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If drawing/painting classes were 30 minutes a day, everyday, for all school children


Could you imagine how good everyone would be with a pencil or brush in their hands?

I was thinking about how we encourage little kids to paint and draw and then school starts and it's like 'let's learn how to write' and the artistic stuff becomes just a hobby, or a chill out activity.

What if it was taken seriously?

Lots of people probably have innate ability to draw and paint but it was never nurtured.

Shame our educational system has a low regard for the arts, which it basically views as hobbies.

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I hear you loud and clear

In my kid's school they had 40 classes per week and only about 5 were for Art class, Music or Gym/athletics

The schools are in a real pickle!
They get rated and funded based on standardized test scores which let's be frank, are utter BS, but they have to overload on the English and Math classes or they get in big trouble with the system

Meanwhile, little kids really need MORE creativity, self expression and exercise

A coherent plan to teach foreign languages would be great too...we have really dropped the ball on this one in The States



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Sadly foreign languages are not retained by the brain unless you actually need it and use it regularly. I'm fluent in spanish because it's a hobby and I use it and watch videos in spanish, but if a language is forced on you at school, your brain is going to flush it out the second you don't need it. That's my theory anyway.

Music should be taught more. I once asked a session violinist how he can play music he's just been given and he said it's like reading a book but instead of pronouncing words with your mouth, you're using your instrument and your'e reading the sheet of music. I thought that was pretty cool. You gotta have lots of practice to achieve that skill.

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We will all have a need for Spanish fluency in 25 years, Hispanics will have become a majority by then

Mandarin or whatever is the most common Chinese dialect would be useful too, The U.S. is going to be dealing with them for a very long time, for better or worse

I envy musicians, they have a skill I tried to attain and failed miserably:/

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I didn’t start learning foreign languages until I was 11 (I speak 5 fluently now). My daughter is 6 and can already speak Spanish better than me, which blows my mind🤯

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Test scores are not utter bullshit.

What's utter bullshit is to make the school responsible for low scores. That way what you get is the school forced to spend hours babysitting students, and that leaves no time for other more creative activities.

Not to say that this will make students lazy. if you babysit them, they won't learn how to be disciplined.

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Some highly intelligent people do poorly on tests
Einstein was dyslexic and his teachers thought he was 'slow'

I knew a guy that was disinterested in school and skipped any classes he could get away with
He lives in a big house with a pretty wife, two kids he takes good care of and has a fine paying long term career now

That guy couldn't pass a test to save his life

Tests are BS

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Some highly intelligent people do poorly on tests. Einstein was dyslexic and his teachers thought he was 'slow'

The teachers thought he was smart but lazy, because he scored low in those topics he was not interested, with or without tests.

When he was interested, though, he was an extremely brilliant student, with or without tests. Einstein was likely to have some kind of Asperger.
https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/einsteins-life-facts-and-fiction

I knew a guy that was disinterested in school and skipped any classes he could get away with. He lives in a big house with a pretty wife, two kids he takes good care of and has a fine paying long term career now. That guy couldn't pass a test to save his life

So what?

I have known people who were bad students but very skilled workers. The problem there are not the tests, the problem is you're forcing academic topics into people who should be learning a profession.

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Agreed on the professions
Auto Mechanics, plumbers, HVAC, etc...One can earn a fine living doing these trades

Some people are just not going to get math or poetry or whatever, I know I hardly did

Why do you support standardized testing?

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I don't particularly support it, but neither I think it's the worst thing ever. What I really dislike is scoring based in subjective elements (like "I feel the student is making an effort").

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It cuts down on creative activities and athletic training which a lot of kids need
It also holds everyone, except student with special needs, to the same yardstick
I think the system is off on this one, just my opinion though

And I mentioned that guy earlier because he wasn't a great student by any stretch but he did well for himself...lots of people are like that

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Yeap, but the problem there are not the test scores. The problem is that you're forcing schools to reach some "equality" or "equity" in results, no matter there's students who are just not interested in studying. The same shit would happen with other scoring methods.

