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How to find time to learn after work (2017)

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Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#111

Post by nsxwolf »

hk__2 wrote: post #107
DrThunder wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homework shouldn't exist anyway. Maybe, for higher level high school classes it makes sense. There's no reason to be giving homework to elementary and middle school kids. They get them for 8 hours a day, they don't need to be spending more time on school stuff after school.

> Homework shouldn't exist anyway. Maybe, for higher level high school classes it makes sense. There's no reason to be giving homework to elementary and middle school kids. They get them for 8 hours a day, they don't need to be spending more time on school stuff after school. Yes, also because it creates inequalities very early between children with parents who can afford spending time helping them (or paying someone…

I help my kids with homework, 5 minutes here and there. Seems like that shouldn't be too hard for most people, unless they literally never see their kids.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#112

Post by nsxwolf »

teddyh wrote: post #82
consoomer wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's cheating to help a 7 year old understand how to do basic math? Because the alternative is them staring at a paper and writing random numbers down.

The understanding should happen in school . Homework should be only for things that have already been learned.

They're children, not some neural network you can train. They're all going to learn at different rates, and individualized education in a school setting is simply not possible. You're lucky if there's a breakdown by remedial, regular, and advanced classes. Even within those, kids are going to struggle and need some help outside of class time.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#113

Post by teddyh »

nsxwolf wrote: post #112
teddyh wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The understanding should happen in school . Homework should be only for things that have already been learned.

They're children, not some neural network you can train. They're all going to learn at different rates, and individualized education in a school setting is simply not possible. You're lucky if there's a breakdown by remedial, regular, and advanced classes. Even within those, kids are going to struggle and need some help outside of class time.

Is this “help” meant only to be available to kids with rich parents, as it is now? Or is the school at fault for not being willing, or able, to teach all kids to an acceptable degree?

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#114

Post by bcrosby95 »

pluijzer wrote: post #55
Transpire7487 wrote: post #39

Get up at 6am. Get kids ready for school. Help my wife with any chores around the house for a bit. Start working. Lift on my lunch break in my home gym. Back to work. Kids come home. Feed them. Help with homework. Do something with them outside weather permitting. Put them to bed, read to/with them. Get lunches ready for tomorrow. Load the dishwasher. Load the laundry. My turn to walk the dog. Be mentally and physica…

"Help with homework", I have seen this in movies. Is this a cultural thing? I don't know any parents that help there children with homework.

My kids are in elementary school now and all homework except reading is optional. However, I have them do their homework then I review it when I'm done with work. Any concepts they don't understand I go over with them. It's usually 5-10 minutes per night per kid.

If I didn't do this my oldest would have easily flunked math last year. But just a few minutes per night of making sure she understood the concepts was the difference between that and her acing it.

I started this because we had a teacher that was really bad at noticing if one of our kids was understanding things or not. For example, we got worksheets back from school where everything was done incorrectly and there was just a giant star on it. Fuck that.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#115

Post by teddyh »

flippinburgers wrote: post #98
teddyh wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Culturally normalized cheating. Also gives advantage to those with rich parents who can afford the time.

I found the person who doesn't have kids. Nothing about helping someone better understand something is cheating. Helping your own child? That is just natural. I find what you said revolting.

If parents “help” kids with homework, the teacher will get a misleading view of what the kid has learned and is capable of. Other kids, lacking this “help”, will get worse grades.

If you want to argue that the teacher understands that parents are helping their kids with the homework, then:

1. Why aren’t teachers sending study aids, pedagogical material, etc. to the parents, on order to aid in the further education of the kids? Why are teachers universally acting as though kids are supposed to do the homework on their own?

