PBS FTW, been digging their stuff since I was a toddler watching Sesame Street lol. Their PBS Eons channel (on YT…) is great, when I was watching more video content I enjoyed their streaming service for a range of stuff too, can’t remember what it was called now though.
So yeah give em some bucks folks and watch cool stuff, they really need it.
Couldn’t agree more. Parenting failures are the root of so much (though being charitable, there are many parents in working conditions that basically destroy their ability to parent effectively). Regardless of parents, any kid is shaped (raised) in big ways by the communities they participate in. I’ve got no problem telling a little knucklehead - even one I’ve never met - to quit mistreating folks in various ways when I see it. And I wish more people would too.
But I also recognize that has the potential to really blow up (even violently) depending on the kid’s parents and the scenario. But still, many of us just recoil from even the idea of a disagreement, and that’s the mechanism that allows this stuff to fester in our youth. Take responsibility for your society, be mean to a kid who needs it today!
Woof, that’s hilarious and annoying. Food service from what I understand has super thin margins - things like fountain drink sodas (and alcohol sales at other spots) do a lot of the work on keeping the place economically viable. Not excusing that guy’s pettiness but if you see weird behavior around a specific ingredient or item, it’s probably something along those lines.
I’m advocating for a mixed approach that serves more kids, and arguing that you had such a mixed approach yourself but don’t seem to acknowledge it.
Memorization (done properly, that is - I invoked “spaced repetition”, an evidence-based learning technique from the field of education, you’re the one talking about corporal punishment from nuns) is effective in precisely this and related domains having tons of minutiae.
It’s not that learning the process is inefficient, that’s not what I meant - learning only the process and not focusing on rote memorization as well leaves you with only the process to rely on when learning further math (your experience sounds like you got both, regarding multiplication).
Relying on only rules/processes to complete intermediate steps that are not the subject under instruction is what is inefficient. Using rules to reach simple multiplication facts when trying to learn algebra or even just long division is brutal for kids with any attention difficulty whatsoever. By the time they’ve solved the multiplication answer they wanted, they’ve lost the thread on the new concept. Rote memorization reduces the effort needed to use multiplication when learning everything else. It doesn’t feel that you’re reading very carefully here, but it could be me who failed to make myself plain.
I myself am a process guy and high on pattern-seeking. I write software for a living and live in abstractions layered on abstractions - even the physics is invisible lol, nothing (but fans and I guess HDD heads where still used) ever moves. It all feels like pretend!
My point is that understanding processes and relationships in the space of numbers can arise FROM being forced to learn many small truths over and over. A student can identify patterns (the shortcuts) from just learning the facts. Similarly you can get to the facts if you understand the process - like most math there’s a lovely symmetry there that you seem unwilling to agree with me about. They both inform and train the brain differently and you seem to have benefitted from that yourself.
We need both, and rote memorization is especially useful in a small number of domains, irreplaceable. Anyone who has gone through an Anatomy & Physiology class successfully will agree too, and I can give more examples. There’s no “process” or rules involved.
Anyway, I think we’re mostly talking past each other and probably mostly agree.
You’re a real one!
I don’t mean to be picking fights with you but this is a topic I care about - I really think it’s a mistake to say “I was exposed to this material much earlier and therefore picked it up faster and more robustly” and then claim that’s an argument against rote memorization. Especially considering how few kids are keeping up in math. Your experience was very fortunate and largely uncommon.
The rules and shortcuts you’re describing are absolutely part of the work I’m doing with my daughter, but they go hand-in-hand with the “spaced repetition” (ish) approach we’re focusing on, of just iterating a lot. One without the other is much weaker - mnemonics are extremely valuable aids, but none of it sticks without repetition. I’d say that all tasks involving remembering lots of minutiae (contrasted with remembering processes) greatly benefit from mnemonics, but fully require rote memorization practice in order to have the dexterity needed for quick recall that doesn’t get in the way. So things like chemistry, anatomy, case law.
It’s true that multiplication can be kept strictly a “learn the process” task, but your other points kind of just say that the repetition that comes in a person’s life later on finishes that work / replaces the dedicated memorization phase. And frankly the process you went through sounds like it involved a standard amount of repetition, you just had a head start so it didn’t feel as new or as uncomfortable.