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That's my sentiment put a different way

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But they do have to be able to read and write at a level that will allow them to succeed. The have to be able to communicate intelligently and use good grammar - not necessarily college level, but I'm shocked when I hear some kids talk today.

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I remember school well enough to recall art, music, gym or laboratory classes just about everyday...physical activities, creativity and skill building classes that young people need

The 85 minute blocks of subjects are WAY too much for kids

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Einstein flunked maths.

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That's a myth. Einstein was actually very good at maths. He flunked in other topics he had no interest, like language.

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Not true. I built a time machine and brought Einstein back in time to help me with my maths homework once, which I subsequently failed and he said, “What do you expect, I flunked maths.”

So, from then on I got Archimedes to help me instead, although he kept going on about giving him a lever long enough and moving the earth.

Maybe I should’ve tried Newton?

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At least Archimedes was fun. Every time he got a problem solved, he used to run naked around the class ^_^

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The mention of his screw would make us snigger like 12 year olds.

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What bullshit is that education system cannot be honest. Teachers are not allowed to mentor their students. They can't really do what they see fit. If a student is terrible at math but excels at painting, teachers cannot say this kid is dumb at math but a genius at painting. No no no no... they can't say that. Everyone can do math. Everybody is smart. Every kid is talented bla bla.

But nothing can be done about it. No one is being honest nowadays. Being honest could get you sued.

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We need to focus on the basic which are not getting done. If you have children its your responsibility to provide them with varied outside interest, painting, karate, ballet, music. Too many parents have kids, and then use the school system as a babysitter.

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I tend to agree with you. The basics should be the main priority of an education yet so many kids can't do basic math and have poor reading skills; then they wonder why they only qualify for minimum wage jobs.

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June 25, 2020 Thursday 10:50 a.m.

I hear both of you. The reason why parents don't have enough time to teach their kids anything anymore is because they are overworked and underpaid, so they are rarely at home due to trying to make ends meet financially on the job.

One solution would be to foster a sense of community back into people's lives. The fast-paced world technology has given us has come at a price. People and their families don't live in one area for many generations anymore, leading to a loss of an identity between people based on fellowship and common goodwill towards each other. This speaks for much of the phenomena that's being experienced in a lot of the modern western world today.

~~/o/

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Or, or, don’t have kids.

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June 25, 2020 Thursday 1:20 p.m.

Hey, helpful Andy!

I wholeheartily agree with you and tcrum about this. It's easier said than done though. No one likes being told they can't have kids and world governments are not going to tolerate rapid economic decline through human population loss. Many things need to change in the system first.

Governments want people to raise families, so we now have a situation where poor families have a lot more kids than financially comfortable ones because the less money you have, the more financial aid you get from the government and it's rare to find financially set parents with more than 2 children, through no fault of their own, to continually balance the previous socioeconomic trends of net gain productivity, hence increasing government reliance on immigrants to offshore any losses (non-politically speaking).

The governments in question are doing the right thing helping people but they need to delegate their role to other outfits and agencies in order to work as intended and function properly. Goverments are more concerned with ensuring their survival of their own bureaucracy over anything else.

People are being treated like emotion-less machines in the governments' inefficient efforts to maintain the institutionalized status quo. The culture needs to change for the better in this post-industrial stagnation, which is in our midst these days. If not enough people have an outlet to truly express themselves and their feelings through the arts and recreations, they cannot remain content with their lowering standard of living despite living in today's information age and enjoying the abundance of entertainment options at their disposal. Convienience only goes so far.

Governments have forgotten they serve the people and are by the people.

~~/o/

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My comment was both tongue-in-cheek and at the same time serious.

One word - Africa.

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June 25, 2020 Thursday 2:05 p.m.