2. This would still only help kids with rich parent who can afford the time to be a part-time teacher to their kids.

In summary: If teachers assume that kids do all their homework themselves, unassisted, then “helping” is (culturally normalized) cheating. If teachers instead assume that kids get help from their parents, it would be burdening kids with poor and/or busy parents with a severe disadvantage.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#116

Post by unshavedyak »

badpun wrote: post #106
unshavedyak wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what other regions are like, but i believe this is more necessary the less children receive adequate attention in the school setting. Ie overfilled schools warrant more individual time outside of school. Without "help with homework", the child may have gotten no individual instruction/teaching, so how are they expected to learn? Even beyond that though there's the possibility of needing more and/or unique ca…

I was in classes that averaged 30 chilren per class. I haven't gotten any individual instruction/teaching, and did just fine until high school math kicked in (bear in mind, this was Polish high-school math, and in a class that focuses on math), when I got lost and needed help of a tutor. But the other 98-99% of my school time, I was completely fine on my own. Also, I don't think I was any kind of exception.

Not sure what your point is? Ignore the child because Badpun was fine?

It honestly sounds like you're arguing against "Interact with your child, help them if you think they need it", which seems.. odd. You could perhaps be arguing that parents are wrong usually, and should go against their intuition on helping the child - but that's also a mixed bag.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#117

Post by FirmwareBurner »

deckard1 wrote: post #104
avocabros wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WFH is one solution, but it's not free in terms of collaboration costs. There's a reason no one thinks college is better remote, for example. Sure, it's fine for some jobs but it's not super obvious that it's a net positive for output. People can also live closer to work, or use other methods (biking, running, etc.) to combine exercise + commute. Many studies have indicate that people overestimate the happiness of a…

> People can also live closer to work Not in America. We have a thing called "suburbs" here. That's where people live. For cost, quality of life, school, etc. reasons. Some cities don't even have a center, such as LA which is just sprawl in every direction as far as the eye can see. You may work in Santa Monica and your spouse works in DTLA. At least one of you is going to have an absolute hell of a commute. SV isn't…

>Not in America.

Not in Europe as well. You can't afford to uproot your family just because your new employer is on the other side of the city, and yet you're expected to if you want the job. A lot of my friends in Germany commute by car to work just because they don't liver within sensible cycling/public transport distance.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#118

Post by eclipxe »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #34
presentinmoment wrote: post #2

I prefer to be present in the moment. I'm slowly leaving my phone behind and just trying to be present. Actually experience reality and not get my brain busy all the time. Because of that I'd say, just don't try to be productive at all times. That "downtime" you're trying to cram another podcast into is actually necessary.

Yeah there's a load of people, especiall in SF or on HN, that feel like they should be Doing Something Productive at all times. And it's companies that encourage this, e.g. old Google by offering on-site gyms, entertainment and food, or what a lot of companies everywhere do, offering after-hours "hackathons" with pizza. But your brain needs rest as well. Stop trying to keep up in the rat race, all the things you try…

Google still has on-site gyms, entertainment, food...haircuts, massages, etc. That hasn't changed.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#119

Post by squarepizza »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #60

Just gonna say: my god I hate productivity hacking culture. No, I am not going to optimize in additional professional learning in my off hours. I have a life. And I'm allowed to have idle time where I spend it just being instead of doing. My existence isn't to be maximally productive at all times, and this type of hyper optimization isn't going to make me wealthier or happier. If you're learning for work, learn durin…

Startup(s) for company-mandated productivity-enhancing muzak incoming.

Re: How to find time to learn after work (2017)

#120

Post by shrimp_emoji »

wink wrote: post #62
TheFragenTaken wrote: post #21

Ugh. Posts like this are well meaning, but destructive. Why would you learn after work? Why do you strive towards something? Why is it important to learn, and constantly evolve? Are you really just doing it, because everyone else are, and you feel like you _have_ to? It's poisonous, because you end up blaming yourself because you are not living up to constantly changing external demands. It's okay to say no to what c…

I didn't get that _at all_. If you are interested in stuff that is not related to your work (so learning on the job is out), what else would you do? To me this sounded like the author likes to read and learn about things, but these just happen to also be tech. So they found a way to make time and describe how. I don't see any holier than thou "this is how you must do it", just a simple "this works for me". But YMMV.

The tech things I like to learn about/work on are almost entirely anti-lucrative. :D (E.g., low level C stuff, for which to get a job in I'd have to relocate to Hyderabad.)
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