J. Clarke wrote:

What did you personally learn in the public schools school other than
to read and write and do sums that was of any real value in later
life?

I learned that language was important - that while a thing said one way
might get me a fat lip, if said another way it might open the door to
friendship. I learned that a really good idea that I couldn't get across
to someone else when it seemed important to me wasn't any better than no
idea at all. I learned that language was an essential part of problem
statement and problem solving, and that it could be variously used to
produce tears, laughter, sympathy, animosity, or cooperation.

I learned that French and Arabic both have nuances and built-in
perspective twists that my native English does not, and that poetry and
precise thoughts do not always translate well from one language to another.

I learned that language is closely coupled to culture and I learned that
there are cultures different from my own, and that culture is the lens
through which we see the world - and that different cultural lenses
reveal different realities when viewing the same objects and events.

I read and discussed the statements of ideals and principles of my own
culture, and somewhat of others. I learned a bit about how what might be
good manners at home might not be so elsewhere.

I learned that history was more than names and dates and places - that
it's actually a compendium of cause and effect for different groups of
people in different contexts - that it's a record of what has already
been tried and under what circumstances and with what consequences over
the long haul. I learned that there are a lot more ways to get things
wrong than there are to get them right, and that it might be really
important to not repeat some of the mistakes.

I learned in sixth grade algebra class that everything that had come
before was neander and that learning algebra amounted to a leap into the
world of power tools for the brain. I learned about 'knowns' and
'unknowns', and how to determine if/when I had enough knowns to solve a
problem.

I learned that matter consisted of atoms, and that different elements
have different properties, and that those properties matter - that lead
isn't good for bridge beams, nor plutonium for eyeglass frames, and that
aluminum and copper are good conductors of heat. I learned that 'more'
isn't necessarily better, and not to throw scraps of sodium metal into
the waste crock.

I learned that transparent materials have angles of refraction and
critical angles, and I learned that light goes really fast and that
nothing in our ken goes faster. I learned of the happiness of energy and
the sadness of entropy, and that time is, indeed, a dimension that must
be accounted for in all actions and their equal and opposite reactions.
I was introduced to the laws of thermodynamics and bid a sad farewell to
fantasies of perpetual motion machines.

I've gone on past midnight and need to stop for sleep, but there's more
- a /lot/ more - and it's all been useful.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/