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

Why adults still dream about school

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 340 posts

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#151

Post by uneekname »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #117
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #78

There isn't a week when I don't have a day where I feel like a total monster at 7:15am trying like crazy to motivate my frustrated and anxious teenager off to high school and asking her about her homework and the like... And then promptly waltz upstairs with my coffee, sit in front my computer, read the news and (mostly) happily write program on computers all day, while playing with my border collies and walking thro…

Naive question here: I've wondered about this. Non-parent here (so far), so I'm about to arrogantly over-simplify a lot of things... The science around teenagers needing more sleep, and doing better in life/school/everything if they start their day later, seems well-established at this point. Additionally, there's plenty of known-better ways to learn beyond the rote-memorization-and-standardized-test system that's st…

Yes, there are alternative schools out there. They are increasingly rare though. I was lucky enough to end up at one and it was fantastic.

As another commenter noted, it's the privileged kids who get opportunities like that. Which is a real shame because it's an environment that lifts those who need more flexibility and personal support.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#152

Post by Benjamin_Dobell »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #117
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #78

There isn't a week when I don't have a day where I feel like a total monster at 7:15am trying like crazy to motivate my frustrated and anxious teenager off to high school and asking her about her homework and the like... And then promptly waltz upstairs with my coffee, sit in front my computer, read the news and (mostly) happily write program on computers all day, while playing with my border collies and walking thro…

Naive question here: I've wondered about this. Non-parent here (so far), so I'm about to arrogantly over-simplify a lot of things... The science around teenagers needing more sleep, and doing better in life/school/everything if they start their day later, seems well-established at this point. Additionally, there's plenty of known-better ways to learn beyond the rote-memorization-and-standardized-test system that's st…

There's a big push in this area at the moment. I've just recently started a Head of Engineering role where I'm developing supporting tech for school aged children. In our case the programs are currently more on the supplementary side of things rather than replacing core curriculum.

I don't have anything to do with it (yet?) but our sister institution is Alpha School - https://alpha.school

They're trying to change schooling to be more efficient, engaging, and self directed.

My understanding is they're far from alone, and there's a lot of interest in overhauling traditional schooling at the moment.

I mean, there's been interest in overhauling traditional schooling since forever. However, a significant up-tick in (temporary?) home-schooling during the pandemic really got parents thinking about education methodologies.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#153

Post by p1necone »

ryandrake wrote: post #61

I feel like this is because school, especially college, and particularly exams, is about as high-stakes as most people's lives ever get, so they look back at that time as peak-anxiety. Think about it: you're being evaluated and the result of that evaluation shapes the next step in the pipeline, and ultimately the trajectory of the rest of your life! Well, at least that's what the university officials, professors, you…

I knew a few people who were stuck in that mindset of "if I don't get straight As in everything I'm going to be doomed forever" mindset in both highschool and university. It did not seem to make them very happy, and it's entirely bullshit, especially in highschool.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#154

Post by wj »

Ishmaeli wrote: post #113

I have the college dreams fairly regularly. Usually they are about forgetting to attend class for a whole semester. But my other recurring dream is about being an LDS missionary again. I think that experience in real life was even more stressful than college—definitely more guilt-inducing. In the dream I'm my current self—mid-40s, married, kids, career, atheist—and yet somehow the church has managed to coerce me back…

I also have the forgetting to attend class all semester dream. It is incredibly vivid and I wake up super stressed and sometimes, because college was so long ago, wonder if that actually happened to me.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#157

Post by balls187 »

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote: post #117
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #78

There isn't a week when I don't have a day where I feel like a total monster at 7:15am trying like crazy to motivate my frustrated and anxious teenager off to high school and asking her about her homework and the like... And then promptly waltz upstairs with my coffee, sit in front my computer, read the news and (mostly) happily write program on computers all day, while playing with my border collies and walking thro…

Naive question here: I've wondered about this. Non-parent here (so far), so I'm about to arrogantly over-simplify a lot of things... The science around teenagers needing more sleep, and doing better in life/school/everything if they start their day later, seems well-established at this point. Additionally, there's plenty of known-better ways to learn beyond the rote-memorization-and-standardized-test system that's st…

OP's experience has far less to do with school, and significantly more to do with parenting a teenager.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#158

Post by bentaber »

wincy wrote: post #14
dTal wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. PTSD. Future generations will look back in horror, if we're lucky.

6.7% of US kids are home schooled now, and it increased 10% year over year from 2016-2021. One can hope. We’re homeschooling which paradoxically ends up with our kids thinking school is some magical place where everything is great and you get to hang out with friends all day.

Not everything is great. But you do get to hang out with friends all day.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#159

Post by grog454 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #136
sharadov wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When am sufficiently stressed at work - a recurring dream I have is that I am in the exam room ready to take a test, but did not study or I have mixed up the dates and came prepared for the wrong subject. But overall school and college was a great experience - the tests and assignments sucked, but what I remember is the great friends that I made, the interesting people that I met and all the personal exploration that…

Hell, I have dreams that I've forgotten to attend class all semester long in grad school and the final exam is tomorrow, and I never even went to grad school! It's like my brain subconsciously realized the undergrad panic dreams no longer make sense as that's too long ago, so now they've evolved to something more suitable for later in life, even though I never did that thing.

> I have dreams that I've forgotten to attend class all semester long

This one is a recurring dream for me and sometimes the context is middle or high school which makes even less sense.

Re: Why adults still dream about school

#160

Post by balls187 »

My first job was contingent on graduating. I would have nightmares that my school would notified me that I failed some required course, or didn't have enough credits to graduate. I would wake up and count the credits on my transcript.

After my 3rd job out of school, I stopped having those dreams.

Post reply on HN