Sit up Straight! Sit still! Look at me, not out the window!

[Trekkie_Aspie]

Why are children and young people repeatedly told this when working at a computer? It's not health-and-safety because new research shows that you should slouch since it's better for your back. Then there's the fact that resting your eyes really is good for you whether computers or reading things (e.g. off a blackboard) In particular, you should rest your back, neck and eyes.

We should also be moving... something children do instinctively, only then we call it 'fidgeting'. The correct posture for computers is called 'slouching' when it's done.

"Slowly turn head to side and hold for 10 seconds. Alternate sides and repeat several times." Don't scold people for staring out the window. Show them how to do it properly.

[brainiac3397]

Im looking at you from the reflection of the window!

Some illogical thing some people believe. Its like proving the solar system is heliocentric, yet some people will still believe it to be geocentric for the sole purpose of refusing to believe the new idea which would make them be forced to admit they chose wrong.

Plus sitting still is bad. You need movement to get the blood back into the heart

[Trekkie_Aspie]

Yup... well.

[brainiac3397]

(06-09-2013 02:07 AM)Trekkie_Aspie Wrote:  Yup... well.

Educational institutions have decided that they can make an exception of human anatomy.

[xcriteria]

Jane Kise - A Window Into Effective Problem-Solving

Quote:A school board decided that middle school students weren’t paying attention in class because they were looking out the windows. Their solution? Build a windowless school. Honest. They did just that. Four wings with white walls. Students couldn’t tell where they were so they added grey, brown, and other neutral-colored panels to identify the wings. Sounds more like a prison than a school, doesn’t it?

Of course, this design failed to rivet student attention to teacher instruction. Why? Students were gazing out windows because they were bored with what and how they were being taught–instruction, not construction, was the root cause of the problem!

Each time we solve problems without identifying the root cause, we risk spending millions, as did this school district, on something that won’t further student learning.

Her TEDx talk about MBTI/Jungian type is very good -- it shows that the reality that people's brains differ and they need to learn in different ways. (Jung/Briggs-Meyers Test)



Watch on YouTube

9:50 "In Dario's lab, these kids showed more brain activity looking out the window, than when they were doing math tasks, sitting down." (Sensing-Perceiving types)

[Trar]

Seems common sense really isn't all that common.

[brainiac3397]

I guess Voltaire was right from the beginning.

[Trekkie_Aspie]

Actually, the thing is that common sense is very common. We're all born with it. It's just that schools in the process of being schools, teach people how to not have common sense.

[James Comey]

School isn't necessarily meant to be correct. It's an authoritarian institution which loosely mirrors jail. Of course, older adults will be stubborn as hell because a lot of adults that work in the school system don't like being wrong.

[brainiac3397]

Supposedly adults supernaturally end up being endowed with superior intellect simply due to age. They find that any real data that voids their fanatical belief in this theory is a threat and aim to crush it. Hence, we a stusent turns out to be smarter and right, they dont help them excel but aim to dosprove them, dumb them down and mold them to their own beliefs to repeat the cycle.

It actually sounds like some cult when you think about it.

[Trekkie_Aspie]

Also: What's the difference between religion and superstition?

[no]

(08-09-2013 07:33 PM)Trekkie_Aspie Wrote:  Also: What's the difference between religion and superstition?

Superstition isn't intolerant, judgmental, and responsible for starting many wars?

[Trekkie_Aspie]

Yeh, it is. It's pretty much impossible to find a definition of 'superstition' that doesn't also cover religion. It's basically the same difference as trash/treasure, terrorist/freedom fighter: whose side the speaker is on.

[Trekkie_Aspie]

Well, it is/

[Ky]

It seems passing school is akin to beating an unbalanced and poorly-written videogame with levels requiring a violation of common sense.

The obesity problem could be solved by fidgeting. More hyperactive students could burn hundreds of calories a day by simply not sitting still. Forced behavior in schools is indirectly linked to physical and psychological problems.

[xcriteria]

(10-22-2013 06:35 AM)DoA Wrote:  It seems passing school is akin to beating an unbalanced and poorly-written videogame with levels requiring a violation of common sense.

This line deserves to be starred, and used as a live web event discussion prompt.

A good part of it circles back to the question of grades and standardized test scores.

Not to mention the disconnect from everyday life.

(Then again, sometimes life itself, even without school, can feel like some kind of Trial-and-Error Gameplay. Fortunately, it doesn't have to with a good map. A map school doesn't tend to provide.)

[xcriteria]

(10-22-2013 06:35 AM)DoA Wrote:  Forced behavior in schools is indirectly linked to physical and psychological problems.

What if the forced behavior was running, dancing, and martial arts moves?

(I'm not advocating for that. I think a variety of activities should be suggested and encouraged, not forced.)

But really, the health problems are caused by forced desk-sitting with no recess. What happens, though, is an "exercise matters" movement will come in and push for rules to force students to do mandatory PE. Then when they get out of school, they'll never want to move an inch because of the toxic associations.

This is why looking at the big picture of all of this, systems thinking style, is important.

[Trekkie_Aspie]

Indeed. The thing is, we as a species, are bloody contrary. You want every child to read a book? Ban it.