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[Vattic]

Ah, not sure how I forgot that considering I have a critical thinking qualification >.>.  I guess the issue with teaching it that teachers have is that it could suddenly make teaching kids other stuff a whole lot harder .  It's definitely a useful skill to have though.

I think I got some education on how parliament works in PSHE, but I don't know if everyone gets that.

We got nothing like like in PSHE. Maybe things have changed.

I did critical thinking as part of a Philosophy A level but didn't take any of the stand-alone classes but wish I had.

Teaching critical thinking would do wonders.

Yes which is why we really would like to teach it.  Unfortunately it's really, really hard to teach.

Educating a person is not equal to turning them into a carbon copy of some great person who has qualities you admire.  And teaching someone something like critical thinking is a slow, laborious process that requires them to buy into the whole thing.  Shoving them into a classroom where they are going to be taught "this is critical thinking" would be do absolutely nothing to "fix" the people who you've decided that you are better then.

If you actually tried teaching or tutoring people who struggle for any amount of time I wouldn't need to tell this to you.  Instead you dump on a system that you obviously don't contribute to at all.

You want to teach critical thinking?  Then show me how the hell you are going to come up with a standardized curriculum to teach spontaneity.  Should make for a funny read.

Wow I never said I was better than someone who hasn't learned about critical thinking. I just said I thought it would do wonders if we were all taught it. I wish I had been taught it from a younger age. So often I see situations where even a grasp of the basics would help inform people with many in my own past.

Fair enough on the whole teaching thing; I've no real experience. It sounds like you are a teacher? Doesn't what you've said apply to most subjects? Even those with obvious real world applications get the "How will this ever be useful to me?" question thrown at them.

I realise critical thinking as a subject on it's own would be difficult to teach and especially so when people are young. This is why I'd suggest more critical thought be encouraged through other subjects. Science for example never taught me about doubt but talked of facts set in stone which our tabloid editors still seem to believe. A lot of my teachers actively discouraged challenging the ideas on offer. Even teaching students how to cite sources alone would be fantastic.

Maybe the standardised curriculum system isn't ideal and maybe the general attitude towards education is poor but I stand by what I've said: More critical thinking would be better.

Just out of curiosity and you can PM me if you like: Any idea where this attitude came from? I know I was fairly disrespectful and disinterested when younger. Does it go back a long way and is it simply cultural? I see a lot of blame pointed all over, don't understand the issues, but wish things were different.

These are all classes I would like to have taken in middle school.

1. How to Not Use the Internet- focus on using privacy setting and appropriate use of photos
2. Culture Studies- focus is on understanding and demystifying other cultures
3. Money Money Money- focus on spending wisely, use of coupons, and other spend thrift ways

"How to Not Use the Internet" really should be part of PSHE.

[Shook]

Swimming, many adults cant even swim!

Dunno where you went to school, but i had obligatory swimming classes back in elementary (along with various household skills, such as sewing, ironing, cooking and woodworking, and even a few "iron age days" where we were iron age dudes for a day). Granted, i also did go to swimming outside of school after that, but the point remains. It was fairly short, though.

UNARMED COMBAT TRAINING, because people a pushovers.

Now this is where i disagree. Wouldn't it be much better to teach people how to avoid a fight, and instead settle conflicts peacefully? It's much healthier in general. Even running away is healthier, because you get the exercise without getting your teeth punched out. Some will play the coward card on me for that, but running away from danger is a perfectly legitimate way of staying alive on this world. Now obviously, some people are too dense to realize that fighting is a dumb thing to do, but those are people you shouldn't hang around.

Handling wildlife, however, is a very different thing. While it's true that hunting can be very useful if stranded in the wilderness, in our modern society it's probably more relevant to learn how to deal with wild animals. We can buy food in the mart, but if a feral dog gets all up in your face, or a bull is glaring belligerently at you, that could be a problem. An angry bull is probably really hard to do anything about, but a feral dog is not quite as overwhelming.

[zchris13]

(read: I put my shirt on fire).

Did you wear around the scorched mess left afterwards?

[DarkWolfXV]

People fucking annoy me when they think metal is just bunch of random noise.
Well i understand those who say death metal is noise, becouse its not for everyone, but they should at least know people need skills to play such genre.
But Judas Priest extremely heavy and satanic?
Metallica evil and satanic?
Metal requires no talent or skill to play?
Wtf is jazz?
Who is Slayer?
...
Im extremely annoyed when i see such person. I played Feuer Frei(Rammstein song) at talent show and sang it and some people just started to hide behind crowd, i bet someone also shat their pants becouse of my trve kvlt way of screaming, but thats another story.
I still dont understand these people

[zchris13]

-snip-

You're obviously too hardcore for them. And to the point: You're too hardcore for me. I need my music noise to not have random screaming inserted into it.
I'm as much of a fan of the one true rock as anybody but screaming isn't music.

[Loud Whispers]

Meh, teaching people how to appreciate music shouldn't be on any agenda.

Just seems too dogmatic.

[Trapezohedron]

@DarkWolf
Yeah, I hate people bashing a genre for 'not being like this and like that' and complaining about genres having 'too much of that'.

I assume most of them whiners don't actually listen to what they are complaining about, or at least don't listen much.

With all that being said, there's also times when certain songs just simply cross the line from being music to just being a bunch of noise (looking at skrillex dubstep).

