sat around and ate nachos and watched football?
05-13-2006, 02:42 AM
Liam

Online IQ tests are bad...
05-13-2006, 08:00 AM
mongreloctopus

how can your IQ be 49% above average? what does that mean?
05-13-2006, 08:28 AM
Stalker

Quote:

Originally posted by mongreloctopus
how can your IQ be 49% above average? what does that mean?

The results of an iq-test are normalized, so 100 is always the average. 149 is 49% more than 100, so 49% above average.
05-13-2006, 11:27 AM
mongreloctopus

Quote:

Originally posted by Stalker

The results of an iq-test are normalized, so 100 is always the average. 149 is 49% more than 100, so 49% above average.

yeah...i know. however, i don't think a percentage is appropriate in this situation. i can understand using a percentile...but in that case, 49 is not very impressive.
05-13-2006, 09:21 PM
Dangeruss

Hey I got those same results except with a legitimate iq test (assuming there is such a thing). It entailed 4 hours of difficult testing and was completely different from any online IQ test I've ever taken. (completely.) I still don't think school rots your brain, but I do think that more schools should have independent study as an option, because we all know that interest ultimately determines if and how people learn something.
05-13-2006, 10:06 PM
PenguinLord13

yeah, shitty online IQ test are really bad evidence, but I seriously feel as if I am getting stupider overtime, even if more info is shoved into my head. Maybe it's all the memorization for test and that that's wasting away brainspace that could be doing something interesting instead. It'll probably get better over the summer, having fun, not being in school, giving the brain a break. I still think that considering something like 65% of all the stuff you learn in school is through memorization, so it just lingers for a bit in your short term memory and disappears, when you're in school your brain is rotting away unless the stuff is actualy interesting and at least somewaht enjoyable.
05-14-2006, 04:06 AM
Aeo

I think public school is lame. It teaches you how to fit into society, rather than learning about yourself. So much useless work that is so meaningless! The school system needs to changed...
05-14-2006, 04:08 AM
Dangeruss

on the other hand, I had two teachers in high school who really (really) opened my mind, and I'm very glad that I met them, even if it meant 13 years of schoolin'.
05-14-2006, 02:52 PM
braha_kahn

Quote:

Originally posted by Aeo
I think public school is lame. *It teaches you how to fit into society, rather than learning about yourself. *So much useless work that is so meaningless! *The school system needs to changed...

I agree
05-14-2006, 03:28 PM
pj

Re: School Rots Your Brain?

Quote:

Originally posted by PenguinLord13
So heres the question, do you think that this is my brain weakening from not being worked enough, or is it just me being tired at the end of the week?

Any seriously assembled IQ test will state a margin of error. If these are legit and recognized tests, I'll bet you'll find that when you add and subtract the margin of error to both scores, you'll have an overlapping region. Probably a big overlapping region.

My opinion of school has changed radically over the years. From this vantage point at 45 years and with my own business after several career changes, I think school - and ESPECIALLY college - merely prepares you to learn by teaching learning skills and pushing a person so they find out just how much they are capable of. While I came away with some wonderful stuff from my M.E., most of it was a great deal of practice jumping through hoops. There is one glaring exception to this: medicine.

No... I don't think it rots your brain. Anything that keeps the brain active is good for it, IMHO. But the idea that a graduate education really prepares you for anything is not accurate in most cases. It prepares you to learn something, and as such has value.

These observations are obviously from the U.S. version of education - widely recognized as one of the weaker systems in existence and getting worse.
05-14-2006, 09:02 PM
Alric

I kind of agree. If you ever have a horrible teacher it feels like that. Problem is a lot of schools have horrible teachers.

I never stuided and rarely put much effort into doing homework in school. You could say I am lazy which may be true, but it may be more of the fact that it was a huge waste of time. The only reason I didn't get straight A's in school is because I hated home work. I still got great grades on tests and near perfect grades on any work done in class, but then I would skip home work and it would pull my grade down some.

To me it seems kind of silly that you can get a 100 on every test but because you don't do the homework you would get a C or B in the class. Isn't the point to "learn"? Well if you got a 100 you learned it so should get an A. Of course thats not the point though, the point is to keep you busy, its just busy work. Thats why it doesn't matter if you learn the stuff, they just want you to sit there.

Most classes are not a challenge. Some are however. I always took the hardest classes I could take in school, even if most people said I shouldn't. I didn't always do good but I learned a lot more than I would have.

