Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

yle.fi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 491 posts

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#111

Post by constantcrying »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #85
constantcrying wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I wrote below. My most memorable math class was a teacher failing to explain fractions to me, what later became obvious to me was that the teacher did not understand fractions either. I am sure you want to blame me for this, but somehow I went to university and got a degree in (applied) mathematics. So I doubt it was some fundamental problem with me. Everybody is upset when someone tells them they fail at their jo…

I’m not blaming you. But as intelligent as you may be, you have discounted all the possibilities for the failure of you school or your particular teachers. Because you had a bad time, then the whole system is malicious right? I know a high school teacher with a PhD and has tutored and lectured at the university level. But they are a teacher now. Guess I’ll paint them with the same brush as all teachers.

>then the whole system is malicious right?

Where did I say that the intentions were bad?

>Because you had a bad time, then the whole system is malicious right?

No. In university the expectations were drastically higher. If the goal of the school was to prepare me for university, then it failed at that for everyone. The mismatch can not be attributed to me.

>But they are a teacher now. Guess I’ll paint them with the same brush as all teachers.

We had one of these as well. Average teacher, learned basically nothing in her class.

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#112

Post by Ghoelian »

doublerabbit wrote: post #101
xnorswap wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who make statements like that are the kind of people you dread will pick up your pull request. You just know you're going to go from maybe spending an hour cleaning up some suggestions to a 3-day philosophical battle to get them to a point where they deign to accept your PR.

Not at all. If the code is decent and shows effort I have no problem. If it's sloppy it shite code. I really don't have time to care about what my peers think of me. It's work. I don't want to communicate with them outside work. Work is just another mind space that stays at work. I am strict when it comes to code, I expect the same. I want working maintainable code to enable me to do my job. If people dread submittin…

Ok, so the PR never gets approved and their work never makes it into prod, right?

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#113

Post by constantcrying »

rad_gruchalski wrote: post #98
constantcrying wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did not take me twelve years to learn to read and write. What an awful excuse. What made me good at reading was reading books outside of school . In a single semester of university I learned more than in 12 years of school.

No, I don’t think that’s true. The 12 years of the pre-uni education set you up for being a member of society. You don’t see it because it became a part of you. You also learned to read, write, all basic math, geography, … The uni taught you more real-world expected skills but I‘m certain you learned more before uni.

Why couldn't I have learned university courses and these other skills at the same time?

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#114

Post by messe »

constantcrying wrote: post #105
messe wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The moment I entered university I learned much more and much faster. Is it not possible that schooling prepared you for this and enabled you to learn much more and faster?

No. It is not possible. Why couldn't the school have prepared me for that when I was 16? Why does preparation take precisely 12 years and only then I can really learn anything.

Maybe you're right. You're taking your own anecdotes as evidence that schooling is useless. If schooling and university didn't teach you not to do that then maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#115

Post by MrsPeaches »

cudder wrote: post #91
markvdb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about Finland. They have a rather well-reputed school system that delivers in both areas.

At least used to. Last few years Finland's PISA scores as measured by the OECD have plummeted and now they are just a bit above average but nowhere near what they used to be.

Also interesting to note the gender divide in scores in Finland: https://www.statista.com/statistics/986939/student-performan...

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#117

Post by pandemic_region »

graemep wrote: post #52
pandemic_region wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copying my answer from the other message where you state this: Are you implying we should school them the Spartan way rather then? Would that prepare them for life in a better way? Or, what do you think would be valuable then to do (purposely not saying learn) during those twelve years?

I took my kids out of school from when they were about nine until they were 16. They went back into school with a better education and better prepared for life than those who stayed in school, exams (UK GCSEs and IGCSEs) passed with high grades as as evidence, and obviously better than good social and life skills, and excellent study skills and self-discipline. There are definitely better alternatives to the current…

You don't say what they did as an alternative from age 9 to 16?

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#119

Post by constantcrying »

ndr42 wrote: post #107
constantcrying wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think I am "against learning"? I am saying that school is terrible at teaching . If the goal of schooling is that students learn then the school system I was in was a total failure. The moment I entered university I learned much more and much faster.

I'd suggest not making it so black and white ("school does nothing", "total failure"), there is room for a bit of nuance.

Sure, I am guilty of being polarizing. But I honestly do believe that my 12 years of schooling were in large parts a waste of time and I would like it if people at least considered the possibility that you can have children do other things.

Re: Finland Bans Smartphones in Schools

#120

Post by nisegami »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #32
constantcrying wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that the aim of schools? It certainly did not appear to me that way, here in Germany. There was a lot of time spend sitting in a room and "learning", yet I basically learned nothing. For the other things you described I do not think they were ever considered. All around school was a giant waste of time.

I know several teachers. So these sorts of comments are always funny. I know math teachers who lack support but continuously attempt to present topics from different POV because some students don’t get it. So some self proclaimed smart person “learned nothing”, and therefore school is a waste of time. At the same time, ignoring that maybe a school or system is indeed not prepared to handle some individuals (which is…

Those teachers are admirable, but their actions are more of a 'nice to have' than the primary objective of the system.
Post reply on HN