Fact is, the genres people complain about is just as much music as the next genre. It's just that all of them cater to different peoples' tastes.

My personal opinion of metal is that it's too loud for me, but I otherwise enjoy it or at least appreciate the skills of the band members playing the songs.

What makes metal (or other genres following this trait) unpalatable for me is constant screaming in certain songs. Ruins musicality for me.

But not all screaming is gurgling and forcing your throat out of your mouth. It takes skill, especially if you want to preserve your throat and not risk cancer on it.

[Galick]

Doc, you're being a bit of an arrogant asshole through this.  The first section you listed is just misconceptions and things like that - I barely know shit about space travel, but you know what?  I have no intention of going into space so why would I need that knowledge?  Same for the rest of the topics in that section.  If you have no interest in a topic, there is literally no god damn point in learning about it except for situations where someone would look down on you arbitrarily for not knowing a god damn thing about a topic with virtually no interest to you.

Second section:  I'm in eastern Tennessee, and you know what?  All of those were taught in my school system.  What a shock!  If the students are idiots, they're idiots.  You can't teach someone if they don't want to learn.  Ranting about this is pointless.  I know I sure as hell would just tune out someone lecturing me about something I flat out don't give a shit about.

Wilderness:  Okay, almost no one is going to be out in the wilds unless they want to be there.  In which case, they're either soon to be dead and that deals with that problem or they know what they're doing.  So once again, utterly pointless.  I know I would've fucking slept through any class about wilderness survival.  And swimming?  I couldn't swim until I was 15.  I'm 21 now.  No shame in it, cause you know what?  Swimming lessons are bloody expensive and there are situations where there's no god damn pool to learn how to swim.

And teaching people how to fight is just fucking idiotic.  The world is violent enough and teaching someone how to actually hurt someone instead of flailing at them would just make things worse.  If you're going to teach anything, teach people how to run away, hide, or talk through their problems instead of defaulting into face-punch mode.  Cause you know what?  The world needs more people willing to actually talk about things instead of immediately try to just solve it with punching, kicking, biting, and stabbing.

And the music tidbit?  Why the fuck would I listen to music that just hurts my ears.  I don't get that.  Do you people listen to music that you find unpleasant?  That's the same thing as forcing someone to watch a shock site.  I HATE death metal and you know what?  I don't care how much talent it takes to scream, if it hurts my ears and makes me wince I am not going to listen to it anymore.
/endrant

[DarkWolfXV]

Well yeah, i appreciate when someone who i try to get into metal says: "Hey man, this is  too brutal/aggresive/whatever to me, but its cool how good they are at playing their instruments, just look how awesomely he is moving fingers on fretboard" Or something, but i hate people who say "OMG THIS IS BUNCH OF NOISE, my dubstep is better bcoz my older sister listens to it and im so cool becouse im listening to dubstep and Justin Bieber is so sweet omg omg omg"

And about screaming/growling, i also dont like it, but only when words are undecipherable. Like just someone is growling/screaming random letter, and not even trying to growl/scream the word.

And more to op's post, i also hate people who dont know a fucking thing about anything, think Las Vegas is in Poland, think London is country and think printing more money would solve problem of poor people.

And the music tidbit?  Why the fuck would I listen to music that just hurts my ears.  I don't get that.  Do you people listen to music that you find unpleasant?  That's the same thing as forcing someone to watch a shock site.  I HATE death metal and you know what?  I don't care how much talent it takes to scream, if it hurts my ears and makes me wince I am not going to listen to it anymore.
/endrant

Death metal is not for everyone, but some people still like it and it hurts their feelings when you say "omg this is shit it hurts my ears and this sucks  ill go to my dubstep and you are *insert insult here* for listening to this crap", i would more like to hear polite thing like "Well this music is not for me, sorry, but if you like it its fine, everyone has different tastes"

[Loud Whispers]

I love it when a rant comes together.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I think the whole problem is lack of discipline. You teach a person discipline, you teach them every skill that they learn because they have discipline.

[Galick]

I think the whole problem is lack of discipline. You teach a person discipline, you teach them every skill that they learn because they have discipline.

Bullshit.  That requires someone wanting to learn to begin with.

[Loud Whispers]

I think the whole problem is lack of discipline. You teach a person discipline, you teach them every skill that they learn because they have discipline.

Bullshit.  That requires someone wanting to learn to begin with.

And more pylons.

Pylons = Power
Power = Will power
Will power = Discipline
Pylons = Discipline

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I think the whole problem is lack of discipline. You teach a person discipline, you teach them every skill that they learn because they have discipline.

Bullshit.  That requires someone wanting to learn to begin with.

You can kick back on your internet and point fingers all day. The thing is, schooling isn't the big problem, it's the audience. I lived in Alaska. There was an arctic survival class. They taught you everything from how to find water to whatever, but still you have little fucks who would rather play words with friends than listen. No matter what you do you will always have a loser in the group. Discipline would atleast give them some direction and make the ones with some drive a little more guided.

[Gotdamnmiracle]

I reccomend reading On Combat by Dave Grossman. He talks about how school shootings and shitty rebelious behaviour can ba avoided if you give a kid a skill. You teach a person to run early on, they will try to be the best at running, teach a person to try to be the best and they no longer feel threatened.