By the way anyone else notice how you take english in every grade from first, up into college? You take it every year yet it never teaches you anything new, always the same thing over and over and over and over. Yet at the same time almost everyone in the US sucks horribly at english?
05-17-2006, 07:11 PM
landsquid

I don't think the school system as it is (atleast in the USA or maybe just in Alabama) is very good. Its very flawed and i wish it could be redone. The teachers rarely care about teaching and no one there is wanting to learn, things are to standeredizd, and ther are some teachers who just dont teach. I wanted to take a psycology/ sociology class then I found out a PE coach tought it and that it was a waste of time. Im one of the few people I know the truely enjoy learning (exept spelling and gramar) but at school I just cant do it.
05-17-2006, 11:48 PM
PenguinLord13

Quote:

Originally posted by landsquid
I don't think the school system as it is (atleast in the USA or maybe just in Alabama) is very good. Its very flawed and i wish it could be redone. The teachers rarely care about teaching and no one there is wanting to learn, things are to standeredizd, and ther are some teachers who just dont teach. I wanted to take a psycology/ sociology class then I found out a PE coach tought it and that it was a waste of time. Im one of the few people I know the truely enjoy learning (exept spelling and gramar) but at school I just cant do it.

Actually, the school district I am in is actually very good (I heard people say that they found their first year of college, in a pretty average one, was amazingly easy because they already learned it). But I agree on it having major flaws still. I like learning, but sometimes things are really boring. The standardized crap is the worst of it. I had MCAS (massachusetts's dumb test they make you take) this week. One thing was this social studies tryout thing (like your score doesn't actually count, it's just a test to see how well people do on the test), and didn't know like half of it because even though I'm a good student, we never learned the stuff (all this history, geography, and middle east stuff). I basically told the MCAS people to fuck off (though not in those exact words). It fealt so damn good to do :evil: . I thiink school is a very important thing, I just wish it were more interesting.
05-18-2006, 12:33 AM
The Blue Meanie

Sorry, just thought I'd give an outside perspective, here.

New Zealand has recently introduced a new system of qualifications at secondary level (high school) called NCEA. Basically, they're politically correct, crap, never fail anyone, and utterly meaningless. I was a year ahead of the imposition of these qualifications (actually, two years ahead, as I was in one of the extension classes and took most of my subjects a year earlier than most people my age), and so I avoided NCEA. However, most top schools in the country, such as the one I went to, Auckland Grammar, subscribed to independant, international, private examinations on top of the NCEA to give their students better qualifications, and a step ahead.

So, has the high school system gone to hell? Well... yeah. But, this ain't just confined to the US. It's happening all over the world. So, what's the solution? I'd say, a good one is the one being adopted by NZ schools. Schools should take efforts to bring their students more rigerous and meaningful qualification systems, above and beyond that mandated by the governement. They should also stream their students, and introduce effective "extension" systems for gifted students.
05-18-2006, 12:35 AM
Courtney Mae

Quote:

Originally posted by Dangeruss
Hey I got those same results except with a legitimate iq test (assuming there is such a thing). It entailed 4 hours of difficult testing and was completely different from any online IQ test I've ever taken. (completely.) I still don't think school rots your brain, but I do think that more schools should have independent study as an option, because we all know that interest ultimately determines if and how people learn something.

Is it bad that I read it as "Lingerie IQ Test?" I should read slower...

Now that I think about it...it pretty much makes the whole paragraph more interesting:

"Hey I got those same results except with a llingerie iq test (assuming there is such a thing). It entailed 4 hours of difficult testing and was completely different from any online IQ test I've ever taken. (completely.) I still don't think school rots your brain, but I do think that more schools should have independent study as an option, because we all know that interest ultimately determines if and how people learn something"
05-18-2006, 12:45 AM
landsquid

Quote:

Originally posted by PenguinLord13

Actually, the school district I am in is actually very good

Well its good to know not everyones school is bad. And I'm not saying mine is the worse, I do have teachers that Do care about weather students learn or not, just saying we dont have enough. Suposidly my school is one of the better ones in the area, it also has a drug problem.
05-18-2006, 01:39 AM
Led

Quote:

Originally posted by Alric
I kind of agree. If you ever have a horrible teacher it feels like that. Problem is a lot of schools have horrible teachers.

I never stuided and rarely put much effort into doing homework in school. You could say I am lazy which may be true, but it may be more of the fact that it was a huge waste of time. The only reason I didn't get straight A's in school is because I hated home work. I still got great grades on tests and near perfect grades on any work done in class, but then I would skip home work and it would pull my grade down some.

To me it seems kind of silly that you can get a 100 on every test but because you don't do the homework you would get a C or B in the class. Isn't the point to "learn"? Well if you got a 100 you learned it so should get an A. Of course thats not the point though, the point is to keep you busy, its just busy work. Thats why it doesn't matter if you learn the stuff, they just want you to sit there.

Most classes are not a challenge. Some are however. I always took the hardest classes I could take in school, even if most people said I shouldn't. I didn't always do good but I learned a lot more than I would have.

By the way anyone else notice how you take english in every grade from first, up into college? You take it every year yet it never teaches you anything new, always the same thing over and over and over and over. Yet at the same time almost everyone in the US sucks horribly at english?

Yeah, I hate that. I usually do excellent on tests, but I ignore the homework. It sucks that in my math class, 60% of my grade is homework. I am passing though cause I realize that I have to do homework. I mostly just fake it though. I write down random answers and fake work. I still get credit.
It is very rare that I am challenged. So I become a lazy,apathetic shit.