I say only learning the processes is extremely inefficient and will make learning any more advanced math much, much harder. Lacking that strong basis of recall, kids have to think to do the multiplication that is merely an intermediate step and not at all part of the material being learned, moving forward. This reduces (greatly) their ability to engage with the actual subject matter because they are already working to complete the intermediate steps. I’ve seen it happen firsthand - I think you mean well, but I think your POV on multiplication is way wrong and actually harmful here.
E: I’m conflating mnemonics with arithmetic shortcuts here, I hope you’ll forgive that. They’re related - remembering one arithmetic shortcut gives you access to many answers, and usually mnemonics serve a similar “get lots of stuff for one significant remembered thing” kind of role.
Completely agree with you. But hilariously, 9 stacks of 6 bricks only accounts for 54 of them…please don’t change it lmao
I take your point but multiplication is a really bad example. It’s one of the few things in life where really doing the rote memorization well, once, pays off lifelong. It can be argued “doesn’t pay off lifelong for everyone!”, and I mean, strictly speaking that’s true.
But not learning multiplication properly is basically a death sentence for keeping up with later math classes, which is exactly what convinces a kid they are “bad at math” and shouldn’t pursue entire areas of the working world, generally very rewarding areas, too.
My daughter is not naturally strong at math and I am naturally not authoritarian, but this is one case where being forced to do the work properly one good time (as in learn it truly well, once) is too valuable to let slip.
Just got mine set up this weekend, really works a treat! Utterly painless. Even put the client on the Roku I apparently don’t own, hope the pricks somehow notice lol
You should watch the video! I don’t have a link, sorry. They turn up on a “kiss cam”, instantly freak out and hide, and the dude with the mic (Coldplay I guess?) clowns em (briefly) for it. It is a goddamn gem and the best part is their own freak out is the only reason it blew up and got found out at all. Just lovely stuff.
Or maybe this kind of comic comes from people who’ve directly witnessed a lot of wildly ignorant bigoted takes from their fellow countrymen. I agree with this comic in every way, and I’d be the first to argue that the US has a diverse, fascinating collection of culture, highly regional and frankly beautiful in its all-too-human strengths and weaknesses.
But we have a ton of clowns like the character here, who don’t understand more than a sliver of their own history or culture.
I’m part of this crowd too, sorry 😅
I did, though, just recently do some hard-selling to some folks I care about, toward this instance (and Lemmy in general in some cases), as just a better place to hang out, a previously ~impossible-to-find “home” on the interwebz. My primary reason for doing that was your exemplary approach toward governance, and the way this place works as a result (I know that’s not solely down to you, lol, relax!).
Your concern about this sounds like exactly the kind of refusal of authority (including your own) that makes this place lovely.
Like it or not, true leaders arise naturally, and are followed by those who like what they see. Entirely distinct from any hierarchical structure imposing “leadership” (authority).
I’m certain that you understand that far better than me.
db0 it is, then, for shorthand - but if you really hate that, I’ll change my own budding habits 🤷♂️
Hey thanks! I probably wouldn’t have gone and checked again without your comment, was having all kinds of trouble. Looks good now.
Edit: Hmm, spoke too soon, still seeing that sometimes. But at least now subsequent attempts work, I’m not getting credentials rejection in addition to that (although…I think that part may have been my fault, looking back…embarrassing lol).
This is exactly right, and thanks for saying it. The assumption that poor people don’t understand money is just so completely incorrect, and frankly damaging. Poor folks understand money (and specifically, what it can and can’t do) better than anyone else on this earth.
Hey - I don’t usually do this, but I grew up poor and I get it. DM me, I’ll buy you the game.
How long have you spent with this? I ask because it’s frankly an impressive amount of detail and understanding you’re displaying, given your statement that you’d never administered an OS without a desktop environment. Kudos!
Are you familiar with iFixit? They provide a ton of technical manuals from what I’ve heard, but I haven’t personally used them. Also be aware of library.kiwix.org - they’re a Swiss charity that provides archival downloads of knowledge bases, including iFixit. They might have more resources that you’d be interested in too.
what the fuck