On Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:29:14 -0600, Morris Dovey wrote:

It sounds to me like you have had a far, far different education from
most Americans.

I don't know - I think I was just lucky enough to have had a succession
of really good, caring teachers who somehow managed to convince me that
there were real and important connections between what they were
teaching and real life. When the educational process breaks, it's seemed
to me that the lack of that connection has been the fault line.

Sounds a lot like the teachers in my day, Morris. Oh, there were some
bad ones, but most of mine were dedicated to teaching me things which I
greatly resisted. My only complaint was that there were no classes for
children with high (or low) intelligence, although the good teachers did
pretty well at reaching both.

And yes, we discussed things as well. Especially in history and social
studies classes, but also in English classes.



--
It's turtles, all the way down