I knew you were, cool dude; that's why I called ya helpful Andy. 👍

Indeed, the global south and Africa is seeing many things happening, unprecedented in its size and scope. Truth be told, I have no doubt things will be for the better, even if stuff going on right now says otherwise.

~~/o/

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Apologies for my brevity, as I started typing a work call came in, lol.

I often wonder why people have large families in famine stricken countries. Unfortunately, we all know that in these countries bigger families equates to more potential income producing individuals. So, what’s the answer?

I’ve been around and on this planet long enough to have witnessed my share of poverty and it breaks my heart realising that no matter what I do, it will merely equate to an incredible small piss in a gigantic ocean.

However, I firmly believe that the only slither of light that might offer a path from this dystopia is education. Believe it or not, it costs less than the price of a new family car to build a school in a third world country. This is the path to salvation.

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"I often wonder why people have large families in famine stricken countries."

People in the the U.S. and Europe had large families as recently as two and three generations ago. How many children did your grandparents and great-grandparents have?

Higher infant mortality means some of their children will die, therefore one child is too risky. Children also take care of their aged parents. They don't have the safety nets that exist in richer countries like social security and pensions.

BTW, you are a part of exploiting impoverished people whenever you buy something super cheap at Walmarts or the 99 cents store. If they are going to be paid a decent wage, then you will need to pay much more at the store.

Education isn't free in many parts of the third world.

If you want to help, then sponsor a child in a poor country. Every bit helps and your sponsorship will literally change the life of a child for the better.

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This is kind of a sore subject with me. If you can't afford mentally, or financially to raise a kid, then you shouldn't.

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Absolutely right! We often read reports of English children being sent to school that haven’t even been potty trained 😳

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I work in a poor school, so we see kids come to school with a bag of Doritos\candy as their lunch, and that's not the worst of it.

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Parents sending kids in nappies (that really shouldn’t be in nappies anymore) and demanding teachers to change them at school - seriously???

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I always imagine England as this place where all the school kids are dressed immaculately in their uniforms.

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My 6 year old daughter is blessed to be able to go to a private school; imagine Hogwarts without the broomsticks (or boys), lol.

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Most people would be much better than they are. Natural skill and thousands of hours of practice are still needed to become very skilled.

Even among professional artists, early professional training makes a huge difference between artists who are good and great.

The best artists tend to have a parent who works as an artist and taught their child. The next best have had professional art classes when they were young .

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Listen, I hear you. I have an art background but let's be honest, the really high paying jobs in art related professions are few and far between. Not saying they're not out there, but as in any field there is more too it than just putting a paint brush in a child's hand. I think truly gifted people figure it out - creative people are creative even with limited resources.

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"the really high paying jobs in art related professions are few and far between."

It depends which artists. Architects, industrial design and commercial artists like graphic designers and advertising artists make decent middle-class salaries. Fine artists tend to struggle.

"creative people are creative even with limited resources."

True. But, if that creative person wants to work in the field, they'll need training to further develop their drawing and painting skills to become marketable. Nobody would ask a professional tennis player, athlete or classical pianist to figure it out. They have teachers.

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I agree! All of my friends are so creative and artistic in a variety of ways and I feel that we are taught that some of these qualities are inherently more valuable than others. It is so frustrating! I wish the US education system valued diversity of thought and varied skills more. I also think that so many people don't even know what they creative outlets exist because they don't get the opportunity to explore them in school :/

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Everybody wouldn't be good at Arts anyway. You need a bit of talent as well.

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It would be nice, but elementary classes usually get so over whelmed with common core standards! Especially when standardized testing is drawing near. But it would be nice to schedule it in at least once a week. I'm a teacher and I love including arts and crafts into each subject to help students learn better. It's fun.

In middle and high school, kids can take art as an elective classs!

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I think I had Arts once a week from 4th grade up to 9th grade. It wasn't my best subject though, but I passed it.
When I was in 10th grade, I took a Music class but no Arts class.

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