RIP School Survival Forums
August 2001 - June 2017

The School Survival Forums are permanently retired. If you need help with quitting school, unsupportive parents or anything else, there is a list of resources on the Help Page.

If you want to write about your experiences in school, you can write on our blog.

To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.

I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.

I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.

I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.

Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.

Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.

-SoulRiser

The forums are mostly read-only and are in a maintenance/testing phase, before being permanently archived. Please use this time to get the contact details of people you'd like to keep in touch with. My contact details are here.

Please do not make a mirror copy of the forums in their current state - things will still change, and some people have requested to be able to edit or delete some of their personal info.


Post Reply 
 
Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Specialty lock-in is good
Author Message
lamefun Offline
Rebel

Posts: 13
Joined: Sep 2012
Thanks: 0
Given 0 thank(s) in 0 post(s)
Post: #1
Specialty lock-in is good

The school system is good in that it provides young people with achievable short-term goals. There are some fields where you need to learn a lot of boring stuff first and only then you can apply it for something meaningful. That's why we need a school system, where young people choose their ways and then are locked in them and it's good for them, because if they were allowed just to follow their interests, they would always change the subjects they learn and never achieve anything.

http://www.theminimalists.com/cal/
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/29/opinio...index.html

Specialty lock-in has benefits:

1. Students who learn X and then decided switch to Y waste time and money: time that they spent on X is wasted.
2. Some students would keep jumping between interests without ever achieving anything. Speciality lock-in allows them to succeed.

It may however have an unfortunate effect: maybe people think passion to be something pre-determined and fixed because they can't cope with the other possibility: if passion isn't pre-determined and fixed, they won't be able to pursue their interest if they choose something that seems interesting to them at first but then lose interest, still being locked in a specialty they don't truly like.

Of course benefits of specialty lock-in outweigh the drawbacks.
(This post was last modified: 01-25-2013 11:05 AM by lamefun.)
01-25-2013 05:59 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
SoulRiser Offline
Site Founder

Posts: 18,238
Joined: Aug 2001
Thanks: 2669
Given 1978 thank(s) in 1208 post(s)
Post: #2
RE: Speciality lock-in is good

This assumption of lock-in being good, depends on a few things.

The definition of 'success'.
The concept of 'achievement' and how it relates to learning stuff.
The idea that time spent learning anything is ever a waste of time.

All of these things will differ from person to person, and no person should be able to limit people's choices about how they learn stuff, or what they may learn about.

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama
Help & Support - Get help with leaving school, unsupportive parents, and more.
Click here if school makes you depressed or suicidal

Support School Survival on Patreon or Donate Bitcoin Here: 1Q5WCcxWjayniaL92b8GfXBiGdfjmnUNa2
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it." - André Paul Guillaume Gide
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." - Albert Einstein
"I'm pretty sure there's a lot of beauty that can only be found in the mind of a lunatic." - TheCancer
EIPD - Emotionally Incompetent Parent Disorder

Push Button for Collection of Useful Links:
Hidden stuff:
01-25-2013 09:10 AM
Visit this user's website Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
AtheistLGBTQAnarchist Offline
Peace Loving Blood Lover

Posts: 713
Joined: Sep 2012
Thanks: 15
Given 47 thank(s) in 36 post(s)
Post: #3
Speciality lock-in is good

This is basically saying to stick with what you want to like go to the moon when you're 5 an when you're 12 an want to be a doctor you're told that you should just go to the moon.

Congratulations humanity,because you refuse to let go of the old and evolve you actually make people believe in 2012. Not only that, but you're the only species on Earth that were able to make it possible, now we get to sit until we die because we couldn't get to Mars. We have failed as a society and don't deserve our gifts to survive for this long. Maybe this is why dinosaurs are extinct, we sure aren't any better than the dirt you say we're created from. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...DvwSOFto#! Noo

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
-Albert Einstein

"He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither."
-Benjamin Franklin
01-25-2013 10:00 AM
Visit this user's website Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Heil_Kaiba8921 Offline
It's also a gun.

Posts: 1,376
Joined: Sep 2012
Thanks: 8
Given 109 thank(s) in 93 post(s)
Post: #4
RE: Speciality lock-in is good

shouldn't it be spelled *specialty?

AgayA...I was the best doctor in my neighborhood when i was 12 Wink

The less you try to control things, the less you need to.

Boredom is the #1 enemy of learning. Therefore, school is the #1 enemy of learning.

"Bodies fucking fuck."~Night.Artist

[Image: 41433.png][Image: 14362714_1336391025.png]

Hidden stuff:
[Image: asschart.jpg]
Hidden stuff:

"free speech under the constitution only guarantees the government won't stop him saying it and does not guarantee his right to say things and have no consequences at all as a result. also i completely doubt that he is motivated solely by "i'm saying it because i can" and is probably motivated by a more shitheady motive like "i think it's funny to annoy people and Rustle Le Jimmies™ and is just hiding behind the first amendment to try to deflect any consequences or make you realize that being allowed to annoy people is a superior moral right. you can still disdain someone for doing things for dumbarse wankery purposes and you have evne more right to ban and insult them for it" ~Trar's friend about Potato.

