Tim wrote:
On Thu, 2006-05-11 at 14:52 -0300, Jacques B. wrote:
It's unreasonable to expect parents to have access to PowerPoint for
school projects.
I think it's unreasonable that parents should have to stump with $1000+
worth of machinery (a PC), plus proprietary lock-in software, for
homework purposes. And what are you going to do with it? Use it as a
high priced electric typewriter, and to look up dubious sources of
information on the internet as your references, with no trained
educators to help you as you struggle along with your project.
I totally agree. Of course the school my daughter goes to use Mac's.
But OOo is available for Mac's so this may be an easier sell.
But then I disagree with the notion of homework, anyway. It's only
value is to involve parents with their child's education, but most
don't, or don't do it in a worthwhile manner. The kids go to school to
learn, at the end of the day they've done enough of that. Likewise most
parents have had enough work during their day, and don't want to spend
several more hours doing work on something at home.
I guess you have never learned anything outside of school. Life is a
learning experience. University, were many kids go to lives on
homework. Kids in school have to learn that the homework is a necessary
evil.
It, homework, is pointless anyway. I work in electronics, I highly
technical field. I've never needed anything I was taught at high school
beyond basic maths in the first couple years, and the same applies for
most people that I know in a wide variety of jobs. All those nightly
hours of grief were a complete waste of my time. If I knew then what I
knew now, I would have coasted school. I would have flatly refused to
waste my time with pointless rubbish, insisted that they constrain
themselves to teaching things that were genuinely useful, and flatly
refused to co-operate with any punishments meted out. Even when I
worked in schools I realised it was a pointless place for most people.
I work in Electronics. My career has moved me into research. Now I
need my high school chemistry, I use trig almost every week. I am now
trying to learn advanced algebra and calculus so I can do my job better.
Of course there is the english and writing skills that I hated to
learn in school that I need for reports. Pushing 50 makes this harder.
I have a child in grade 5 that gets a small amount of homework every
night. Of course she normally gets it done before leaving school. We
were informed last night that next year, her homework will increase as
their program will be much more academic. More research as she will be
out of the mainstream schooling in her program. She hates homework
because it interferes with her TV time but it is important.
There is an added benefit to getting great marks in school. If you
decide to go to secondary education, you can get a greater number of
grants and scholarships to help or totally fund your education. It
happened for my wife.
It all comes down to what you want to do with your life. Get a job and
coast or grow and progress. Of course in todays society, we need
coasters for many jobs.
--
Robin Laing
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