Thanks for the diploma… can I have my childhood back?

I’d love to have a battle of wits with you… but I hate to fight the unarmed.
01-25-2013 10:37 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
lamefun Offline
Rebel

Posts: 13
Joined: Sep 2012
Thanks: 0
Given 0 thank(s) in 0 post(s)
Post: #5
RE: Speciality lock-in is good

(01-25-2013 09:10 AM)SoulRiser Wrote:  The concept of 'achievement' and how it relates to learning stuff.

[Image: lockedlearningisbetter.png]

Locked-up education helps children to maintain interest. Think of 'achievement' as of feedback. For example, in electronics, programming and music feedback is almost instant: you can create a simple wire a simple circuit, program a simple program, play a simple music piece almost right away and then gradually improve. But there are things where it's not possible, like surgery, plane piloting. Advanced simulators may have resolved this issue already, but this might have made locked-up education necessary at least in the past.

Locked-up education also helps children to recover from failures. For example, you set out to make a RC plane model, start making it without any prior knowledge or experience. You do and it won't fly. Many children would completely give up on RC planes in this situation. It takes a lot of self-discipline and determination that is close to obsession that many children lack to recover from such a failure. Locked-up education however prohibits children to try things that are too far beyond their skills and fail too miserably. Of course it allows failures, but their impact is carefully calculated to teach children to recover from failures whilst not runing their interest. Locked-up education can also force a child to continue despite having lost interest, since it might return when the child makes a successful achievement.

(01-25-2013 09:10 AM)SoulRiser Wrote:  The definition of 'success'.

All of these things will differ from person to person, and no person should be able to limit people's choices about how they learn stuff, or what they may learn about.

There are still people who will constantly job-hop and will never reach the happiness and quality of life they could have reached if they were locked in their specialties.

(01-25-2013 10:00 AM)AtheistLGBTQAnarchist Wrote:  This is basically saying to stick with what you want to like go to the moon when you're 5 an when you're 12 an want to be a doctor you're told that you should just go to the moon.

No, absolutely not, educational institutions should only present reasonable specialties.

It's more like if you want to become a salesman when you're 17 and when you're 19 and are getting a salesman education you suddenly want to become a surgeon and told that you can't because it's too late to change your choice, because the money that was so far spent on educating you to become a salesman would be wasted.

(01-25-2013 10:37 AM)Heil_Kaiba8921 Wrote:  shouldn't it be spelled *specialty?

Fixed, thanks.
(This post was last modified: 01-25-2013 04:01 PM by lamefun.)
01-25-2013 11:37 AM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Ky Offline
Shadow

Posts: 5,201
Joined: Aug 2012
Thanks: 1794
Given 1469 thank(s) in 972 post(s)
Post: #6
Specialty lock-in is good

If students are anything like me, they would suffer from being locked into a decision they made years ago. I change my mind on a regular basis, and have many interests, in all of which I possess talent and practiced skill. One solitary thought could change my future - I could become a great many things, and, confident that God will look out for my needs, will eventually settle on one (or, more likely, multiple) successful endeavors. This lock-in thing would only serve as an impediment.

Besides, being locked into something ties in with compulsory schooling, something I hate with a passion.

Public Service Announcement: First world problems are still problems.
01-25-2013 12:11 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
SoulRiser Offline
Site Founder

Posts: 18,238
Joined: Aug 2001
Thanks: 2669
Given 1978 thank(s) in 1208 post(s)
Post: #7
RE: Specialty lock-in is good

Quote:There are still people who will constantly job-hop and will never reach the happiness and quality of life they could have reached if they were locked in their specialties.
What?

So you think people who like variety are unhappy? What if they LIKE doing lots of different things and DON'T WANT to have the same routine all the time?

You're just being silly. Different people prefer things in different ways, and people should have the option to change their minds if they want to. Forcing anyone against their will to stick with something they don't want anymore, is just stupid.

And besides, why do you care what other people do? If they choose to "never reach the happiness and quality of life they could have reached if they were locked in their specialties", then it's really none of your business, is it?

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them." - Dalai Lama
Help & Support - Get help with leaving school, unsupportive parents, and more.
Click here if school makes you depressed or suicidal

Support School Survival on Patreon or Donate Bitcoin Here: 1Q5WCcxWjayniaL92b8GfXBiGdfjmnUNa2
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it." - André Paul Guillaume Gide
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." - Albert Einstein
"I'm pretty sure there's a lot of beauty that can only be found in the mind of a lunatic." - TheCancer
EIPD - Emotionally Incompetent Parent Disorder

Push Button for Collection of Useful Links:
Hidden stuff:
01-25-2013 11:59 PM
Visit this user's website Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Post Reply 


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread: Author Replies: Views: Last Post
Thumbs Down Lock Down ~Tundra~ 28 15,733 12-29-2011 06:35 AM
Last Post: avrillavigne12251
  Why do teachers "grade lock"? Will 19 8,372 08-21-2006 03:15 AM
Last Post: Alucard483

Forum Jump:


User(s) browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Contact Us | School Survival | Return to Top | Return to Content | Mobile Version | RSS Syndication